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Firefox's massive overhaul moves to beta

Mozilla's biggest browser remake since 2011, with a new interface and easier customization, begins to push away from the gate as Firefox 29 moves to beta.

Seth Rosenblatt Former Senior Writer / News
Senior writer Seth Rosenblatt covered Google and security for CNET News, with occasional forays into tech and pop culture. Formerly a CNET Reviews senior editor for software, he has written about nearly every category of software and app available.
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Seth Rosenblatt
Firefox 29 Beta prepares the new look of Firefox for launch, six weeks from now. Mozilla

Barring unforeseen events, big changes for Mozilla Firefox will be airborne in about six weeks.

Thursday's update moves Firefox 29 to beta, the final testing grounds where Mozilla can make stability and feature changes to the overhaul before it pushes it out to the public at large.

The new version of Firefox comes with a new interface, an easier way to customize Firefox, and an upgraded Firefox Sync that requires all current users to create new accounts and resynchronize their browsers, in exchange for getting simple user accounts with their end-to-end encryption. The new interface gives the browser a more touch-friendly look, as well as unifying design elements across Firefox's mobile and desktop versions. Windows and Linux users can say goodbye to the orange Firefox button.

However, not much appears to have changed between Firefox 29 on Mozilla's Aurora build for developers and the new beta build for enthusiasts, indicating that what you see now is pretty much going to be what you get in a month and a half.