Firefox Updated With Native Support for M1 Macs, Mozilla Touts 'Dramatic Performance Improvements'

[MacRumors]

Mozilla today released Firefox version 84 with native support for Apple Silicon Macs with the M1 chip, touting "dramatic performance improvements" over the previous, unoptimized version of the web browser.

Specifically, Firefox now launches over 2.5 times faster and web apps are now twice as responsive, according to Mozilla.

If you are using a Mac with the M1 chip, Mozilla says you will need to fully exit and restart Firefox after upgrading to version 84 in order for the browser to run natively on Apple Silicon. Mozilla promises not only faster performance, but also better battery life.

Firefox 84 is also the final version to support Adobe Flash.

Apple recently shared a list of popular apps optimized for M1 Macs that are available in the Mac App Store, such as Pixelmator Pro, Adobe Lightroom, Affinity Designer, Darkroom, Fantastical, OmniFocus, BBEdit, Instapaper, and Twitter. Apple boasted that apps optimized for the M1 chip deliver "game-changing speed and capabilities."

Last month, Apple released its first Macs with the M1 chip, including a new 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini.

Article Link: Firefox Updated With Native Support for M1 Macs, Mozilla Touts 'Dramatic Performance Improvements'

 

[parth]

uninstalling google chrome, installing Firefox.

 

[macsplusmacs]

Quite the jump.

Congrats team firefox.

 

[Populus]

Good! My secondary browser is now native!

Now it's the turn of Discord app, Spotify, VLC player... and many, many others.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Good work, Mozilla. When I get my M1, I will definitely give the app a test.

 

[Andres Cantu]

Is it snappier than Safari?

 

[ikir]

My main browser is Safari but I’m also using Firefox for few problematic website. I trust Mozilla, instead Google is evil we know: https://chromeisbad.com/

Thanks for M1 build!!

 

[aednichols]

I have been running the betas and it is really great. Excited to get back on to the normal release cycle.

 

[MacBird]

In the Speedometer 2.0 browser test, Firefox 84 is a bit faster than before but not nearly as fast as Safari 14.0.2 FWIW.

 

[SWAON]

Sounds good to me, one more in the ARM list.

 

[robertcoogan]

Knew this was coming! ☺️

 

[ericg301]

can anyone confirm if the app icon is properly big sur'ed ?

 

[MRrainer]

I really wonder what kind of rabbits Intel will be able to pull out of their fab-hats.
If in two years Apple has a system to replace the MacPro, that would mean there are server-class chips in the horizon.
If Microsoft ported over stuff like SQL Server to that, it could mean tremendous cost savings for power and cooling.

That in turn could be the end of Intel as we know it.

But even the hardware available now is just too good for devs to ignore, so I expect full support from most Open Source software within a year.
And I expect most Microsoft employees regardless of which division they work for have now taken a look at it and asked themselves, once again, „Why can’t we do this?“.

This might be a „MacOS X Tiger“ moment again, where Apple has delivered on all the promises that Microsoft made.

 

[eicca]

Don't know why I took so long to try Firefox on my Mac Pro. It's leaps and bounds faster than Safari.

 

[Steve121178]

can anyone confirm if the app icon is properly big sur'ed ?

Nope, sorry.

 

[ericg301]

Nope, sorry.

aww come on!

 

[greenmeanie]

Mine runs just as well as before with the Update.
I don't notice a difference.

 

[greenmeanie]

Don't know why I took so long to try Firefox on my Mac Pro. It's leaps and bounds faster than Safari.

And Firefox popup blockers actually work.

 

[JoeShades]

uninstalling google chrome, installing Firefox.

Firefox is my browser but I have come to the realization it will be gone in a few years.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Wonder when Brave will be ready? I've been using the nightly build, which is M1-optimized, but curious about the final version.

 

[scuac]

Firefox is my browser but I have come to the realization it will be gone in a few years.

What makes you think that?

 

[JoeShades]

What makes you think that?

Market share continues to drop and most of their revenue comes from google

 

[peneaux]

Good! My secondary browser is now native!

Now it's the turn of Discord app, Spotify, VLC player... and many, many others.

Try IINA instead of VLC. It's better.

IINA - The modern media player for macOS

 

[iObama]

Stoked to see this! Hoping they do a Big Sur interface refresh soon. The boxiness is killing me lol.

 

[InGen]

I love using Safari but it’s lack of support for viewing .webm files is very annoying! Will give Firefox another chance after years using chrome when my m1 MacBook arrives. Mozilla have made big and public commitments to user privacy so I think they deserve our attention