Firefox 3.6 Alpha Adds Tab Previews, Boosts Startup Time

Windows/Mac/Linux: Lovers of bleeding-edge browsers, rejoice: the first alpha of Firefox 3.6, code-named Namoroka, is available for download. Grab it to check out JavaScript improvements, startup time speed-ups, visual tab previews and behaviour tweaks, and other changes.

The startup time and JavaScript improvements are, like most of the changes listed for this alpha, under the hood and only slightly noticeable to the average user. The Mozilla Links blog points out, however, that visual tab previews, proposed for Firefox 3.0, then again for 3.1/3.5, are finally here—they’re just hidden behind an about:config tweak. To bring them to life, open about:config in a tab, type in browser.ctrlTab.previews, then set that value to true and hit Ctrl+Tab to activate it. If you want Firefox to open the last used tab when you hit Ctrl+Tab, set browser.ctrlTab.mostRecentlyUsed to true as well.

Hit the link to grab your copy of Firefox 3.6 alpha 1, then tell us about what you find in the comments. Don’t want to mess up your existing installation? You can wait for the PortableApps version, or adapt our field guide to testing Firefox for this release.

Namoroka Alpha 1 Release Notes [Mozilla via Mozilla Links]