14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is currently hard at work, in the final stages of the development process for Firefox 3.6, but users that have followed plans for future releases of the open source browser already know that a major graphical user interface overhaul is in the books for Firefox 4.0. Granted, Firefox 4.0 is even by the best estimates at least one year away, but news of the GUI overhaul has already stirred up the spirits of end users. With Firefox users on both sides of the barricade, some supporting the redesign with others opposing it, there is now a chance to at least get an idea of what it will feel like to run the next major iteration of Firefox. A combination of add-ons and a theme is designed to bring to end users today the Firefox 4.0 UI experience.
Fact is that Mozilla has already published mockups of the direction in which it plans to take the Firefox 4.0 GUI redesign. The backbone of the new user interface will be the adoption of a Ribbon/Fluent UI style from Microsoft. In this context, Firefox 4.0 will feature elements similar to Office 2010, and Paint and WordPad in Windows 7. Users will benefit from a reinvented Menu in Firefox, dubbed the Application Button (App Button), similar to that in Office 2010 components such as Word 2010 and Excel 2010.
At the same time, Mozilla is exploring the possibility of producing a design, which will feature similarities to the UIs of Google Chrome and Opera. In this context, the window tabs might be migrated on top of the Address Bar, with the Title Bar shrunk to the minimum amount of space possible in order to provide users with additional screen real estate.
In order to replicate the Firefox 4.0 GUI sketches and mockups on existing versions of Firefox today, users will need at least two extensions, according to WinFuture, namely the StrataBuddy add-on in combination with the Strata40 theme.
The StrataBuddy is “used as a companion to the Strata40 theme to add features from Firefox 4.0 and 3.7 mockups to your own Firefox and is a great way to customize the Strata40 theme. This add-on can also be used by itself with other themes, but is best used with Strata40. For example, most options are theme specific and therefore won't work with other themes (aero glass effects, 3.7 style toolbar etc.),” the developers reveal.
“I started working on a theme based on the 3.7 mockups called ‘Strata37’. The next thing I know, there are Firefox 4 mockups floating around the net. I quickly adapted the theme to the new 4.0 mockups and set off on a journey to create my first theme. So here you are. My Firefox 4 mockup theme. It's been a wild journey to get here. I taught myself how to code in css and worked out just how themes come together,” the developer of Strata40 added.
Combining the two along with personalizing them via the customization options made available will ensure that users get a more or less accurate version of the Firefox 4.0 GUI in let’s say Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate (RC) today. Just check out the screenshot included with this article in order to see how I was able to customize the Firefox 3.6 RC1 UI. In addition, AppTabs, Fission and Tab Progress Bar can also be installed in order to provide custom tabs and add progress bar functionality to the address bar.
StrataBuddy 0.1.6.9c is available for download here. Strata40 is available for download here. App-Tabs is available for download here. Fission is available for download here. Tab Progress Bar is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6 RC1 (Release Candidate) for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6 RC1 (Release Candidate) for Mac OS X is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6 RC1 (Release Candidate) for Linux is available for download here.
