Firefox 4.0 beta hits the Web!
Firefox 4.0 beta for Linux, Windows and Mac has hit the servers and, besides the instability warnings, you get 64 bit support on Macs. Grab it from Mozilla’s nightly builds portal. This is a very (repeat VERY) early beta so use caution until it becomes a public beta or the real deal.The debate is going on whether to keep the tabs bottom of the Address bar like Safari and Internet Explorer, or move tabs on top of the address bar, like Chrome and Opera do it.
Opera 10.5x DOES let you move your tabs to the left or right. And when you do, you get the thumbnail preview images too. Opera has still to convince a large set of users to move with it. Tree Style Tab add-on for Firefox lets you put your tabs to the side and lets your tabs branch into parent and daughter tabs that can easily be manipulated. You can have tonnes of tabs open and it will minimize clutter and maximize organization.
Actually, Opera lets you put your tab bar on the very bottom of the screen as well. I’ve kept it there for years. In fact, you can even put the address bar ‘in’ the tab bar if you want. It’s possible to put all tabs, buttons and fields in a single bar, on any side of the screen. You just right click a bar, select customize, appearance, and then drag and drop practically any interface element anywhere you want. Opera has had this functionality for years, and still has the most configurable interface of all the browsers by far.
Opera may have made a lot of innovations that other browsers have copied, but I don’t care about who did what first, Firefox does things better in my opinion so that’s what I use.
“With Firefox 4 on its way, the Test Pilot team will monitor, analyze and work to better understand the variety of user behaviors and needs resulting from the new user interface and features throughout the complete Firefox 4 beta development cycle,” Jinghua Zhang, the product manager for Test Pilot, wrote.
