14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla quietly released a new beta version of their popular web browser today, including a build for end users running Mac OS X.
Preliminary tests show that the fourth beta of Firefox 6.0 is significantly faster than previous beta builds.
Whether it’s Mozilla we should credit, or the latest version of Apple’s Mac OS, Firefox 6.0 Beta 4 is perfectly compatible with OS X Lion, and it’s one of the most solid betas of Firefox we’ve tested on a Mac so far.
It’s also quite noticeably faster than the last build we employed.
That being said, this new release of the open source web browser is still aimed at testing. FF 6.0 Beta 4 should not be 100% relied upon for important (work-related) tasks.
Also, users should note that installing Firefox Beta will overwrite their existing installation of Firefox (final).
“You won’t lose any of your bookmarks or browsing history, but some of your extensions and other add-ons might not work until updates for them are made available,” says Mozilla.
With that out of the way as well, “Check out what’s new, the known issues and frequently asked questions about the latest beta version of Firefox,” reads the usual comment from Mozilla.
Doing little to entice beta testers, the latest beta changelog is dated July 8th, 2011. At one month old, it is safe to say that none of the details included there matter right now.
Still, there are some noteworthy enhancements that apply to the present release as well, including the ability to highlights the domain of the website you're visiting (in the address bar), a more streamlined look of the site identity block, a new Web Developer menu item, improved usability of the Web Console and discoverability of Firefox Sync, and reduced browser startup time when using Panorama.
Firefox requires a Macintosh computer with an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor, 128 MB RAM (256 MB or more is recommended), and 200 MB hard drive space.