Firefox 13 is now available in Nightly. What we can expect from it?

Firefox 10 moved to stable version 2 days ago and now Firefox 13 is available in nightly build.

Firefox 13 nightly

Following are the features expected in this release, although they are not guaranteed!

Silent Update:

This is the most important feature expected in Firefox 13.  In fact  they should have implemented it when they switched to rapid release(aka Firefox 5).  This silent update makes browser to update itself without making user ever aware of it.  That is the biggest success of Google Chrome.

Implementing silent update in Firefox is not that simple task.  To make this happen, following things are required to be completed.

1. Update dialog should not pop up when a new version of Firefox available.
2. Add ons should be made compatible with the new releases of Firefox.  This is implemented in Firefox 10.
3. Almost all the update should happen in the user's current session, so that when user restarts the browser they will not be aware that an update has been happened.
4. Appearance of "Whats new" page should be reduced or more clearly it should not appear at all.
5. OS dialogs should not block Firefox update.  Normally OS asks permission from user to install or update software and allows software to install only when user approves it.  This  is implemented in Firefox 12.
6. Whenever there is an incompatible add on is detected in the new update, update prompt should not pop up and Firefox update should delay for a grace period of 7 days and warning should pop up only after that.

Without accomplishing the above features Firefox cannot update silently.  The key point is user should not aware that the update has been happened when they start the Firefox browser.

Update:

Mozilla published an article explaining the steps behind silent updates.  Check this for more details.

Panel Based Download Manager:

Currently download manager opens in a small new window.  Mozilla team plans to implement the new download manager, that opens like a panel in the same window.  Take a look at the prototype below.

Work to implement this is on for past 2 years and it will be good if it lands on Firefox 13.

Improved display of Location bar results:

This involves removing a thin black line between results and highlighting the searched text in black or grey instead of making it bold.  Take a look at the Firefox 10 location bar results below to understand the difference.

The detailed mockup is available here.

and much more.  As I said, these features are expected and not guaranteed.

You can install Firefox 13 from the nightly site or upgrade your nightly build if you are already having one.

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