Mozilla Releases Firefox 58 for Mac With Performance Optimizations - MacRumors
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Mozilla Releases Firefox 58 for Mac With Performance Optimizations

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firefoxlogoMozilla today announced the launch of Firefox 58, building upon the new "Quantum" features that were introduced in Firefox 57 back in November.

Firefox 57 introduced a redesigned interface, new UI features, speeds twice as fast as Firefox 52, and an engine that uses 30 percent less memory than Google Chrome, and Mozilla is continuing to introduce additional improvements in Firefox 58.

Firefox 58 includes updates to Gecko, Firefox's rendering engine, which are designed to streamline and speed up the browsing experience. Specific new additions include background tab throttling, a WebAssembly Streaming Compiler, and Off-Main-Thread Painting (OMTP) for a "significantly better" rendering process, with full details on the speed improvements available on the Firefox blog.

Improvements have also been made to the way CSS fonts are displayed for shorter loading times, there's a new Promise feature to reduce redundant code, and functional and privacy improvements have been made to Firefox Screenshots. Full release notes for the update are available from the Firefox website.

With this release, we're building on the great foundation provided by our all-new Firefox Quantum browser. We're optimizing the performance gains we released in 57 by improving the way we render graphics and cache JavaScript. We also made functional and privacy improvements to Firefox Screenshots. On Firefox for Android, we've added support for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) so you can add websites to your home screen and use them like native apps.

Existing Firefox users will be able to upgrade to Firefox 58 automatically by restarting the browser. Non-Firefox users can download Firefox 58 for macOS for free from the Mozilla website.

Tag: Firefox

Top Rated Comments

C
C DM
113 months ago
58. Enough said.
Seems like that didn't really say anything.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
casperes1996 Avatar
casperes1996
113 months ago
True. But Chrome damage is not that severe and easily noticeable as with the new Firefox. Yes you can see the usage in Activity monitor, but it won't start up your CPU's fans on some random WordPress blog.
That depends on the page. I've had Chrome kick off the fans to what I'd call pretty high RPMs, when Safari wouldn't even take them past their idle speeds. Regardless, I don't like Chrome at all. Firefox is much nicer, and Safari is king of the hill (in my opinion). Mostly has to do with the UI for me, and how they render the pages in their windows.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
D
djgamble
113 months ago
Firefox is seriously one of the few apps that I find truely amazing. It has suvived attacks from Microsoft and Google and really only exists because it’s a frigging good browser.

Oh and it respects your frigging privacy, what an idea!

Netscape FOREVER!!!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NY Guitarist Avatar
NY Guitarist
113 months ago
I use Firefox and enjoy the many add-ons the tailor it to my meeds.

I HATE the new UI though :(
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacGizmo Avatar
MacGizmo
113 months ago
Still loads everything you throw at it. Still loads everything quickly. Still looks like complete and absolute garbage. Can Mozilla not find a single contributor with GUI experience that has even trace amounts of visual taste?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mileusna Avatar
mileusna
113 months ago
It still use too much resources on MacBooks (CPU i.e. battery) for simple page rendering. Bugs are opened on Bugzilla but it looks to me there is no significant progress with the new version. So next time when you hear the fans on your MacBook Pro, it is time to close the Firefox and cool off your CPU.

P.S. I'm fan of Firefox from early days, even developed some popular Firefox extensions, and I really want it to succeed, but it will drain MB battery quickly.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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