The beta version will update to the final release, but you will remain on the beta update channel. This means that when there are security/stability releases for Firefox 4 you will get them before the official release. This is so they can be tested using a larger userbase prior to the official release.

If you uninstall the beta and then install the final release you will be on the normal update channel so you will only get notified of updates after the official release date.

Thanks TonnyE for the answer. In this case, do you mean it is actually better for users to stay on beta update channel since the fixes get updated more frequently?

It's not the frequency just the timing of the updates.

On regard to this,I was wondering what happens if a beta user eventually reinstalls Firefox from scratch when the final release comes out , just to start with a fresh install:is there a way to stay on the beta channel?

Manually switching between the update channels is not straightforward. You need to edit a file to change the update channel.

If installed on 32 bit Windows, using the default installation directory, the file to edit is C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\channel-prefs.js

It contains a line similar to this, you can change the "release" part of that line:

pref("app.update.channel", "release");

You can change the update channel to one of the following:

• release - will update to release versions only
• beta - will update to betas, release candidates and final versions
• nightly - will update to all nightly builds
• default - will not update

There is an add-on that can be used to switch between update channels, it is not marked as compatible with Firefox 4 but I think it should still work - Update Channel Selector (I have not tested this on the Firefox 4 beta builds)

Interesting,thank you.