Mozilla releases Beta 1 of new, visually overhauled Firefox 4 browser

Mozilla's popular Firefox web browser has just been released in Beta 1, which introduces a new graphical design for Windows users, support for the HD HTML5 video tag using the WebM format, a new Add-ons manager for all of your Add-ons, Plug-ins, and Themes, improved crash protection and security fixes, and an overall performance upgrade.

Firefox 4 Beta 1 is available on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, but only the Windows version has undergone a graphical change, where the tabs are placed along the top.

So performance, security and stability upgrades are all self-explanatory, but why the design change?

"Recently modern browsers have been transitioning to placing tabs on top, and that decision isn't arbitrary, it isn't about fashion.  The change to placing tabs on top isn't about one browser versus another browser, it's about the evolution of the Web as a platform," Mozilla User Experience designer Alex Faaborg recently said.