Firefox Quantum Arrives to Challenge Google Chrome

Mozilla has released Firefox 57, codenamed Quantum, into the wild. This is the most ambitious version of Firefox released in a long time. It’s faster, better-looking, more streamlined, and more useful, and it may be able to give Chrome a run for its money. It certainly uses less RAM.

In terms of web browsers, Firefox was once the big daddy. But now Google Chrome enjoys a 55 percent share of the market, and Firefox is down in third, behind Safari. Rather than carry on releasing incremental updates, Mozilla has taken a risk with a bold new version of Firefox…

Firefox Quantum Is Flat Out Better

Firefox Quantum has been built from the ground up, with Mozilla pulling out all of the stops to get back in the game. Mozilla claims Firefox Quantum is “the biggest update we’ve had since we launched Firefox 1.0 in 2004,” and “just flat out better in every way”. And this may well be true.

The most obvious improvement is the speed, with Mozilla claiming Quantum is “twice as fast as Firefox from 6 months ago”. However, thanks to Quantum using multiple CPU cores, and a new CSS engine built in Rust, Quantum actually uses less resources than older versions of Firefox.

As well as the technical improvements, Firefox Quantum looks better too. This is thanks to a new user interface called Photon, which boasts a modern, minimalist design, square tabs, and smooth animations. The result is a clean UI which makes other browsers look dated by comparison.

Anyone already using Firefox should be automatically upgraded to Quantum. Everyone else can try it for themselves on Windows, Mac, or Linux, on Android or on iOS. Mozilla is keen to point out this is just the start for this next-generation of Firefox too, with more to come in the future.

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