Another release of the popular Mozilla Firefox browser is out today. Version 49 features significant changes you may or may not like. Let's see what Mozilla developers prepared for us.
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e10s
With Firefox 49, Mozilla has started rolling out the "Electrolysis" architecture, also known as e10s or multi-process Firefox. e10s allows the browser to render every tab content in a separate process, which is independent from the main browser process. This should increase the security of the browser, make its user interface more responsive and speed up Firefox on multicore CPUs.
With Firefox 49, e10s is planned to be enabled for all users who use Firefox without add-ons. According to Mozilla, 40% of all Firefox users never use add-ons.
Firefox Hello is discontinued and removed
Firefox Hello, Mozilla's WebRTC solution for video calls integrated with the browser, is discontinued and removed starting with version 49. Initially designed as an integrated feature of the browser, it was turned into a system plugin and now is gone. Many users did not welcome Hello's deep integration with Firefox, insisting that it should always be an optional plugin. Mozilla decided to discontinue Hello back in July 2016 and finally made its decision live. Support for the underlying WebRTC platform should still be there, only Mozilla's implementation is removed.
Other changes include:
- Reader Mode can now read articles out loud.
- Reader Mode allows the user to adjust the width and line spacing of text.
- Audio and video files can now be looped using their context menu.
- Improved video performance on devices which support Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSSE3) CPU instruction set without hardware acceleration.
- Firefox Login Manager allows HTTPS pages to use saved HTTP logins.
You can use the following links to download Mozilla Firefox 49:
You might want to read the official release notes HERE.
Do you like the changes made in this release? Tell us in the comments.
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They also added the ability to verify integrity of places database to the about:support page. It’s in the bottom of that page. Its functionality is similar to what Places Maintenance addon does.
Nice finding, thanks!
When e10s will be enabled for all users, even those with lots of addons (like me), well I will stop using this browser, and continue using Palemoon only.
I really do not like it. It is too sluggish. I have a multicore Mac with a fusion drive and am running MacOS 10.12. I get a lot of spinning wheels when I do something as simple as scroll down. There is excessive delay when switching between tabs or closing tabs. I have preferred Firefox for years but Safari is faster, much faster and I am going to switch to it until the issues are resolved.