Firefox 4 Beta 9 Released, Final In February

The latest beta of the upcoming Firefox 4 web browser has just been uploaded to the official Mozilla ftp release server. Firefox 4 Beta 9 is currently distributed to the worldwide mirror network to ensure an error free rapid distribution once the official release announcement has been made on the Mozilla website.

It is likely that the announcement will be posted on site later today. Probably the biggest change in the latest beta is the inclusion of the IndexedDB web standard “for the storage of significant amounts of structured data in the browser and for high performance searches on this data using indexes” (via).

Interested users can download the latest Firefox 4 beta from official mirror servers that offer both http and ftp connections.

At least one additional beta will be released before the release candidate stage is reached. Firefox 4 Beta 10 Pre has already been in development for a few days and is available on the nightly servers. The beta is used to reduce the open bug count to zero.

Mozilla plans to release the final version of Firefox 4 in February 2011.

Update: The Firefox 4 web browser is no longer supported or maintained. Mozilla since then has moved to a rapid release process where new stable versions of the browser are released in a six week turn. As of March 2012, the latest stable version is Firefox 11, which will be replaced by Firefox 12 in April. Mozilla furthermore has created a so called ESR version of the browser, which stands for Extended Support Release.

This particular version of Firefox has been designed for businesses and organizations who can’t keep up with the new release scheme. Firefox 10 is the first ESR release, which will be maintained by Mozilla for seven release cycles. This basically means a new major version every 42 weeks instead of every six weeks.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday January 14, 2011 -
Tags:firefox 4, firefox beta

Responses so far:

1. Tagada789 says:

   January 14, 2011 at 6:33 pm

   Is it not in fact a prerelease of Beta 9 fo Firefox 4 instead ?

   Reply
   • Martin says:

     January 14, 2011 at 6:34 pm

     No it is the real beta

     Reply
2. James M Singleton says:

   January 15, 2011 at 4:25 am

   I don’t think that Firefox 4 will be ready in Febuary. Especially if they are trying to release the 64-bit installer too.

   Reply
   • Martin says:

     January 15, 2011 at 11:19 am

     I thought they would not?

     Reply
3. milithruldur says:

   January 15, 2011 at 5:00 pm

   Ha, final release got moved again next month, although Firefox 4 is looking really promising under-the-hood, and I have come to appreciate the subtleties behind its apparent “dumbing down” interface changes as how most people percieved it.

   I must be odd saying this but in fact, I like what they did. Novelty always has a place among those who can appreciate ergonomics. If only one would care to learn theories behind such changes…

   Firefox all the way!

   /m

   Reply