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Firefox Quantum Arrives With Faster Browser Engine, Major Visual Overhaul (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today launched Firefox 57, branded Firefox Quantum, for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. The new version, which Mozilla calls "by far the biggest update since Firefox 1.0 in 2004," brings massive performance improvements and a visual redesign. The Quantum name signals Firefox 57 is a huge release that incorporates the company's next-generation browser engine (Project Quantum). The goal is to make Firefox the fastest and smoothest browser for PCs and mobile devices -- the company has previously promised that users can expect "some big jumps in capability and performance" through the end of the year. Indeed, three of the four past releases (Firefox 53, Firefox 54, and Firefox 55) included Quantum improvements. But those were just the tip of the iceberg. Additionally, Firefox now exclusively supports extensions built using the WebExtension API, and unsupported legacy extensions will no longer work, the company said.
Why does every change start with a new or changed interface?
What performance boost? It disabled NoScript.
When it loses the whole POINT of the program? The add-ons are what made Firefox worth using as a primary browser. With the switch to the new version, they made all previous plugins incompatible, and most of the add-ons that I'd prefer to use won't be ported over, mostly out of disgust/disinterest by the developers, or simply that the tools are no longer available to accomplish the task anymore.
This is somewhat akin to a new version of Steam coming out, that disables all Steam games until a new version of each game comes out requiring XBox One controller-only controls. They decided keyboard/mouse was potentially insecure. Sure - some users will celebrate this, but it kind of defeats the point of the platform at large. Eventually, it might get good again - but you're throwing away too much now to be worth that.
Jesus, what is wrong with you people? Yes, there are a couple of UI quirks (like the gaps), but this is _the best_ UI that FF has had in *years*. Australis is finally gone, and this default UI is actually sane. Tabs are threaded, something folks around here have been pleading for for _years_. Can't you give a little bit of credit where it's due?
And it is true that this browser is fast. Perceptibly so. For five years, FF has not been able to keep pace with Chrome for those of us who develop on the web. Now, it might actually be a viable workhorse. I haven't looked into the new dev tools in depth, but if they've improved as much as the UI and the speed, then I might finally be able to switch back.
If you are a geek, you should be rooting for Firefox. Without it, the web will be dominated by an advertising agency and a convicted monopolist. Give it the benefit of the doubt and try not to be a total douche.
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I've reverted to Firefox 56.0.2. Unless the plug-in situation changes for the better, Firefox 56 will be the end of my use of Firefox.
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The headline for this release should not be that it is two times faster, but that a very significant amount of functionality has been lost.
Yes. Why? Because FF is the only major browser that respects your freedom and your privacy.
This is the same reason to root for Linux on the Desktop even if it's not as usable as Win10. Because we don't want to use closed source spyware for the rest of our lives.
I'm totally rooting for FireFox. I just saw the notification, downloaded it, and yes, the gaps were the first thing I noticed.
Gee whiz, give us a few days to drive it to comment on performance. Generally restarting a program improves its performance. But the out of box experience (gaps and tabs) was not pleasant. I've fixed the gaps based on brickhouse98's comment (thanks!), but the tab coloring SUCKS.
In 2 hours of usage, it seems much faster than the previous version, even though I had multi-threading enabled in the previous version. I like it a lot, and I agree that for Privacy, having FF around is key for us.
I'm rooting for FF, but I give honest reviews and speak truth. Ignoring problems with your own team is a primary cause of much of the world's trouble, especially in politics. I refuse to play THAT game.
-=Lothsahn=-
Except it no longer respects your freedom to customize the UI and it was always a bit bad at respecting your privacy (stun servers, browser fingerprinting).
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
If pages you develop are slow loading, perhaps you should revisit your design. What exactly are you doing that FF is unable to keep pace with? There is no reason a normal web page should load slowly on any browser, Chrome or FF.
It's designers like you who make pages so full of unnecessary bloat that it's making browsing the web more and more annoying, regardless of browser, while loading 10MB from two dozen different ad servers just to display a few lines of actual content.
And... and... and... WTF WERE THEY THINKING??? Make it so addon authors need to update things and/or re-create is bad enough, but then remove the underlying functionality? That's insane! It shouldn't be LESS CAPABLE.
It's almost as if to address the performance issues that people have been bitching about would require a major architecture change, but no that's not it, they, like any company, specifically asked YOU what would piss you off and did that instead.
Because FF is the only major browser that respects your freedom and your privacy.
Just like they respected Brendan Eich's?