Firefox 57 (aka Quantum) out now. Huge performance improvements.

[pyrojoe34]

So Firefox 57 is finally out and I have to say I personally really like it.

 

Article

 

From Mozilla:

Quote

The first thing you’ll notice is the speed. Go on, open some tabs and have some fun. The second thing you’ll notice is the new User Interface (UI).

 

Quote

We made many, many performance improvements in the browser’s core and shipped a new CSS engine, Stylo, that takes better advantage of today’s hardware with multiple cores that are optimized for low power consumption. We’ve also improved Firefox so that the tab you’re on gets prioritized over all others, making better use of your valuable system resources.

 

A few things I have noticed already:

-It feels a lot faster overall, everything is just snappier.

-Uses less RAM than before, and way less than Chrome.

- I have been noticing it is a lot more power efficient as well. Watching a 4k video on Youtube used to draw about 160W and now sits at 140-145W (idle is ~138W so basically at idle). This may mean improved battery life for laptops but I haven't tested that yet.

-On my old shitty laptop I could not play youtube above 1080p without stuttering and frame drops. It can now playback 1440p smoothly and without any dropped frames.

 

I think they really delivered on this one. I have always preferred Firefox due to their privacy policies (much much better than Chrome or Edge) and now the performance is also better. Firefox is my main browser (except for Netflix which requires Edge to get 1080p/4k, Chrome and Firefox can only do 720p for some dumb reason).

 

What do you guys think of the update?

[dalekphalm]

Just updated my work computer - switching back from Chrome to FF57 to test it out.

 

Been running it for a couple hours now, and so far no complaints.

 

I've yet to try YouTube though, so my final remarks are still coming.

[FoxPro]

Haven't gotten the chance to update yet, still doing some work and can't restart the browser, will also report back on any possible battery life improvements as well.

[Guest]

I was just about to fire the fox and begrudgingly move to chrome. Quantum really saved it. Didn't want to move, now I don't have to.

[Coaxialgamer]

Isn't it just the beta ? The website is only showing the beta , nightly and dev editions atm

[Bouzoo]

Just now, Coaxialgamer said:

Isn't it just the beta ? The website is only showing the beta , nightly and dev editions atm

Try going here.

[dalekphalm]

Just now, Coaxialgamer said:

Isn't it just the beta ? The website is only showing the beta , nightly and dev editions atm

Nope - this is the public launch.

 

I just went to About and ran the update, and it went to 57. The website might not be updated yet?

[pyrojoe34]

1 minute ago, Coaxialgamer said:

Isn't it just the beta ? The website is only showing the beta , nightly and dev editions atm

No, final version is out now. Just open Firefox, click "about" and click update.

[Shakaza]

I forced myself to switch to this new version from Google Chrome, and so far, I am very satisfied. I don't have any concrete benchmarking methods, but from my experience, it seems to be around the same speed as Chrome, but is faster in some areas and slightly slower in others. It feels very responsive overall.

 

One complaint I have is that I don't like Firefox's implementation of smooth scrolling. It's fine in Google Chrome, but it feels laggy in Firefox. But in Firefox, I DO have the option to disable it, which makes everything crisp and snappy again.

 

Oh, I also like the memory usage in Firefox; it's a lot better than Chrome. With my usual tabs open, which often includes video, Chrome will use around 2.6-3 GB, while Firefox uses just about 2. I will need to do some more examination to understand the full scope of the difference, so my word is not final.

 

I would recommend that everyone try it out for themselves. Browsers are a subjective experience, so you're not going to glean all the info you need from a rando on the internet telling you what for.

[vorticalbox]

my target platform is chrome stable at work so I'm unable to use FF as so features don't work. I di really like it I've been running for a while now. 

[Shakaza]

4 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Nope - this is the public launch.

 

I just went to About and ran the update, and it went to 57. The website might not be updated yet?

