Modern Windows 8 Firefox To Be Released In December

A Windows 8 optimised version of Firefox will be released on 10 December, following more than a year of development of the browser for the Metro, or ‘new Windows’ interface.

The launch date was revealed in the details of a Firefox planning meeting last week and outlines the immediate roadmap for the browser, the preview version of which should be available in its pre-beta Aurora channel on 16 September and as a beta on 28 October.

Mozilla will then respond to user feedback and iron out any bugs before the full version is rolled out as part of Firefox 26 just before Christmas.

Mozilla Firefox 26

The organisation first announced it was working on a touch-optimised Metro version of Firefox in February 2012 and released a ‘Metro preview version’ last October, which showed off the new look despite missing several key features, such as flash support and add-ons.

Mozilla originally said the browser would be released within a few weeks of Windows 8, but this target was obviously missed, meaning that users have had to go without a touch-optimised version of the browser, while Windows RT users have missed out entirely as they can only install apps from the Windows Store.

The only alternatives have been Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, which was released during 2012. Internet Explorer 11 will be included as part of Windows 8.1, a major update of the operating system, which is due to be rolled out later this year.

Are you a Firefox enthusiast? Take our quiz!