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In the life of a tech aficionado, there are many old favorites, i.e. programs you stay faithful to even in the presence of better alternatives. For years, my favorite browser has been Firefox. Not owned by a large corporation, reasonably fast and with support for countless good extensions, Firefox was my go-to-browser until, eventually, sand got in the gears. The visuals hadn't been updated for years, display errors kept coming up and the speed was hardly on par with the available alternatives. I made the switch and, with a heavy heart, put Firefox on the scrap heap along with my old love, Netscape. Did I grieve too soon? Version 57 promises nothing less than a revolution. Is this the return to its old strength?
Firefox Quantum, as it's officially known, was announced with a lot of hoopla as being "the biggest update of all time" with over 7 million revised lines of code. I take such announcements with a grain of salt. After all, every company is vying for attention. Yet, I can tell from the get-go that things have indeed changed! The interface, which hadn't been touched since 2014, suddenly appears modern and reduced to the bare minimum. The start page alone offers a lot (if you decide to keep it): a search box, the most frequently visited sites, the recent browsing history and Pocket, a news service that keeps you up to date on current affairs. Time for a trial run.
As promised by Mozilla, this thing's a screamer! Since this is a new installation, all previously cached files have been removed, yet I can definitely feel a speed boost compared to the sluggish predecessor! The usual teething problems like minor display errors that dog so many new products are nowhere to be found and a closer look at the resource usage reveals that Quantum requires at least 30% less memory than Chrome for similar pages. Finally, the Firefox team also managed to distribute the workload evenly across all available cores and it definitely shows. The tab that has the focus is always prioritized while background tabs consume far less resources. That's smart handling - and it cleverly maxes out the connection bandwidth for incredibly fast page loads even for sites that make heavy use of animations and images. Respect!
Traditionalists may find the new symbols (library, sidebar etc.) too minimalistic but they get the job done and don't take much getting used to. The extensions page shows me that all my extensions are compatible with Quantum. Lucky me! My favorites have already been updated but especially smaller plug-ins aren't compatible (yet) according to tech forums. That is to be expected since much has been changed under the hood but it's still a fly in the ointment. In the coming weeks, developers of popular add-ons will have to update their projects to work with what is not just a major update but a completely new browser.
Visible pride in new found speed
Firefox now sports a cleaner layout, dubbed "Photon" by Mozilla, that features logically grouped elements. Settings are arranged in rows instead of columns and everything feels more consistent. "Library" provides a concise list of bookmarks, downloads, the browsing history and synced tabs. The symbol bar is still customizable and touch-friendliness is no longer an issue. Also, cross-site tracking prevention has been directly integrated into the browser so there's no more need for additional software. Like Safari, Firefox Quantum comes with dedicated privacy features that are enabled by default for private browsing but can also be activated for regular web browsing windows under "Privacy & Security".
I had already written off Mozilla but they managed to surprise me. The overall feel is just right and we might be looking at a huge comeback. Whether it can fully replace my beloved Opera is for future tests to find out but that they got me thinking at all is an achievement in itself. To be clear, Firefox isn't running circles around the top dogs in terms of speed or looks even though some media outlets can't seem to stop hyperventilating. But all the effort Mozilla put into it in an attempt to catch up to the competition is truly noticeable. Firefox isn't backed by a huge corporation and competition is always good for business. That alone might be reason enough to consider switching!
What I would like to know: are you using or thinking of using Firefox (again)?
Pics: Firefox / Mozilla
the useful tools are gone, forced cloud password and bookmark storage. Cloud? give them your data so they can sell it elsewhere, or haha, sell it back to you when things go wrong. I use SR Iron and startpage. EPIC Browser, sometimes Opera. Linux distros, and 6 different computers of various manufacture, or home built. I started using computers and ARPANET in1978. Nothing is safe. I will have a different IP when I log on tomorrow. Store my stuff on different servers, 2, I own. MS DOS, DR DOS, DEC, all gone. Calea, Scorpion and others even before we get to the others. Be careful out there.
I totally disagree. Firefox has turned into a memory hog. Perhaps those with a new system with all the bells and whistles might see some improvement somewhere, but for me, I am done with Firefox. I never particularly cared for Google Chrome, but with this latest update, Firefox just doesn't cut it any more.
