14 DAY TRIAL // Firefox 3.5 has been here for a while now, and Firefox 3.6 awaits just around the corner to make an appearance, yet the guys over at Mozilla are already working on the development of Firefox 3.7. Considered only a minor upgrade for the browser, the 3.7 version is expected to land in March next year and bring around a series of visual changes to the Firefox that we know at the moment.
For the time being, however, it should be noted that these directions are only proposals, and that they need to be approved before being put into place. The changes in theme, states the Mozilla Wiki page describing what Firefox 3.7 might include, are not aimed only at the visual style, but will also affect UI placement and arrangement, as well as the evolution new features of the browser will register.
“As noted on the 3.0 Windows Default Theme Issues Wikipage, Firefox feels dated and behind on Windows. Especially Vista and Windows 7. These issues include absence of Glass, anemic purple toolbar color on Vista, tall and bulky UI footprint, element overload, inconsistent toolbar icon usage/style, lack of a tactile look & feel and perhaps too great of a divergence between the look on XP and Vista/7,” is what Mozilla Wiki states.
Considering these shortcomings, the developing team has come up with a series of directions to follow so as to change the looks of Firefox with the launch of 3.7. Toolbar and Tabs that are using Glass are among the changes that might surface, along with an overall neutral color scheme, the hiding of the menubar by default, existing menu structure condensed into only two buttons, Stop and Reload on the same button, or the presence of a “Home Tab,” corroborated with the removal of the “Home” Button.
Basically, the changes should follow the visual modifications that Microsoft's client has seen over the years, it seems. “Starting with Vista, and continuing with Windows 7, the menubar has been systematically removed from Windows applications built by Microsoft and other vendors. It has been replaced with alternatives like the Windows Explorer contextual strip or the Ribbon found in Office 2007. The Ribbon UI is now also used in Paint and Wordpad for Windows 7. Many apps still retain the menubar as an option to be pinned or to be shown briefly by holding the Alt key,” Mozilla continues.
Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 and the stable versions of Firefox 3.5.3 and Firefox 3.0.14 can be downloaded from here.
