Firefox 3.7 Changes Looks for Windows 7

Posted on September 27th, 2009 by Jason

Firefox 3.5 has been here for a while now, and Firefox 3.6 awaits just around the corner to make an appearance, yet the guys over at Mozilla are already working on the development of Firefox 3.7. Considered only a minor upgrade for the browser, the 3.7 version is expected to land in March next year and bring around a series of visual changes to the Firefox that we know at the moment.

For the time being, however, it should be noted that these directions are only proposals, and that they need to be approved before being put into place. The changes in theme, states the Mozilla Wiki page describing what Firefox 3.7 might include, are not aimed only at the visual style, but will also affect UI placement and arrangement, as well as the evolution new features of the browser will register.

“As noted on the 3.0 Windows Default Theme Issues Wikipage, Firefox feels dated and behind on Windows. Especially Vista and Windows 7. These issues include absence of Glass, anemic purple toolbar color on Vista, tall and bulky UI footprint, element overload, inconsistent toolbar icon usage/style, lack of a tactile look & feel and perhaps too great of a divergence between the look on XP and Vista/7,” is what Mozilla Wiki states.

Considering these shortcomings, the developing team has come up with a series of directions to follow so as to change the looks of Firefox with the launch of 3.7. Toolbar and Tabs that are using Glass are among the changes that might surface, along with an overall neutral color scheme, the hiding of the menubar by default, existing menu structure condensed into only two buttons, Stop and Reload on the same button, or the presence of a “Home Tab,” corroborated with the removal of the “Home” Button.

Basically, the changes should follow the visual modifications that Microsoft’s client has seen over the years, it seems. “Starting with Vista, and continuing with Windows 7, the menubar has been systematically removed from Windows applications built by Microsoft and other vendors. It has been replaced with alternatives like the Windows Explorer contextual strip or the Ribbon found in Office 2007. The Ribbon UI is now also used in Paint and Wordpad for Windows 7. Many apps still retain the menubar as an option to be pinned or to be shown briefly by holding the Alt key,” Mozilla continues.

Firefox 3.6 Alpha 1 and the stable versions of Firefox 3.5.3 and Firefox 3.0.14 can be downloaded from here.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 4:27 am and is filed under Firefox, Windows 7. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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2 Responses to “Firefox 3.7 Changes Looks for Windows 7”

  1. UI Changes to Expect in Firefox 4.0 | PC Tips on 02 Oct 2009 at 12:02 am #

    [...] year, while delivering to users a series of visual changes that will start to appear as soon as Firefox 3.7 is pushed out. We already had a glimpse at how the 3.7 version of Firefox might look like, and at the visual [...]

  2. Kevin Wells on 02 Oct 2009 at 8:12 am #

    Firefox dated? I don’t think so. I use it on Vista all the time. Absence of glass is an advantage – it’s just a useless MS gimick that I have permanently turned off. And all the other things mentioned can easily be changed with different themes – something you can’t do AT ALL with MS products.
    I hate the so-called ribbon and prefer classic menus, again it’s just change for the sake of it not for any improvement in usability.

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