There seem to be two camps of Firefox users: those who find the latest version to be great (and much faster) and those who experience issues and non-functioning or missing addons. That's why your comments are so important. Thank you for that!
So far I'm still using Chrome as my main browser, because it syncs all my settings across multiple PCs.
But from what I can tell, Firefox is faster at loading (some?) web pages, eg GMail - the loading bar screen takes a lot less time.
(I know, Firefox can sync settings as well. But first I'd have to copy them all from Chrome. I might do that sometime, but I haven't yet)
I have been using Firefox for some considerable time and was happy with it even though slow. I will be interested in this new version when I get it installed.
I used it now and will keep using it.
Harold
Yes' it would be nice to see it again.
Yes
My old favourite too Latterly binned. You give me hope Sven so I will try again
I never left Firefox.
Prefer it to any other.
Speed is a bonus, but when it fits don't change it!
I never stopped using firefox as my default browser. Sometimes I would use another just for fun. In a few instances, I used another browser simply because some site was optimized for it. One site which refused to work with firefox, so I would switch accordingly, on a very temporary basis.
Overall, I've enjoyed using firefox, and continue to support mozilla. Healthy competition is good for all.
I use Firefox on my new HP laptop with no problem. However, my friend has a new Acer tower and I installed Firefox for her and when she tries to access bookmarks I saved to her Bookmark toolbar, she gets the message that the site is insecure and Firefox won't allow her to proceed to those sites. But...they obviously were accessible for me to set them up as Bookmarks. I don't understand why now, Firefox is blocking access to them. No settings were changed, so what's the problem? Other than that, I love the new Firefox and have found it much faster than the previous versions...and also very user-friendly,
I also started with Netscape and switched to Firefox. lately I've been experimenting with Chrome but I don't like new things. The Firefox update is appreciated.
I have used Firefox for quite a long time, the reason being that Outlook had too many advertising's. You are quite right that Firefox got a little annoying for a short time but has now updated the program to make it even better than before and by the looks of it, it is going to get even better, because of that I intend to stay with Firefox and have agreed to give a $5.00 donation monthly to help them along. Thank you for all the news you send me. Regards Dick Sindholt.
"The usual teething problems like minor display errors that dog so many new products are nowhere to be found"
I beg to differ. They now only allow add-ins with menu bars to be along the bottom, no longer along the top. Problem is, when I put the Roboform menu bar down there, Firefox does not compensate for it in page layout, and the menu bar covers up part of the main screen, including things like "OK" buttons on forms. Very annoying.
But BY FAR the most annoying thing was the way there was NO WARNING that the 57 'update' would permanently disable 95% of my carefully curated over the years add-ins and they would all stop working with no way to revert.
Yes, it's speedier, but as I told them in an angry email, if I'm forced to start over anyway, I'm going to give Chrome a try. This kind of obnoxious behavior by the developers should not be in any way rewarded.
will try it out once launched. But will stick with chrome and opera. used to my favourite browser.
The tabs in the new Firefox crash a lot. About approximately once every few minutes. Very annoying.
Until the recent change, I enjoyed using Firefox. Unfortunately, the recent change has left me with a very sluggish browser that also crashes and freezes and leaves me very frustrated. Tread carefully. I have had to switch to EDGE.
Helllaaaloojaaa praise the lord. I like you was a avid Netscape user, then Firefox, I also seriously dislike Microsoft and Goggle and long for the days when we had "CHOICE", I will certainly be giving this a go.
I like it to be honest. However I have one gripe. For some reason they did a cosmetic change and moved the 'home page' icon to the other side (which has me cussing because I keep going to the original location before I remember it moved)
Have always used Firefox. Remain a confirmed user.
Yes, really nice update.
Once again, however, they have insisted on making it EVEN HARDER to have Tabs Below. You would think that with such a customizable browser that someone would actually realise that there are still a lot of us that just do not like Tabs on top.
Instead, we have a zillion ways of doing everything else.
So the jury is still out for me, although I wait patiently for the add-ons to catch up and provide me with Classic view (okay I'm just an old stick in the mud).
Cheers
I’ll go back and give it a try
Not Firefox, but SeaMonkey (also by Mozilla.)
What goes into Firefox will find its way into SeaMonkey, so this is Good News!
I don't find it any faster. It looks fancier but it comes with opportunities to do things that I don't need.