A special Firefox edition for the Windows 8 Metro interface

Mozilla has announced plans to introduce a special Firefox browser edition that will work exclusively in the Windows 8 Metro interface. Firefox is preparing to make a strong entry into the new Windows era.

The Metro interface is the alternative Windows 8 user environment intended for touchscreen devices. Its design is entirely different from traditional Windows, so many applications will need to be redesigned to work well. This is not essential, but it can help considerably.

Mozilla's engineers took this view and decided to develop a special Firefox edition. It will be interesting to see how they address resource consumption, a long-standing weakness of Firefox. The challenge is to create a very light and fast browser, which is much harder than it sounds.

The first Metro Firefox presentation will take place by the end of June, with alpha and beta versions expected in the second half of the year.