There's a working prototype, but it's in the very early stages

Apr 3, 2012 18:11 GMT  ·  By

Mozilla has been working on a Windows 8 Metro UI native browser to ship by the time Microsoft's next operating system lands. Firefox for Metro UI is at the very early stages, but Mozilla is providing some progress.

The Metro UI Firefox is based on the Android version of the browser, Fennec, and currently uses the old Android UI. That won't be for long though, as even Mozilla is moving away from the old XUL-based UI on Android to a fully native one.

Still, UI design is not a priority, for now the team is just focused on getting the browser to work, which it now does, and integrating it with the various Windows 8 Metro features.

There is some progress on that part as well. For example, the Metro snap feature, which enables users to "snap" two apps side by side for multitasking, is working. Also working is the HTML file input box, the Search Charm and the native share feature.

Windows 8 Metro comes with several built in features and adopting them will do wonders for integration. Firefox wouldn't be much of a Metro app without these features, even once the UI is done.

Work on the Ui front is still in the early stages, Mozilla hasn't even decided how it's going to proceed. As such, don't expect to see what the Metro Firefox will look like any time soon.

Along with providing a status update, Mozilla Brian Bondy also explained why a Metro Firefox is important. Basically, there can be only one browser active in Metro, the one that's set as the default.

You'll still be able to access and run multiple browsers in the desktop mode, but only one in Metro. Being the default one is important which is why Mozilla wants to do it right.

"Even if a user spends most of their time in the Desktop interface, having a really good Metro browser may be enough for the user to change their default browser. A browser with great Metro support can gain significant browser market share for this reason," Bondy explained.

"It is extremely important that we deliver an awesome Firefox experience on Metro, one that is tightly integrated with the platform, fast, and feature rich," he added.

Photo Gallery (2 Images)

The Firefox Windows 8 tile, not final
The Windows 8 Share charm in Firefox
Open gallery