There Will Be a Firefox Made Specifically for Windows 8 Metro
By - Source: Tom's Hardware US
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26 comments
Firefox for those who go Metro.
One of the biggest changes coming from Windows 8 will be the Metro interface theme. It will bring Windows to a new form of computing.
Mozilla intends to be there to serve this new tablet and touch market with a version of Firefox that's made just for Metro. While Microsoft will surely make its version of Internet Explorer optimized for Metro, Mozilla wants to present the alternative choice. Given that some Windows users are basically trained to seek an alternative browser, this could be a good thing for Mozilla.
The project is now listed as "in progress" in the Mozilla wiki. Here are some of the project notes:
- Firefox on Metro, like all other Metro apps will be full screen, focused on touch interactions, and connected to the rest of the Metro environment through Windows 8 contracts.
- Firefox on Metro will bring all of the Gecko capabilities to this new environment and the assumption is that we'll be able to run as a Medium integrity app so we can access all of the win32 Firefox Gecko libraries avoiding a port to the new WinRT API for the bulk of our code. (Though we will need to have a pan and zoom capability for content.)
- Firefox on Metro is a full-screen App with an Appbar that contains common navigation controls (back, reload, etc.,) the Awesomebar, and some form of tabs.
- Firefox will have to support three "snap" states -- full screen, ~1/6th screen and ~5/6th screen depending on how the user "docks" two full screen apps. Our UI will need to adjust to show the most relevant content for each size.
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it's 21st Century, dammit!!!
We will move to 64bit computing when 128bit is out
I pray Win8 falls flat on its face.
If history repeats itself, Firefox will be a dud for Windows 8, initially, thus crash repeatedly.
it's 21st Century, dammit!!!
We will move to 64bit computing when 128bit is out
Never heard of model-view-controller, then? At any rate, you could have said the same thing about command line apps versus windowed ones 20 years ago. Saying we shouldn't change anything because it could lead to more bugs is about the silliest thing you could say, especially as a programmer (I'm gonna go ahead and guess you're not a professional). EVERYTHING you do increases the risk of bugs when you're working on a project with more than a couple thousand lines of code.
As far as Firefox is concerned, they're using a new browser engine in the Metro version, which will likely make its way into the plain old classic version sooner rather than later. At that point, you only need to maintain separate view layers, which is pretty simple and has no chance of introducing extra bugs into the core of the browser beyond the initial change to the new engine.
nightly builds thou arent going to be fully stable and as far as people mentioning 64 bit...
what are u really going to gain with a 64bit browser?
I like firefox, and mozilla, they arent a huge dominating corporation
The model is not responsible for the shirt - that was edited (many times for many browsers). She has a site on MySpace.
Its almost like saying "Office 2010 will run on Windows 7".
PS: If Opera is 100% web compatible, why does it have problems with Tomshardware when it comes to posting?
MySpace -> The ugliest and worst sites on the web. A nightmare for a web designer.
umm they do make a 64-bit version moron try using Google for once in your life
Yes, I want everything in my life to pass through Google's hands. That'll be good. What business is Google in again?
lol.