14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is not wasting any time and the development cycle for a new Firefox version has started. The upcoming 33 branch already promises to be an interesting release, if we just take a look at the changes that have been revealed.
Fresh on the heels of Firefox 32, one of the most uneventful releases in the last few months, a new version is now brewing in Mozilla's labs, but this time it promises to be much more interesting.
With very few exceptions, most of the Firefox releases are actually small steps. From time to time, Firefox will pass a big hurdle. The latest one was the introduction of the Australis GUI, which ruffled some feathers. Firefox 33 is far from being such an important release, but there are a few new features that should be noticed right from the start by the regular users.
Users need to look out for some interesting features
The changelog published by Mozilla for Firefox starts with just two words, Enhanced Tiles. When a user opens a new tab, nine tiles are displayed with links and thumbnail previews for the most common websites accessed by said user. This is something implemented in the current stable release, but the new one is preparing for some improvements.
First of all, the number of thumbnails has been increased from 9 to 15, which is quite nice and actually very helpful. The menu in the upper right corner has been modified and it now shows the enhanced, classic, and blank options. It's not very different from what is available right now, but it's a nice touch.
A second very important improvement has been made to the search function, which is done through the location bar. It's very likely that you tried to look for something and found out the browser didn’t know how to interpret that, like a string of numbers for example. That shouldn’t happen anymore and the search process should be much faster.
The third major improvement has to do with session restoration. The browser should now be much better in recovering from a crash, along with all the opened tabs. Most Firefox users have experienced this problem before, so getting all the opened tabs back after a system or an application crash is very important. Firefox 33 takes pride in the fact that the session restoration is now much better and less likely to not work.
Something for everyone
Don't be fooled by the large number of changes and improvements made for regular users. Some other aspects of the browser have been updated as well. Quite a few HTML5-related modifications have been made and the developers will also find some new features just for them.
Getting this latest version of Firefox on the Linux platform is quite easy; all you have to do is to download the Firefox 33 binary file and run it. Unfortunately, you won't be able to install it, unless you are willing to compile the source.
It's also worth mentioning that you shouldn't start both the Beta and the Stable releases at the same time. Some of the add-ons will definitely not work and other conflicting problems might arise.
The final version of Firefox 33 is expected to arrive sometime in October.
