Windows 10 promises to be a very successful release for Microsoft’s partners, customers, and business, however the same dark cloud which hovered over Windows 8 will hover over Windows 10. Will developers and business target Windows 10 and develop apps to support the new OS? So far the typical popular Windows devs have already announced plans to support Windows 10, and there have been a few companies like Slack who say they will look into it. Mozilla announced last week Firefox would be supporting Windows 10, which came as no surprise seeming as how they have supported every version of Windows since XP, but now curious Firefox users can get an early peak at their design (spotted by VentureBeat).
Development for Windows 10 typically involves universal apps which can run across devices; Mozilla has not announced plans to make Firefox a Universal App. So this new version of Firefox will work on Windows 10 PCs like previous versions of Firefox. Primary differentiator with Firefox on Windows 10 so far will be the tweaks to the UI such as sizes and color of different UI elements.
“The design appears familiar because its goal is to provide a smooth transition for Firefox Windows users,” says Chad Weiner, director of product management at Mozilla. “We wanted to make sure that Firefox showed up on Windows 10 as a first-class experience, so we’ve made a lot of subtle tweaks to the look and feel that both sit well in the Windows 10 context and are definitively Firefox. We’re taking visual cues from style changes appearing in Windows 10 and we’re also reducing the overall browser UI footprint to increase space for viewing the Web.”
The new UI looks a lot like the current iteration of Firefox 39. Some elements have been shrunk down and there seems to be more contrasting colors. Overall, the design looks good, but users will have to wait and see if Mozilla has any other new features for their Windows 10 browser to make it worthwhile.
Further reading: Firefox, Microsoft, Mozilla, Windows 10
