First Firefox 3.7 pre-alpha appears in nightly builds

With the first Firefox 3.6 alpha in the bag, what's the next logical step for Mozilla to take? Why, to roll out the first pre-alpha of version 3.7, of course.

Sure, the 3.6 alpha 2 is still labeled Minefield, but why not go for maximum danger factor with your bleeding-edge install?

The 3.7 interface hasn't yet started to look like the mockups we saw a little while ago. Glass support isn't built in and the UI elements are still the same as those in 3.5, and the standalone search box is still there (appearance in my screenshot is different due to my previously modified 3.6 install). I've only been using it for a few minutes, obviously, but it feels as stable as the 3.6 alpha so far. It's also pretty damn speedy and easy on ram.

Head-to-head against Chrome 3.0.197.11 in Futuremark's Peacekeeper, 3.7 came up short - posting a score 19% lower. In actual use, though, I don't notice a substantial difference. Responsiveness is actually better than Chrome, which has suffered intermittent sluggishness over the past few days.

As with any new Minefield build, you're probably not going to be able to use some of your go-to add-ons and favorite themes. To take it for a spin, head over to the Mozilla FTP and download it.

Share your impressions in the comments!

Tags: developer, firefox-3.7, news, pre-alpha, testing