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| Mozilla |
Mozilla has again pushed back the release date for a touch-enabled version of Firefox that will run in Windows 8's "Modern" user interface (UI), with the new target in mid-March.
Ship estimates for the browser have been fluid, to put it mildly. In August, the open-source developer pegged December 2013 as the target for the "Metro-ized" version of Firefox. In September, Mozilla said it was hoping to bundle Firefox Metro with the Windows edition of Firefox 27, slated for release on Feb. 4.
Metro was the name Microsoft once applied to the radical UI of Windows 8, but the company ditched the moniker in 2012 over a trademark dispute with a German retailer.
The newest information from Mozilla, however, has tapped March 18, when Firefox 28 is to ship, as the projected release of the browser.
Although a preview of Firefox Metro was bundled with the Aurora build of Firefox more than three months ago -- and is currently in Aurora for Firefox 28 -- it has not yet been promoted to the next channel, Beta, which is the precursor to Release. Mozilla has set a Jan. 31 deadline for deciding whether the touch browser is ready to add to Firefox 28 Beta.
Mozilla started work on a Metro edition of Firefox in March 2012. It shipped a rough preview in October 2012, several weeks before Microsoft launched Windows 8. At that time, Mozilla's schedule said the Firefox app might appear as early as January 2013. In May 2013, however, the company said its developers would complete Firefox for Modern between Oct. 2, 2013, and March 20, 2014, with mid-November the likeliest date.
If Mozilla makes the targeted March 18 release, it will have spent two years crafting the browser, which will have shipped 17 months after the retail debut of Windows 8. // Computerworld
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