Firefox 55 Arrives With WebVR on Windows, Performance Panel, and Click-to-Play Flash (venturebeat.com)

Mozilla today made available a new update to Firefox for Windows to introduce support for WebVR, that the company says, will enable desktop VR users to dive into web-based experiences with ease. Firefox 55 also includes performance panel, faster startup when restoring multiple tabs, a quicker way to search across various search engines, and click-to-play Flash by default. From a report: WebVR is an experimental JavaScript API that provides support for virtual reality devices, such as the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Google Cardboard. As its name implies, the technology is meant for browsers. If you find a web game or app that supports VR, just click the VR goggles icon visible on the web page to experience it using your VR headset. WebVR supports navigating and controlling VR experiences with handset controllers or your movements in physical space. [...] Firefox 55 also allows users to adjust the number of processes and how much resources they want to allocate to any of them. This setting is at the bottom of the General section in Options. In fact, if your computer has more than 8GB of RAM, Mozilla recommends "bumping up the number of content processes that Firefox uses" because it will make Firefox faster, though at the expense of using more memory. In its own tests on Windows 10, the company found that Firefox uses less memory than Chrome, even with eight content processes running.

Comments

I don't get it

[zifn4b]

I'm sure it will allow you to view awesome Web VR! For about 5-10 minutes until it slows to a crawl from poor memory management and then you have to restart. It's a feature!

I'm guessing this is specifically in reference to using Web VR?

Firefox 55 also allows users to adjust the number of processes and how much resources they want to allocate to any of them. This setting is at the bottom of the General section in Options. In fact, if your computer has more than 8GB of RAM, Mozilla recommends "bumping up the number of content processes that Firefox uses" because it will make Firefox faster, though at the expense of using more memory. In its own tests on Windows 10, the company found that Firefox uses less memory than Chrome, even with eight content processes running.

I have a Chrome browser open that's been running for days with multiple tabs open still as snappy as when I first opened it and it's currently using a cool 163MB of RAM. My machine has 16GB of memory but it I obviously barely need to drip into it? Oh and by the way Mozilla... Chrome just figures it out without users having to tweak their browser's memory management strategy manually. I guess you can't figure out to do that? Furthermore, I guess Firefox isn't for grandma then?

For reals, I used to use Firefox and Firebug exclusively for web development for many years before Chrome de-throned you guys. We need less spin more real value to consider switching back. C'mon Mozilla, either get in the game or admit defeat.