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From Firefox's faster, slicker, slimmer Quantum edition now out
[...] Collectively, the performance work being done to modernize Firefox is called Project Quantum. We took a closer look at Quantum back when Firefox 57 hit the developer channel in September, but the short version is, Mozilla is rebuilding core parts of the browser, such as how it handles CSS stylesheets, how it draws pages on-screen, and how it uses the GPU.
This work is being motivated by a few things. First, the Web has changed since many parts of Firefox were initially designed and developed; pages are more dynamic in structure and applications are richer and more graphically intensive. JavaScript is also more complex and difficult to debug. Second, computers now have many cores and simultaneous threads, giving them much greater scope to work in parallel. And security remains a pressing concern, prompting the use of new techniques to protect against exploitation. Some of the rebuilt portions are even using Mozilla's new Rust programming language, which is designed to offer improved security compared to C++.
Also at: Firefox aims to win back Chrome users with its souped up Quantum browser
The fastest version of Firefox yet is now live
(Score: 2) by Shimitar on Thursday November 16 2017, @12:28PM (9 children)
Personally i have given up on Firefox such long ago. I already wrote about it in the past, and i do not want to annoy anybody again.
Anyway, the point is... Firefox is just a memory. I switched to Chrome on all my platforms by now and i am fully happy with the change. While i am a power user, i never felt the need for tons of extensions or plugins. I have UBlock Origin, UMatrix and Ghostery, and that's it, by needs are fully covered. I am not a web dev, if this helps.
I am truly sorry for Firefox, it used to be the best and it had potential to still be the best and keep leading the race. Now it's the last horse (maybe on par with edge, don't know, never used it) without any hope to recover because Google pushed Chrome, which is quite good, and Microsoft Edge. Firefox will decline at the same level of Opera, which is still a good browser, can't say if it is better or worse than latest firefox.
It seems to me most of people who used Firefox are slowly going away, and i don't see any reason somebody new should start using it with the current choices. I am sad i had to abandon Firefox myself... but it's really no going back, because there is simply nothing special about it anymore. They moved too close to Chrome and lost it all there.
Coding is an art. No, java is not coding. Yes, i am biased, i know, sorry if this bothers you.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @01:16PM
Firefox has only themselves to blame.
Here should have been their priorities:
Job #1: make a performant, standards compliant browser
Job #2: there is no job 2
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Thursday November 16 2017, @02:34PM (3 children)
I just spent a couple of hours to finally switch from FF to Chromium, because this time FF broke my start page (netvibes.com), which now works fine in Chromium with exactly the same extensions enabled. But I hate Chrome(ium) because there's no "always open in a new window" option. I hate tabs from the day they were forced on me and up to now I've been able to avoid them mostly. With Chromium I now have to for ever right-click to open everything in its own window.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday November 16 2017, @02:59PM (2 children)
I often open in new windows. Mostly, I use separate windows rather than tabs, and so I find the Hide Tab Bar With One Tab add on fairly important. That used to be an option in Firefox itself, then they removed it and told everyone who wanted it to use that extension instead, and now they've broken that extension too.
BTW, I find this "extension" and "add on" terminology needlessly confusing. They appear to be the same thing, why does Firefox use different names? Before you add it, it's called an "add on", after you add it, it's called an "extension". Why? Could that date from the time Java was a somewhat popular and very, very large add on? Seems version 57 was a good time to unify on a single term.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Thursday November 16 2017, @03:26PM
I just found an extension that opens everything in a new window instead of tabs: Tab-less. Works great, now looking for an extension that will hide the useless tab bar.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @09:00AM
Not entirely. From the way the menu is layout, it appears that the definition is:
There are two kind of add-ons: Plugins and extensions. Plugins are things like Flash, Java and Silverlight. Extensions are Javascript based.
Three kinds if you count "personas", the themes that aren't full extensions.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @04:09PM
Frankly the Firefox kicks ass, and if you care at all about privacy, then Firefox is the way to go.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday November 16 2017, @04:19PM (2 children)
Have you tried Vivaldi?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @07:18PM
It's proprietary trash.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @07:31PM
what kind of blundering ignoramus uses a proprietary browser (in the 21rst century!) to surf the web?