It is no secret that I’m a huge fan of Mozilla, the organization, and their browser, Firefox. The reasons are pretty clear, it’s a decent browser, comes with tonnes of customization capabilities, is backed by an organization who’s business model doesn’t involve knowing each little detail about you as a person, and is made and backed by the free software community.
I used the word decent, and not great or amazing, because it is not. It isn’t as fast as Chromium, feels sluggish and looks outdated. The other advantages still remain, but the impatient Internet citizen of 2017 isn’t going to take a slower browser for idealogical reasons. And I’m feeling extremely proud to tell you this is exactly what Mozilla got right this time. Firefox 57 isn’t just a little cosmetic update to the previous build (although I would’ve even celebrated a cosmetic update), it is like the first major upgrade Firefox received in years. And guess what, it is fast. Very fast. Chromium fast.
I’ve started using the beta (the stable should come out in November), and it feels pretty solid. The UI is more fluidic, rounded corners in tabs are replaced by more modern rectangular ones, the preferences page is all changed and so have most things. If you’re a long time Firefox user, this update is going to feel like a dream. If you’re a Chrome user, then well, you’ll feel some similarities, right at home, but now you have the usual power of a free software. You can see a comparison video posted by Firefox a few days ago below.
If this interests you, find out more about Firefox Quantum by clicking here. I really liked it, and I’m sure you will too. Just give it a try. Download it via this page that lets you select a build for you operating system and locale.