Upcoming Firefox 57 ("Quantum") is twice as fast as Firefox 52

[gronf]

Actually, I said it was clearly "snappier", but I had an old-ass install of Firefox, like at least 2 years old - a new install alone would make a significant difference, right? So maybe it's not much faster, oops.

BTW, just googled "snappy" and seems it doesn't mean what I thought it did, oops again.

 

[Orcvader]

Actually, I said it was clearly "snappier", but I had an old-ass install of Firefox, like at least 2 years old - a new install alone would make a significant difference, right? So maybe it's not much faster, oops.

BTW, just googled "snappy" and seems it doesn't mean what I thought it did, oops again.

Should do, you can just "win + R" and run "firefox.exe -p" which will bring up the Firefox profile manager, create a second profile and see how it runs with that before you reset Firefox.

I'm still confused why Firefox's recommended content processes is still 1 for both my work PC, and my recently rebuilt desktop. Raised it up to the max and I'm seeing a significant performance boost. It's only on my Surface that the proper default 4 appears .

 

[Glanza]

Is that to do with how many cores FF will use? I thought the new version had been built to make use of multicores from the get go?

 

[gronf]

Should do, you can just "win + R" and run "firefox.exe -p" which will bring up the Firefox profile manager, create a second profile and see how it runs with that before you reset Firefox.

Thanks again. I heard about creating multiple profiles but never tried it. Already uninstalled the old one, but I'll try to remember to test it in the future. For now, I want to believe that this is really significantly faster

 

[Orcvader]

Is that to do with how many cores FF will use? I thought the new version had been built to make use of multicores from the get go?

It's how many processes Firefox will have. Firefox itself on a single process is still multi threaded, but if something went wrong such as a bad webpage slowing FF down, it will affect the whole browser. This was the main reason why I moved to Chrome a couple of years ago, as websites were getting more heavier, FF started hanging more and in some cases crashed. Having multiple processes means FF's workload will be split to different processes, so for example if a tab crashed, it won't affect the whole browser. Also, as a benefit, multiple processes means better use of multiple cores compared to a single process being forced to be as multi threaded as possible.

Quantum is not finished yet, when Quantum WebRender hits it'll allow Firefox to make better use of GPUs so if you have a good GPU, FF should really fly on your system especially on a super heavy site.

EDIT: This blog explains content processes better: https://medium.com/mozilla-tech/the...irefox-may-be-just-right-for-you-1f520506aa35

 

[Glanza]

Hmm has the support for killing just the tab been added? It's one of the reasons why I also prefered Chrome as I generally have multiple tabs open or is there a way to enable it?

 

[Mekrel]

One thing I'm missing from Chrome is the ability for whole webpages to be translated on the fly, there does appear to be translation extensions for Firefox but these only translate words/phrases you select on the page. Is there an extension or setting I'm missing? I can't see anything relating to translation in the settings.

 

[jpaul]

no extension needed - just put following in a bookmark and click whilst viewing page (should still work w/57)

javascript:var%20t=((window.getSelection&&window.getSelection())||(document.getSelection&&document.getSelection())||(document.selection&&document.selection.createRange&&document.selection.createRange().text));var%20e=(document.charset||document.characterSet);if(t!=''){location.href='http://translate.google.com/?text='...ref)+'&hl=en&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie='+e;};

 

[Glanza]

Good to know it's not just me then.

Fixed it, you need to install a dictionary file for English or the language you require. I've used this one:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/british-english-dictionary-2/

 

[darael]

Has anyone else's Favicons changes in the address bar?

 

[opethdisciple]

Fixed it, you need to install a dictionary file for English or the language you require. I've used this one:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/british-english-dictionary-2/

Yep on my Win 10 box I installed the same. But my point was on this work Win 7 machine the spell checker is working without the need to install a dictionary add-on.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Ditched chrome, FFQ is way more responsive and looks better now with the dark theme. Youtube 4k makes more use of the gpu than chrome meaning less cpu use.

 

[opethdisciple]

Ditched chrome, FFQ is way more responsive and looks better now with the dark theme. Youtube 4k makes more use of the gpu than chrome meaning less cpu use.

I've made the switch too. But it's probably the case that Chrome is still the more secure browser.

More advanced sandboxing and tab isolation.

Anyway it's nice to be using FF again. I only originally left as I got fed up of FF's performance issues.

 

[Orcvader]

One thing I'm missing from Chrome is the ability for whole webpages to be translated on the fly, there does appear to be translation extensions for Firefox but these only translate words/phrases you select on the page. Is there an extension or setting I'm missing? I can't see anything relating to translation in the settings.

Personally using this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/open-in-google-translate/

You can right click anywhere and select open page in translate.

Has anyone else's Favicons changes in the address bar?

Noticed that as well. Doesn't seem to match the favicon being shown in the tab bar either:

 

[darael]

I have discovered the light theme and much prefer it to the dark/black theme.

Below is what I mean about my Favicons. How it should be displayed is shown in the tab. None is shown in the address bar - until I click the drop down and the OcUK link in the list is wrong.

 

[marc2003]

I mentioned this on the previous page back in September when I was using the beta. The icons on the bookmarks bar are minified versions of the tiles you get on mobile browsers.

 

[Glanza]

So far so good, think I'll make the switch on my home PC once Noscript is out (hopefully by end of week)

What other addons are a must for people?

So far I've got:

Ublock origin,
Lastpass,
HTTPS Everywhere,
RES though that looks like it needs a update to fully work ok.

 

[Mekrel]

no extension needed - just put following in a bookmark and click whilst viewing page (should still work w/57)

I pasted that code into the location field of a new bookmark, but clicking on it didn't do anything unfortunately. Not sure if I'm doing it wrong or not.

Personally using this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/open-in-google-translate/

You can right click anywhere and select open page in translate.

Thanks, that works quite nicely as it loads the site into a new tab through Google Translate and any links you click are also then translated. I tried a few other addons that were hit and miss.

 

[zom247]

Forgot all about this update till I logged on this morning. My Mrs used it last and must have updated it, now I've lost 4 of my addons. However, I can get away without some of them but the 2 I use most are Flashgot and nzbfox. Not sure when/if they'll be updated and don't really want to go back to an earlier version if I can help it, has anyone got any alternatives to these 2 I can use instead? Apart from that I think it's faster than before.

 

[Armadillo]

I got this yesterday, switched over to the esr version (still gets security updates), just delaying the inevitable I guess, but no classic theme restorer, no deal. Should just give an option for the classic look. Hate the new look, hated the look before this as well.