The Mozilla Foundation has rolled out Firefox 4 Beta 9 with a few key improvements aimed to keep users happy. If there are no delays, the Firefox 4 release could take place sometime in February.
Beta 9 includes more than 650 bug fixes, enhanced code related to Firefbox bookmarks and browsing history, and other smaller changes. It's currently available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac, with faster loading times serving as a major marketing tool.
Firefox changed the tab location of the Firefox 4 Beta 9, which offers a "more efficient and intuitive browsing" environment for users.
The Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta 9 is now available, with another release candidate possible in the next few weeks. Firefox 4 Beta 10 is still on the schedule, but a final release could be pulled if developers are pleased with Beta 9.
Last October, the Mozilla Foundation announced it would delay Firefox 4 until early 2011 related to a delay in completing beta milestones. The final release is expected to have native HTML 5 support, clean GUI (which the new tab location demonstrates), along with better plug-ins and native HD video playback.
As Firefox competes with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, and other Web browsers, there is increased pressure for developers for Firefox to move forward. IE remains the No. 1 browser, with 63 percent marketshare at the beginning of 2011, with Firefox trailing in No. 2 at 22.81 percent.
Firefox looks to reach 25% browser marketshare for the first time, but needs to continue working with the community to improve bugs and security issues.
