Firefox Fennec now available for WinMo in alpha form

by Chris Ziegler posted May 15th 2009 at 5:35PM

Up until now, if you wanted Mozilla's dearly anticipated mobile port, you had a couple options: you could buy a Nokia N800 / N810, or you could score a Touch Pro and deal with a build ominously described as pre-alpha. Now the software's finally matured enough to hit Alpha 1 status -- although the Touch Pro requirement's still in place, so you fake Touch Viva owners are sadly still have to hold off a while longer. The major release improves memory behavior, moves the UI to a CSS-based solution that'll make resolution independence easier, and -- here's the biggie -- adds support for add-ons, so it seems like it's a worthwhile download if you're doing even a modicum of browsing from your phone. Next up, Mozilla plans to tackle overall Fennec performance on the WinMo platform head-on; maybe they'd care to have a go at Firefox 3 while they're at it?

Filed under: Software, Windows Mobile

Tags: fennec, firefox, windows mobile, WindowsMobile, winmo

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Louis @ May 15th 2009 7:15PM

Wow... let's hope this one brings some improvements. The pre-alpha was unusable.

Neutral

Andrew Lazetera @ May 15th 2009 10:44PM

Sweet, I'm jumping in on that!

Just when I was tempted to buy a crapple product, something delicious like this swoops in and whisks me off my feet. Awesome!

Neutral

AndrewNoNumbers @ May 15th 2009 11:43PM

Let's see how it stacks against Opera and webkit browsers.

Neutral

kevinniven @ May 16th 2009 10:24AM

WOW this sucks!!!!!!!

Neutral

amw1972 @ May 17th 2009 1:59AM

Better than I expected after being disgusted with the pre-alpha. Tabbed browsing is "more intuitive" than Opera Mobile; zoom is practically non-existent here; load speed is in the Skyfire/PIE neighborhood; extension support works "almost" like the desktop version; all "buttons" are very intuitive and easily accessed...no guess work at what button does what...i.e. the jigsaw puzzle piece meant only one thing: EXTENSIONS!!; Most sites loaded their mobile counterparts...did have a couple load up the html version. "awesome" bar works just like its desktop big brother...even with some rather obscure entry; about:config turned up some regedits that i didn't understand...but its nice to see the same warranty warning...

It is an alpha, and it shows...HOWEVER..it is still early in development stage...and it is looking RIGHTEOUS!!! Hope they fix the zoom function, can't wait to see the full flash support. For an Alpha it is basically functional...but I'm not about to delete Opera Mobile just yet....now...if they can sync XMarks from the desktop version...hmmmmm