I wonder if it varies by timezone. @LAwLz had a status update earlier where they talked about the update, and in such a way that would suggest it was released, but it was around 8:00 A.M. local time for me, and it wasn't out yet. In about an hour and a half, though, I was able to update to the public release version.

[Bouzoo]

So um... how do you import bookmarks from Chrome? They changed things, can't find the import option anywhere. 

 

EDIT: Found it.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Bouzoo

[Coaxialgamer]

1 minute ago, Bouzoo said:

So um... how do you import bookmarks from Chrome? They changed things, can't find the import option anywhere. 

bookmarks>show all bookmarks>import and backup>import data from another browser

[ProjectBox153]

I've been using the Nightly beta for a while, and I've been really impressed with the new UI. 

[Bouzoo]

1 minute ago, Coaxialgamer said:

bookmarks>show all bookmarks>import and backup>import data from another browser

Yeah managed to find it. Browsing 101 there. 

[ScratchCat]

1 minute ago, Bouzoo said:

So um... how do you import bookmarks from Chrome? They changed things, can't find the import option anywhere. 

Bookmarks -> Show all bookmarks -> Import and backup -> Import data from another browser.

 

19 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

- I have been noticing it is a lot more power efficient as well. Watching a 4k video on Youtube used to draw about 160W and now sits at 140-145W (idle is ~138W so basically at idle). This may mean improved battery life for laptops but I haven't tested that yet.

 

They have moved a lot to hardware acceleration and have been fixing issues off late. Now my R9 290 does not boost to 947 MHz in order to watch a 360p video. I have also noticed that the fan on my laptop remains at a lower RPM with 57, the webcontent process or whatever it was called no longer uses 15% CPU when a video is playing.

 

[MyName13]

On Android, why does Google search engine look so much better on Google chrome than on Firefox (why do they look different at all?Both should look the same)?

[Guest]

Someone else had an topic about firefox 57 already. Tried it, and my first search was on how to go back. Really dislike the looks/no support for classic skin stuff.

[Bouzoo]

16 minutes ago, Shakaza said:

One complaint I have is that I don't like Firefox's implementation of smooth scrolling. It's fine in Google Chrome, but it feels laggy in Firefox. But in Firefox, I DO have the option to disable it, which makes everything crisp and snappy again.

Yeah, never liked it myself. It feels kind of nauseating after some time. And without it it's even worse for me. Is there an add-on on to improve it (reduce delay)?

[GoodBytes]

I have been using it for a while now (well beta version), and it is amazing!

I think Firefox is back on the map with this web browser.

[AdmiralMeowmix]

The fact that some of my fav add ons no longer, and will never, work anymore makes me use WaterFox instead. Until they re-allow creators to make UI changes and better customizability I wont be using FF:Q.

[Shakaza]

3 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

Yeah, never liked it myself. It feels kind of nauseating after some time. And without it it's even worse for me. Is there an add-on on to improve it (reduce delay)?

I honestly have no idea. I haven't used Firefox in years until now, so I'm not exactly experienced. And a lot of plugins have become outdated because of this huge update. I may search around later today. I forgot to mention that I don't like Firefox without smooth scrolling quite as much as Chrome WITH it, so it would be nice if there was something that made it as nice as it is for Chrome.

[ScratchCat]

5 minutes ago, Dutch-stoner said:

Someone else had an topic about firefox 57 already. Tried it, and my first search was on how to go back. Really dislike the looks/no support for classic skin stuff.

If you mean Classic Theme Restorer then the square tabs are back or get a theme. If you dislike the layout then just customise it, you can rearrange most of the UI to suit your needs.

[Bouzoo]

Just now, Shakaza said:

I honestly have no idea. I haven't used Firefox in years until now, so I'm not exactly experienced. And a lot of plugins have become outdated because of this huge update. I may search around later today. I forgot to mention that I don't like Firefox without smooth scrolling quite as much as Chrome WITH it, so it would be nice if there was something that made it as nice as it is for Chrome.

If you find anything let me know

[Shakaza]

Just now, Bouzoo said:

If you find anything let me know

Will do! o/