A new version of the app is now available for Windows users

Jul 5, 2014 07:09 GMT  ·  By

Mozilla is indeed working on a 64-bit version of Firefox for Windows users, but some third-party developers out there moved a little bit faster and already brought out 64-bit browsers based on Mozilla's very own engine.

This is the case of Waterfox, whose developers claim is the fastest 64-bit browser out there. The application today reached version 30 after a long time of inactivity, which made many believe that the project could be abandoned.

Well, it wasn’t, and Waterfox 30 is here for all Windows users who'd like to install a 64-bit browser and thus benefit from enhanced stability and performance, taking advantage of the newest technologies and OS features.

Release notes are yet to be disclosed, but we've already installed the app and everything seems to work amazingly well, so you should really give it a shot if you're looking for a full-featured 64-bit browser.

Competition in this particular side of the software market is becoming fiercer, as Google recently unveiled its very own 64-bit Chrome builds, promising to bring significant improvements in terms of speed, reliability, and security.

Google said that Chrome 64-bit, which is currently part of the developer and canary channels, would come with a speed improvement of around 25 percent as compared to the standard builds, mostly thanks to the new features that are available in modern operating systems such as Windows 7 and Windows 8.

"With Chrome able to take advantage of the latest OS features such as High Entropy ASLR on Windows 8, security is improved on 64-bit platforms as well. Those extra bits also help us better defend against exploitation techniques such as JIT spraying, and improve the effectiveness of our existing security defense features like heap partitioning," Google said.

The 64-bit version of Chrome, however, is a little buggy right now, but that's clearly to be expected since it is still part of the developer channel. The full build is projected to hit the market sometime in the next few months, most likely in August or September.

As for Waterfox, there's no doubt that it clearly brings major improvements as far as speed and reliability is concerned, and existing users know this very well. The app never crashes and works like a charm on 64-bit builds of Windows 7 and Windows 8, but older OS versions are also supported.

Overall, this new release is clearly worth a chance, so go ahead and download Waterfox 30 right now to see what it brings new to a software market that's getting more crowded these days.