Firefox for Windows 8.1 may have been delayed to early 2014, but Mozilla is said to be deep into development of a new flavor of its popular web browser. Complete details on the Metro UI app have been under the wraps for now.
Now, however, the organization has shared more details on the feature that can be expected.
Brian Bondy of Mozilla talked about some of the main features of the upcoming application, saying that the company wants to create a single profile across the Modern UI and the desktop versions of Firefox. This is a move that makes all the sense in the world.
Consumers will get the ability to use the same settings, from bookmarks to cookies, regardless of the version of Firefox they launch.
Having said that, it is worth mentioning that Mozilla believes that keyboard and mouse users have no particular need to launch the Modern UI version of the browser — meaning the touch flavor will be primarily aimed at tablet and mobile users:
“If you’re using a keyboard and mouse, and since we will be having a shared profile, there is no reason you’d want to use the Metro browser. If you really want to you can, but surely you don’t need to use both Desktop and Metro at the same time.”
Also, the plugins available in the desktop version of Firefox will not transition over and not work in the Modern UI. The reason? Microsoft has implemented a set of restrictions that prevent this.
Another change in the Metro version of Firefox is link management in a session that is already running.
If a user already has the Modern UI version of the browser open, and clicks on a link in either that environment or the desktop, the page will open up and load in the running browser. However, if Firefox is not running, the link will launched in the environment it is clicked on.
Provided Firefox is set as the default browser, that is.
All Comments
I guess I might use it, but I’ve had no problems on my Windows 8 box using using on IE on desktop or Modern side
will this versión run on ARM processors? if not… i dont see how useful it can be compared with IE. will it support share… you know for using it with Reading List App.
honestly i dont see why using modern IE is a problem for mouse and keyboard? I mean… its nice to use it… some sites would scale nice and now you arent restricted to a pinned size, its really useful, also you can open 2 IE side by side if you need to, so I dont know why using mouse and keyboard would automatically mean you need to use the desktop App. I mean if thats mozilla mentality i cant say their product will be good in the end.
again, now you can pin nicely IE and use it without stuff covering it while you read. sometimes it can be useful.
and if Mozilla needs plugins so much to be useful… well, it sounds like not a nice browser. the only real plugin I need its flash, after that everything is fine on IE. but of course thats just me… i dont even use java, i only install it for Universal Media Server and thats it. for ad blocker i use tracking protection lists and IE has a password manager and all that synched across my computers.
well hope this App wont suck for silly “IE sucks” crowd. but I dont see any benefits of it, just like i dont see anything that would make me use Firefox again over IE11
will this versión run on ARM processors? if not… i dont see how useful it can be compared with IE. will it support share… you know for using it with Reading List App.
honestly i dont see why using modern IE is a problem for mouse and keyboard? I mean… its nice to use it… some sites would scale nice and now you arent restricted to a pinned size, its really useful, also you can open 2 IE side by side if you need to, so I dont know why using mouse and keyboard would automatically mean you need to use the desktop App. I mean if thats mozilla mentality i cant say their product will be good in the end.
again, now you can pin nicely IE and use it without stuff covering it while you read. sometimes it can be useful.
and if Mozilla needs plugins so much to be useful… well, it sounds like not a nice browser. the only real plugin I need its flash, after that everything is fine on IE. but of course thats just me… i dont even use java, i only install it for Universal Media Server and thats it. for ad blocker i use tracking protection lists and IE has a password manager and all that synched across my computers.
well hope this App wont suck for silly “IE sucks” crowd. but I dont see any benefits of it, just like i dont see anything that would make me use Firefox again over IE11