Good news for Firefox users who do not like the changes that come along with the new Australis design that will be implemented in the browser in the foreseeable future.

The initial plan was to implement Australis in Firefox 24, but the deadline was not met and Australis was first delayed to Firefox 25 and then 26.

The design has not landed in Nightly yet which many saw as an indicator that Australis would not launch in Firefox 27 as well.

This has now been confirmed by an updated marketing roadmap that confirms that Australis has been moved to Firefox 28 which will launch March 4, 2014.

If things go as planned, Firefox Nightly users will be the first to experience the new Australis design when the build hits version 28 for the first time on November 1, 2013.

When will Australis hit other Firefox channels?

Firefox Aurora users will get Australis six weeks later on December 13, 2013.

Firefox Beta users will be migrated to Australis six weeks later than the Aurora version on January 21, 2014.

Australis will hit Firefox Stable on March 4, 2014.

Note that this is still subject to change. The core reason for the delay in the deployment of the Australis design is performance-related. Mozilla wants to deploy Australis only when it matches the performance of the pre-Australis Firefox versions. Since that was not the case until now, Australis has been delayed from version to version.

If performance of Australis matches that of Firefox come Firefox 28, it will be deployed then. There is theoretically still a possibility that this won't be the case, so that Australis may get further delayed.

The release to the browser's Nightly channel will make the new design available to a larger audience, and it will be interesting to see how that audience will react to the changes that Australis introduces.

The real test however comes with the stable release of Australis, as this is the channel that is used by the majority of Firefox users.

The majority of tech savvy users seem to be largely opposed to the changes introduced in Australis, and many have been very vocal about switching web browsers when Australis launches or preventing further updates of their version of Firefox to block the deployment of the new design on their system.

Now Read: What you need to know about Firefox Australis

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