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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.
Anyone else seeing large gaps to the left of the address bar and to the right of the search bar?
Also, the new tabs look a lot uglier...
The Quantum is the smallest possible increment. Always remember that when someone tells you it's a quantum leap in performance.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The beta has felt quite a bit faster than my old default (Opera). With an official release Firefox has regained default status. I've used it since back in the Phoenix days. Then they got stale and Chrome was faster. Then it got stale and Opera was faster.
Hurray for competition.
Finally tally: about 2/3 of my regularly used extensions don't work with 57 and don't currently seem to have a similar replacement available.
Sadly, a performance boost just isn't work losing that much functionality for me. :-(
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Why does every change start with a new or changed interface?
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.
NoScript for Firefox 57 will be released today. Just wait a while.
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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.
What's wrong with the way bookmarks have worked forever? By far my most used control in every browser I've used since the days of Netscape Navigator has been a bookmark toolbar that is set up like a menu of the sites I actually want to visit.
Maybe I'm weird, but most of the extensions and new controls in modern browsers seem to be useful primarily to turn off other modern developments that I don't want. For me, that last big UI improvements in browsers were introducing tabs and search boxes, and we've had those for so long that the earliest known source code was found in hieroglyphs on a cave wall.
Just give me good bookmarks, tabbed browsing, and a simple address bar and search bar with the basic controls for back/refresh/etc. and I've got a simple, effective browser UI that will do the job nicely, thanks.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
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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.
I have only 6,231 add-ons to choose from
I already went through the search page for add-ons. The three I searched for had no functional equivalent. Nothing even close.
What's wrong with the way bookmarks have worked forever?
Many people appear to prefer to use tabs to provide the functionality that bookmarks were designed for. So we end up with situations like Firefox OOMing on a 32GB workstation, but it appears to be what the users want.
Perhaps if the bookmark toolbar saved a screenshot of each site, and used that both for hover actions and as a preliminary muted background picture while the site loaded, some tab users might discover bookmarks?
Although a cascading menu hierarchy might still put some off as too complex. That was apparently the rationale for getting rid of the cascading Windows start menu.
This isn't a Firefox 57 feature, but for all FireFox users I recommend Options - Tracking Protection - Change Block List - Disconnect.me strict protection. The strict protection is arguably bettern than an ad blocker, since it leaves unintrusive ads that support a site but blocks the garbage ones. I don't mind if a site is financed with ads, because server time isn't free.
On Slashdot, the ads at the top that tried to stick themselves over the article, that intermittently tried to inject malware and redirect you to other pages, and that showed me whatever I last looked at on Amazon -- those are gone. Instead, I just see the "Slashdot Top Deals" on the right side and bottom. Those aren't so bad, and if they pay the bills then great.
Until I selected this option, I was browsing in private windows 75% of the time. Now I can go back to normal browsing, which is a slight convenience. If enough people do this, maybe the ad companies will start to figure out that injecting malware is less profitable than an unobtrusive ad.
Pros:
Cons:
Generally when a browser boasts of speed increases I sort of shrug because it's rarely obvious. Typically I'm more limited by the speed of the connection than by the browser processing speed. However this time it Firefox actually does appear to work notably faster. I'm not particularly impressed or offended by the visual changes but they are fine I guess. But I am actually (pleasantly) surprised to see how much quicker it works. I use Firefox as my primary browser so it's nice to see a change for the better. Hopefully nothing important broke in the process...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
C'mon people. Everyone here seems to know what would make the most perfect flawless browser. Why has no one here done it?
Thank you for keeping up, thank you for being non profit and open source and thank you for offering a cross platform alternative independent of advertising companies and OS vendors.
This is important work.
Thank you ðY(TM)ðY.
Dennis Onstenk