All Firefox fans may want to try out future versions of the Mozilla browser, alpha and beta versions being tested. Mozilla in 2011, after spending a whole year before releasing Firefox 4, the latest stable version of the famous and widely used browser, changed the Firefox development process significantly by giving itself a more precise roadmap. With this guide I will try to cover all the information available regarding the development of Firefox, with the links for the download of the alpha development and beta versions, which can be installed separately, without having to replace the current Firefox in a stable version
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Mozilla has decided that it will continue the simultaneous development of three different versions of the web browser .
This means that if today the stable version is Firefox 72, Firefox 73 and 74 are already in production. When Firefox 73 is released, it will immediately begin to develop Firefox 74 and so on. This working method is the same as that carried out by Google for the Chrome browser, of which you can download the beta of the next version or, even better, install Chrome Canary, which is always a version ahead of the stable one and whose installation is independent of that of Chrome Standard.
The name given to the versions in progress and the update channels available is nice. Firefox 74 is currently in the Nightly update channel from which the development of the first alpha begins. Every 6 weeks the Firefox Nightly version is moved to the Beta channel which will therefore provide a more stable Firefox, even if still in the alpha 2 version. Still after 6 weeks, the Beta version will be released as a stable and definitive version. All this will lead to a new definitive Firefox every 2 months or so.
Users who want to install and test the latest versions of Firefox on their computer can do it without problems.
To summarize all this work plan then there are:
- Firefox release always indicated with xx, so now it's X.0
- Firefox Beta which is indicated perhaps with x.xb and which in 6 weeks will be Firefox X.0b .
- Nightly (or Minefield) which is currently Firefox 6.0a1 while in 6 weeks it will be Firefox X.0a1 .
The Aurora channel no longer exists since Firefox 53.
You can certainly install Nightly together with stable Firefox . The Beta instead replaces the stable version so be careful. They coexist on the same computer with a single contraindication linked to the compatibility of the extensions. In fact, the Nightly versions are practically incompatible with all add-ons.
By installing Nighly, you automatically receive updates to the new Firefox Alpha versions, so you always stay on the development plan and you can discover and preview the new features.
If you prefer, you can also download the Nightly version only and change the Firefox update channel
Open Nightly, you need to write the about: config command on the address bar, right click on the list of parameters and select New> String from the options.
Enter the app.update.desiredChannel parameter and give the new parameter the release value, beta .
The choice can then be made from the menu that appears by going to Help -> About Nightly .
To go back to Nightly's super alpha channel, just reset the app.update.desiredChannel parameter without giving it any value.
The Aurora, Nighly and Beta versions can be downloaded for Windows, Linux and Mac are in Italian and, obviously, they are not stable therefore they present bugs and possible errors.
Precisely this is and will always be the download link for the Aurora and beta versions of Firefox .
To download Firefox Nightly for Windows (32 and 64 bit), Linux (32 and 64 bit) and Mac you have to go to the nighly.mozilla.org site instead .
