14 DAY TRIAL // The latest preview release of the next iteration of Firefox is now more at home on the Windows 7 desktop than any of its predecessors or any rival browsers. A nightly build of Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 is now sporting Aero translucency, perfectly tailored to the Windows 7 and Windows Vista graphical user interface. The Aero Glass effect specific to Vista and Windows 7 is now featured by the title bar, window border, as well as the entire upper portion of the browser that holds the menus. The addition is recent, as it was not featured in Firefox 3.7 Alpha 3.
Fact is that early adopters testing the next iteration of Mozilla’s open source browser will be able to enjoy full support for Glass, but also for additional elements of the Aero GUI, such as Windows 7-specific features including JumpLists and Taskbar thumbnail previews. Of course, work on the re-skinning of Firefox 3.7 continues even at this point in time.
Mozilla gave an early preview of its plans for a major overhaul of the next version of Firefox, and is slowly introducing changes as the development process progresses along. The first elements of the redesigned UI started appearing in the 2010 builds of Firefox 3.7, also referred to as the Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3. So far, the most prominent re-skin elements are the new buttons in the Firefox 3.7 Alpha 3 UI.
Users can also grab a preview of Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 / the Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 and check out the new support for Aero Glass. Still, work on the fully fledged Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 is far from over. Mozilla is also planning to introduce support for indicating the download progress in the Windows 7 Taskbar, a feature that is yet to be implemented.
Only early adopters fully aware of the risks of testing pre-release software should download and install Firefox 3.7 pre-Alpha 4 from Mozilla’s FTP servers. Users should also know that the installer comes with the box for using Minefield (Firefox 3.7 Alpha) as the default browser checked by default.
By comparison, the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview features only the most basic UI elements, the entire user interface being essentially just a window stripped of all elements, including an address bar. Microsoft traditionally integrates the new UI for its product quite late in the development process. As far as IE9 is concerned, users will most probably get a taste of the GUI’s evolution with the first Beta of the browser.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 3 / Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 3 for Windows is available here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 3 / Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 3 for Mac OS X is available here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 3 / Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 3 for Linux is available here.
Firefox 3.6.2 for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6.2 for Mac OS X is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6.2 for Linux is available for download here.
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview is available for download here.
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