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Mozilla Releases Firefox 58 for Mac With Performance Optimizations

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Mozilla today announced the launch of Firefox 58, building upon the new "Quantum" features that were introduced in Firefox 57 back in November.

Firefox 57 introduced a redesigned interface, new UI features, speeds twice as fast as Firefox 52, and an engine that uses 30 percent less memory than Google Chrome, and Mozilla is continuing to introduce additional improvements in Firefox 58.

Firefox 58 includes updates to Gecko, Firefox's rendering engine, which are designed to streamline and speed up the browsing experience. Specific new additions include background tab throttling, a WebAssembly Streaming Compiler, and Off-Main-Thread Painting (OMTP) for a "significantly better" rendering process, with full details on the speed improvements available on the Firefox blog.

Improvements have also been made to the way CSS fonts are displayed for shorter loading times, there's a new Promise feature to reduce redundant code, and functional and privacy improvements have been made to Firefox Screenshots. Full release notes for the update are available from the Firefox website.
With this release, we're building on the great foundation provided by our all-new Firefox Quantum browser. We're optimizing the performance gains we released in 57 by improving the way we render graphics and cache JavaScript. We also made functional and privacy improvements to Firefox Screenshots. On Firefox for Android, we've added support for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) so you can add websites to your home screen and use them like native apps.
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Existing Firefox users will be able to upgrade to Firefox 58 automatically by restarting the browser. Non-Firefox users can download Firefox 58 for macOS for free from the Mozilla website.

Article Link: Mozilla Releases Firefox 58 for Mac With Performance Optimizations
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/23/firefox-58-for-mac-now-available/
It still use too much resources on MacBooks (CPU i.e. battery) for simple page rendering. Bugs are opened on Bugzilla but it looks to me there is no significant progress with the new version. So next time when you hear the fans on your MacBook Pro, it is time to close the Firefox and cool off your CPU.

P.S. I'm fan of Firefox from early days, even developed some popular Firefox extensions, and I really want it to succeed, but it will drain MB battery quickly.
 
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mileusna said:
It still use too much resources (CPU i.e. battery) for simple page rendering. Bugs are opened on Bugzilla but it looks to me there is no significant progress with the new version. So next time when you hear the fans on your MacBook Pro, it is time to close the Firefox and cool off your CPU.

P.S. I'm fan of Firefox from early days, even developed some popular Firefox extensions, and I really want it to succeed, but it will drain MB battery quickly.
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I've been using FF for quite a while but never noticed the battery drain issue. Then again I only use my rMBP on trips and usually have it plugged in while I use it. Thanks for the tip.
 
Looking forward to trying this out. Been using Firefox since Quantum and enjoy the speed. I don't enjoy the bookmark manager, however. I prefer Bookmark OS
 
mileusna said:
It still use too much resources (CPU i.e. battery) for simple page rendering. Bugs are opened on Bugzilla but it looks to me there is no significant progress with the new version. So next time when you hear the fans on your MacBook Pro, it is time to close the Firefox and cool off your CPU.

P.S. I'm fan of Firefox from early days, even developed some popular Firefox extensions, and I really want it to succeed, but it will drain MB battery quickly.
Click to expand...


Only browser that doesn't have that issue is Safari though.
 
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Martyimac said:
I've been using FF for quite a while but never noticed the battery drain issue. Then again I only use my rMBP on trips and usually have it plugged in while I use it. Thanks for the tip.
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Open just one tab and load NewYorkTimes in it and watch the Activity monitor over time. Then imagine using it regularly as default browser with multiple tabs.


Screen Shot 2018-01-24 at 00.48.42.png

Reading Bugzilla reports, not all user experience this problems (but I guess lot of users are unaware of it) and it might have something to do with retina displays, but never the less, problem still exists.
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casperes1996 said:
Only browser that doesn't have that issue is Safari though.
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True. But Chrome damage is not that severe and easily noticeable as with the new Firefox. Yes you can see the usage in Activity monitor, but it won't start up your CPU's fans on some random WordPress blog.
 
