Summary: Mozilla's Windows 8-optimised
Firefox Metro browser is now available to download in preview form ahead
of its release later in the year.
Firefox Metro for Windows 8 is now available to download in
preview form from the Mozilla website, bringing with it a 'Widows 8'
style Firefox start page and support for established features such as
sync.
The company released the early build software on Thursday,
noting that it is still in preview and is not finished software; as such
bugs and missing features may well abound.
"Today's preview marks
the beginning of Mozilla community testing for the Firefox Metro
browser designed from the ground up for Windows 8," the company said in a blog post
on Thursday. "Earlier this year, we began development on a version of
Firefox that runs on x86 Windows 8. This version of Firefox runs in both
the Windows 8 'classic Desktop' environment, and in the new 'Metro'
environment. "
Mozilla had not confirmed at the time of writing
whether it would be making an ARM-compatible version of Firefox Metro.
The preview version will only work on machines running the RTM version
of Windows 8 currently.
Included in the new look is a redesigned "Metro style" (pictured) Firefox start page.
Features such as Mozilla's well-established Awesome bar are also present in the Windows 8 optimised version of the software.
In
this case, searching in the Awesome bar returns results from your web
history, as well as presenting the option to search the web using a
variety of different providers, such as Google, Yahoo, Twitter,
Wikipedia and Bing.
The browser has also been integrated with Windows 8's native
search 'charm', meaning that users can search using Firefox before even
opening up the browser, directly from the sidebar.
Like all other modern versions of Firefox (and every other major
browser) Firefox Metro for Windows 8 also supports tabbed browsing.
It
does it in a similar way to the preloaded Internet Explorer 10 browser;
swiping down from the top of the screen reveals the open tabs with a
preview of each tab.
Mozilla said it would continue to add
features, work out the bugs and integrate it more tightly with Windows 8
in the coming weeks.
