Ah, finally some good news. Fans of Firefox can now play around with the Nightly test build of Firefox for Windows 8, complete with its Metro user interface. The very first Metro build of the browser was released last October.
While this version is pretty basic and does not come with too many features, this is understandable as it is only meant to give users a glimpse at what’s cooking. And whatever is cooking looks good.
Firefox desktop project manager, Asa Dotzler, shared the good news in a blog post saying:
“If you are on the Firefox Nightly channel and you have a Windows 8 device, your Wednesday Firefox update should deliver a Metro Firefox tile to the far right end of your Windows Start screen”.
While no more information is provided regarding when the final build of the browser for Windows 8 users could potentially be ready, Dotzler admits that a lot of work still remains to be done.
In other words, there is little to no chance of seeing the app out sooner than mid-2013:
“There’s plenty of work still to do, but it’s stable enough that we’re ready for more and more regular testing. If you’re a Firefox or Windows developer and you’d like to get involved, please let me know.”
For now, Internet Explorer 10 remains the only browser that is available on Windows 8 with support for Metro UI. Both Mozilla and Google, however, are reportedly working on Firefox and Chrome respectively for Microsoft’s newest platform.
I say reportedly because, while Mozilla has confirmed its project, Google is still mum on whether a port is in development. The search engine giant still maintains that it will not be releasing Windows 8 apps, Chrome or no Chrome.
What do you guys think? Can Google afford to skip out on a Metro Chrome for Windows 8, particularly if the Surface Pro, and other such touch optimized devices make it big? Sound off in the usual place.
All Comments
A correction for you, Chrome has been able to go in Metro Windows 8 mode for a while now. It been able to since way back in Nov last year.
True, I was thinking more along the lines of a dedicated app. Google is planning big things for its Chrome lineup of devices (recent developments about something high-resolution dubbed Pixel), and let’s just say it does not think too highly of Windows 8 as a platform.
That metro mode of Chrome is far from, as example, above UI of FF or IE 10’s and all metro apps’ UI, let alone that Chrome is not the most resource friendly browser either
This is what i told ya last time i so badly wanted: FF metro!!
Halleluja!!
Thanks again for the article!
LOL, I was thinking about your comment from a couple of days back as I was typing this up. Like you, this flavor of Firefox is something I am really looking forward to.
And oh, you’re welcome, very welcome! Thanks!
This is what i told ya last time i so badly wanted: FF metro!!
Halleluja!!
Thanks again for the article!
LOL, I was thinking about your comment from a couple of days back as I was typing this up. Like you, this flavor of Firefox is something I am really looking forward to.
And oh, you’re welcome, very welcome! Thanks!