14 DAY TRIAL // The second Beta release of Firefox 7 is now available for download to testers looking to get a taste of the next version of Mozilla’s open source browser. At the time of this article Mozilla had yet to announce officially the availability of Firefox 7 Beta Refresh 2, but I don’t doubt that it will do so in the following hours, later today.
For the time being however, Firefox 7 Beta Refresh 2 is only live on the company’s FTP servers. Early adopters can also download the release via the links at the bottom of this article.
Although users might see this particular Build referred to as Firefox 7 Beta 2, this is actually a refresh of the original Beta more than anything else.
The best way to understand this is to have a look at the official Release Notes for Firefox 7 Beta. The information shared by Mozilla is the same for Firefox 7 Beta Refresh 2 as it was for the original Firefox 7 Beta release.
Fact is that the details will continue to remain unchanged, regardless of how many Firefox 7 updates Mozilla ships through the Beta Channel.
And there are bound to be a few more Firefox 7 Beta refreshes until the open source browser vendor manages to wrap up the successor of Firefox 6.
As far as I’m concerned, the boost of memory performance is the key aspect of Firefox 7’s evolution. There are some additional changes, but none capable of impacting user experience such as improved memory use.
Mozilla offered the first Firefox 7 Beta on August 18, 2011 and the plan is to have the browser version wrapped up and ready for end users by the end of September. If all goes well, in approximately one month customers will be running Firefox 7 Final.
Firefox 7 Beta and Firefox 6 for Windows are available for download here.
Firefox 7 Beta and Firefox 6 for Linux are available for download here.
Firefox 7 Beta and Firefox 6 for Mac are available for download here.