14 DAY TRIAL // An updated version of the 64-bit (x64) flavor of Firefox is now available for download for early adopters testing the next iteration of the open source browser. Testers can grab Firefox-3.7a5pre, which, despite its label, is in fact an early preview Alpha Build of Firefox 4.0. Mozilla revealed recently that all plans to deliver a 3.7 update to Firefox 3.6 had been scrapped, and that the next major version of the browser would be Firefox 4.0. Out of Process Plugins (OOPP), the most important new feature of Firefox 3.7, will be delivered to Firefox 3.6 users with the upcoming 3.6.4 update, which was supposed to be offered on June 1st, but was postponed due to two bugs, one of which apparently turned out to be a blocker that would cause Mozilla to respin the update.
Toward the end of the past week, word got out that Mozilla was cooking the first official 64-bit Firefox for Windows, Windows 7 included, of course. When the first nightly builds of Firefox 4.0 pre-Alpha were released to testers, complaints emerged indicating that there was a problem preventing the Build from starting following installation. Essentially, early adopters that attempted to launch x64 Firefox 4.0 pre-Alpha received an error indicating that MSVCR100.dll was missing, with the browser failing to start. This was a packaging issue.
Earlier this week, running 64-bit Firefox 4.0 pre-Alpha required Windows users to also install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64). The redistributable package contained the missing MSVCR100.dll, which allowed x64 Firefox to start. Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64) is no longer necessary to run the latest x64 Firefox 4.0 pre-Alpha for Windows 7.
Mozilla has repackaged the 64-bit (x64) Firefox builds for Windows and the new release no longer produces the missing MSVCR100.dll error. Users need to understand that the early preview Alpha Build of 64-bit (x64) Firefox 4.0 is just a nightly build and not even the full Alpha development milestone. As such, the release should be used only in testing scenarios and not into production environments, as it comes with inherent caveats, including no Adobe Flash support.
The Alpha preview of 64-bit (x64) Firefox 4.0 for Windows 7 (Firefox-3.7a5pre.en-US.win64-x86_64) is available for download here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 / Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 4 for Windows is available here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 / Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 4 for Mac OS X is available here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 / Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 4 for Linux is available here.
Firefox 3.6.3 for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6.3 for Mac OS X is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6.3 for Linux is available for download here.
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