Firefox 7 Aurora Boasts Big Memory Usage Improvements

A couple of days after the code migration from the mozilla-central repository, where active development is done, to the Aurora channel, the first officially vetted Firefox 7 Aurora builds have surfaced. If you've been using the Firefox Aurora channel, you will be automatically updated, otherwise you can grab it from the links below.

"The latest Firefox Aurora release is now available for users to experience the future of Firefox. This release is focused on delivering performance enhancements and optimizing memory utilization," Mozilla announced.

"It also includes new Web and server technology and tools that will allow developers to build performance tests directly into the browser to help Firefox become even faster!," it added.

One of the big new features, if you can call it that, in Firefox 7 Aurora is a memory leak patch that greatly improves memory performance. Firefox not only uses up less memory, usage doesn't go up over time.

Longer browsing sessions will now feel as snappy and fresh as when you first launch Firefox. You can read more about the improvements and how the team got there here.

That's not the only improvement on the performance front, Firefox 7 also boasts faster startup time on all supported platforms, Windows, Mac and Linux.

Mozilla also lists better font rendering as one of the improvements in Firefox 7. Firefox Sync has been improved as well in the new release, bookmarks and passwords now sync instantly.

If you're running Windows Vista or 7, you may also notice a huge improvement in Canvas applications. Firefox 7 now uses the Azure Direct2D for Canvas engine which greatly improves performance in this area.

Now that Firefox 7 has landed in the Aurora channel, Firefox 6 should be moving to the Beta channel very soon.

Firefox for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox for Linux is available for download here.
Firefox for Mac is available for download here.