FireFox Mobile Close to Alpha Release

According to Mozilla CEO John Lilly, the foundation should roll out the alpha version of FireFox mobile in the next few weeks. Codenamed Fennec, the browser will be available to anyone who wants use it on a Nokia Linux-run N8x0 Wi-Fi tablets, possibly Windows Mobile smartphones, and perhaps other hardware as well.

“Work on Windows Mobile has heated up quite a bit. We should be getting some Fennec builds for WinMo soon. We have also seen Fennec showing up on other hardware too,” writes Mozilla Platform Evangelist Mark Finkle on his blog. He goes on to list several highlights of the most recent revision of Fennec for the Nokia platform.

Should you install the new browser, keep in mind Fennec is going to be pretty buggy. Of course, Moizlla’s going to want your feedback so they can make it better.

Mozilla’s goal with the browser is to provide wireless users with a full-fledged Firefox experience, including support for browser extensions as well as enabling other developers to build applications on top of it.

Mozilla had expected to have the mobile browser available for embedded Linux and Windows Mobile devices by the end of the year. Don’t expect to see a final release until well into next year, however.

This article was first published on PDAStreet.com.