14 DAY TRIAL // The second Beta release in the new Firefox 30.x branch has been made available for download by Mozilla for all platforms, including Linux.
Mozilla developers have been hard at work and they are outing new versions of Firefox according to a very tight schedule. Shortly after the launch of the new Firefox 29, which brought the controversial Australis interface, a new Beta has been unleashed and it promises some interesting changes.
According to the changelog, support has finally been added to GStreamer 1.0. We say finally because most applications that use GStreamer switched to the new 1.0 branch a long time ago. The latest GStreamer available right now is 1.3.1, so you can imagine how far behind Firefox is.
Also, the Mac OS X command-E will now set the “find” term to the selected text, a new sidebar button will provide easier access to social, bookmark, and history sidebars, it's no longer possible to call WebIDL constructors as functions on the web, box-shadow and other visual overflow issues have been fixed, mute and volume will now be available per window when using WebAudio, background-blend-mode is now enabled by default, and ES6 array and generator comprehensions have been implemented.
The developers have also fixed the error stack which now contains column number, plugins will no longer be activated by default, with the exception of the ones bundled inside an extension or the ones that have been whitelisted, support has been added for the alpha option in the canvas context options, autocomplete=“off” is now ignored when offering to save passwords via the password manager, and TypedArrays now support the new named properties.
As always, the binaries for Mozilla Firefox 30 Beta 2 can be downloaded and run without having to install anything, but there are a few things that need to be mentioned. For example, you won't be able to run both versions, stable and development, at the same time, even if the Beta hasn't been installed.
It's also very likely that some of the add-ons won't work with the new version and even the menus might present a problem. We tested Firefox 30 Beta 2 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and half the time the regular menus didn't show in the top bar, making it impossible to access the simplest functions.
Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only and it is not recommended that you switch to this versions as your day-to-day Internet browser.
Download Mozilla Firefox 30 Beta 1 for Windows Download Mozilla Firefox 30 Beta 1 for Linux Download Mozilla Firefox 30 Beta 1 for Mac OS