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I stopped using Firefox when it became obvious they were never gonna fix the bug that changes your browser window size after going full screen.
 
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Firefox has been my favorite browser since it was released. While Chrome beat it in speed and took over as the preferred browser, I've always like Mozilla's work. If I were using Windows 10, I would be using it for sure.

However since I switched to a MBP in late 2016, I haven't even installed Firefox nor Chrome. I saw it consume more energy than Safari on my father's and friends' MacBooks before buying mine. They also had Flash installed on their machines which is another thing I would never install on my machine. Safari is more than fast enough and imo I think it's the best browser for a MacBook Pro. If we're talking about iMacs or any other desktop Mac, then by all means use your browser of choice but battery life is precious on a notebook.
 
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mileusna said:
True. But Chrome damage is not that severe and easily noticeable as with the new Firefox. Yes you can see the usage in Activity monitor, but it won't start up your CPU's fans on some random WordPress blog.
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That depends on the page. I've had Chrome kick off the fans to what I'd call pretty high RPMs, when Safari wouldn't even take them past their idle speeds. Regardless, I don't like Chrome at all. Firefox is much nicer, and Safari is king of the hill (in my opinion). Mostly has to do with the UI for me, and how they render the pages in their windows.
 
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Vorkeyjones said:
I stopped using Firefox when it became obvious they were never gonna fix the bug that changes your browser window size after going full screen.
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That's interesting -- since Firefox has no true full screen mode on OSX. Even when you activate it there is still non-web-page content (interface elements like the menu bar, etc) visible.

My solution has been a third-party extension. It's been out of development and isn't even on the Mozilla Add-Ons site anymore (I saved the XPI file, though). But that will not work on current Firefox now (thanks Mozilla). So I've had to change to Firefox ESR.
 
I'm stuck on the previous version that allows me to use add-ons. I have several that I use regularly that are no longer supported.
 
Using Firefox from Mozilla browser days. The new Quantum (57) is an improvement in every angle from 56. It's not resource hog as Chrome or Safari, but sometimes little slower in rendering.
 
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mileusna said:
It still use too much resources on MacBooks (CPU i.e. battery) for simple page rendering. Bugs are opened on Bugzilla but it looks to me there is no significant progress with the new version. So next time when you hear the fans on your MacBook Pro, it is time to close the Firefox and cool off your CPU.

P.S. I'm fan of Firefox from early days, even developed some popular Firefox extensions, and I really want it to succeed, but it will drain MB battery quickly.
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Also, no smart tap to zoom using trackpads. Makes it unusable for me. I dislike control + all the time.
 
I've never heard my Macbook Pro's fans until I installed Firefox. 2 tabs open and it heats up like nothing else.
 
Unlike the previous poster, I have a 2015 13" rMBP and ran FF 57. at one point I had 7 tabs open and never heard the fans kick up. AND it was sitting on my lap and not hot, warm yes but not hot.
 
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Come on Mozilla... Pinch to zoom still not available....??? Can't be so hard?

I'll go with FF when Pinch to zoom will be available - and I mean real pinch to zoom - not this CMD+/- stuff and about:config changes.
 
Firefox is seriously one of the few apps that I find truely amazing. It has suvived attacks from Microsoft and Google and really only exists because it’s a frigging good browser.

Oh and it respects your frigging privacy, what an idea!

Netscape FOREVER!!!
 
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buddyspencer said:
Come on Mozilla... Pinch to zoom still not available....??? Can't be so hard?

I'll go with FF when Pinch to zoom will be available - and I mean real pinch to zoom - not this CMD+/- stuff and about:config changes.
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I had the same issue - wonder why it’s not available in the stock app. Check out this add-on, Multi-Touch Zoom: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-touch-zoom/. Not quite as slick as Chrome or Safari’s pinch to zoom because it gets slightly blurry upon the initial pinch, but then it’s smoother after each subsequent pinch.
 
Also, it's totally unwanting to restore minimised-to-the-dock windows properly. And that window-dance at startup… Are these only my experience?
 
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