14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla was expected to launch the Metro version of Firefox, specifically aimed at Windows 8 and Windows RT, in December, but the company has decided to push back the release to early 2014.
The company earlier today launched Firefox 24 and together with this new release, it also shared more details on the development of the Metro version of its browser.
According to Mozilla, due to the slow development process the company has no other option than to delay the launch of Firefox for Windows 8 until January, the same month when Firefox 27 is set to make its debut.
Initially, Firefox Metro was supposed to launch in December together with version 26 of the desktop browser.
“Whether or not the Metro Preview Release will graduate from Aurora to Beta and Release channels is still to be determined. At a minimum, it should significantly increase the number of testers and feedback,” Mozilla noted.
“The decrease in average team velocity over the two previous iterations positions Metro for a Firefox 27 release on January 21, 2014.”
A testing build of Mozilla Firefox for Windows 8 is already available for download, but the browser is highly unstable and cannot replace the built-in Internet Explorer. Codenamed “Elm,” the development flavor of Firefox for Windows 8 is expected to be pushed to beta in December, before eventually reaching the stable stage in January.
At this point, Internet Explorer is users’ only choice when it comes to browsing the web from the Modern UI of their Windows 8 computers, as none of the existing choices manage to provide a similar experience.
What’s more, Microsoft has implemented a new version of Internet Explorer in Windows 8.1, promising to offer an improved browsing experience that’s completely optimized for the touch and similar to what you get in the desktop environment.