New Firefox Faster than Chrome, 30% Less Memory

[djbaxter]

New Firefox Quantum Twice as Fast, 30% Less Memory
by John Lister, infopackets.com
November 15, 2017

Mozilla has launched a new version of the Firefox browser aimed at winning over Google Chrome users. It says the new version is twice as fast as earlier versions of Firefox that were available this year.

The key is the "web rendering engine," which is the part of the browser that interprets the code on a website page and visually combines it on the user's computer. Mozilla has replaced its old engine with a new one dubbed Firefox Quantum. It's also put together videos showing that Firefox is now quicker than Chrome to fully load most (but not all) of the more popular websites....

Part of the difference is that unlike previous editions, Firefox is set up to work better on computers that have multi-core processors. These systems are able to work on multiple tasks simultaneously because more CPU cores means more available 'hands' to get work done. The new browser splits out the various tasks involved in displaying and using a web page and assigns these tasks to different cores....

Other changes include a cleaning up of the browser so that there's less clutter on the screen... This includes (optionally) using the same space for both typing website addresses and carrying out searches ... [and] a single "Library" button that gives access to tools such as bookmarks, a downloaded files and browser history, rather than have multiple menu options permanently displayed on screen.

Firefox 57 (Quantum) Kills Many "Legacy" Addons
The new Firefox Quantum also includes the WebExtensions API (application programming interface), which manages Firefox addons. The biggest change means that older extensions which have not migrated to the WebExtensions API will no longer be compatible going forward. In other words: many addons will simply be disabled until (and if) the author decides to migrate to the new format.

Read more...

 

[djbaxter]

Re: New Firefox Quantum faster than Chrome, 30% Less Memory

Firefox 57 (Quantum) Kills Many "Legacy" Addons
The new Firefox Quantum also includes the WebExtensions API (application programming interface), which manages Firefox addons. The biggest change means that older extensions which have not migrated to the WebExtensions API will no longer be compatible going forward. In other words: many addons will simply be disabled until (and if) the author decides to migrate to the new format.

This change is the stickler for many and the major source of anger about the new release.

To be honest, I did not like the new version at all when I first upgraded - to the point where I started experimenting with customizing either Chrome or Microsoft Edge. That was not a successful process so back I went to Firefox Quantum to see how close I could get to the previous version. I lost many of the add-ons (legacy add-ons) that improve my productivity and were being used daily, often several times per day.

However, with time and searching for new Firefox extensions, I am getting used to the new version. There are still some functions I haven't yet been able to replace but this is obviously a new and very different version of the browser, and no doubt in time some of the previous add-on coders will upgrade their products.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: New Firefox Quantum faster than Chrome, 30% Less Memory

Screaming fast for me.

I've been having probs w/FF jamming up on me so much I almost hated to get online.
So much wasted time waiting for sites to open or having to re-start or reboot all the time.
Thought it was my PC, but after this update WOWser!

 

[djbaxter]

Re: New Firefox Quantum faster than Chrome, 30% Less Memory

That's true. I always work with 6 windows open, each with 6 tabs, so the old Firefox crashing was an issue, even with the 64-bit version which can access more of your installed RAM than the 32-bit version.

Now that you mention it, Firefox Quantum hasn't hung up once so far. The fact that it can use more than one core at a time undoubtedly helps that.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Re: New Firefox Quantum faster than Chrome, 30% Less Memory

Yes, same issues with old version. But this one seems to be great. The look and movement of few buttons threw me off at first though.

 

[Digitaldar]

I can't wait to try it. Chrome is a huge memory hog... Adwords has not been displaying properly in Chrome for a year so I switch to FF for it... guess I'll do more in FF but I have some extensions in Chrome that I like...

 

[Tim Colling]

I would really, really like to like FireFox but I am now so dependent upon the extensions that I use in Chrome that I don't want to take the time to try to find alternatives for FireFox.

Soon, IT departments and others will pretty much bullied into setting Chrome as their companies' "standard", if only because of a new version of an old saying, where we used to say, "No one ever got fired for choosing IBM", and now it's more like, "No one ever got fired for choosing Google".

 

[djbaxter]

Early Returns on Firefox Quantum Point to Growth
by Nick Nguyen, Mozilla.org
December 12, 2017

When Firefox Quantum was launched earlier this year, it was measurably faster - Mozilla doubled Firefox?s speed while using 30% less memory than Chrome.

1. Our biggest release to date. Firefox Quantum is Firefox?s fastest path to 100M+ profiles and half a billion daily hours of use on a new release in recent memory ? a product of both seamless release and strong uptick in new profiles. And, millions of users are still getting their first introduction to Firefox Quantum every day.
2. More users are coming from Chrome. We?ve seen a 44% growth in downloads from people who are using the Chrome browser compared to the same time last year.
3. Mobile is growing too. Our four core mobile apps are experiencing strong growth resulting from the launch of Firefox Quantum. Firefox for iOS and Android has shown a 24% lift in installs, and Firefox Focus for Android and iOS showed a 48% lift in installs.
4. The Add-ons ecosystem remains strong. Over 1,000 Firefox Quantum-ready extensions have been added to addons.mozilla.org since Firefox Quantum was released.
5. Screenshots is a breakout hit. It?s seeing very strong early traction. Users have taken over 30 million screenshots since the feature launched in late September.
6. Developer Support for Firefox Quantum: Improved browser speed and stability, as well as high quality developer tools are giving developers more reasons to try and continue to use Firefox developer tools. Since the September 26th developer edition of Firefox Quantum was released, we saw a 10% increase in daily use of developer tools and a 53% increase in Developer edition downloads.

Read more...