Mozilla's Fennec

Fennec – Mozilla’s Web Browsers for mobile has finally been made available for the Windows Mobile operating system. The company issued a pre-alpha in February, but has now released the browser in its first official alpha. “We are pleased to announce that Fennec Alpha 1 for Windows Mobile 6. Fennec Alpha 1 for Windows Mobile  6 is available for download by developers and testers,” said Fennec developer Jason Lassey in his blog post. “This is an early developer release intended for testing purp[oses only. We would like to invite interested Windows Mobile developers and users to join with Mozilla’s developer and user community to help develop, test and refine the product.”

Lassey explained that Fennec is now able to manages memory in a more efficient way, and that user interface controls are now totally CSS-based, allowing the development team to more easily adjust the interface according to the different screen sizes and resolutions of individual handsets. This version of Fennec also supports Add-ons, which Lassey argued are “integral to promoting openness and innovation on the web. The look and feel will continue to evolve as we develop the product, but this release should give users a sense of the direction it’s going in,” he said.

The current alpha of Fennec has been developed with HTC Touch Pro device in mind, and it is not recommended for daily browsing tasks because of performance problems, according to Lassey. He added that support for further devices will be added in the future.