Firefox Quantum has arrived with improved speed and lower RAM usage compared to Chrome

This week, Mozilla finally began rolling out its ‘Quantum Browser' update for Firefox. Starting with Firefox 57, the browser will come with a slew of new algorithms baked in to make itself twice as fast as previous versions from earlier this year. It also uses less memory than competing browsers with a fresh new UI in place.

According to the folks over at Mozilla, Firefox Quantum is twice as fast as versions of the browser from just six months ago. The developers have overhauled the core engine and implemented new technologies to provide a fresh coat of paint, in addition to plenty of under the hood changes to improve the user experience. According to Mozilla's internal tests, Firefox now uses 30 percent less memory than Google Chrome.

You can see a quick tour of Firefox Quantum and its new features in the video below:

Core changes include a new CSS engine that takes better advantage of modern hardware with multiple cores and low power consumption. Firefox Quantum will also prioritise the tab you are actively looking at over all others, so it will be smarter when it comes to allocating resources.

In total, more than 700 authors contributed to code development, with an additional 80 volunteers also offering a helping hand. This update has taken six months, but the results seem to be paying off. The new version of Firefox is now available out of beta for Windows, Mac and Linux, meanwhile the new UI update is also available on Android and iOS.

KitGuru Says: I switched back from Firefox to Chrome sometime last year, but with these new updates, I may need to switch again to check out these improvements. They sound pretty major, and I have a habit if keeping 10-20 tabs open at once all day long, so the speed increase and memory usage reduction over Chrome should help. Do many of you currently use Firefox? Have you had a chance to check out the Quantum update yet? 

Become a Patron!