14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla has released Firefox 40 for the Linux platform, and it brings better scrolling, graphics, and video playback performance for this particular operating system, among many other changes.
Before we get started, you need to know that the links we are providing are the official ones, from Mozilla's servers. Just because Mozilla follows a specific schedule for the official release doesn't mean they don't upload the files ahead of time on their servers. The official launch date is scheduled for today, so Mozilla's plans are not exactly a secret.
Unlike the users of other platforms, Linux users usually wait until the latest version of Firefox reaches their repositories. It's possible to install Firefox on Linux from the source package, but very few people do that. Also, developers provide binaries for Firefox that allow users to just run the application, without having to install it. As you can imagine, that can create some problems if you run the two versions at the same time, the one you have installed and the one that you just downloaded.
Mozilla Firefox 40 is important for Linux users
The main lines in the Firefox release notes are about compatibility with Windows 10, so it's not really something that you would call interesting. On the other hand, if you go a few rows down, you find another entry that makes Firefox 40 the version that you need to get on Linux.
"Improved scrolling, graphics, and video playback performance with off main thread compositing (GNU/Linux only)," the release notes say.
According to the changelog, the add-on manager has been redesigned with style used by Preferences, the Suggested Tiles now show sites of interest based on browser history, the Add-on extensions that are not signed by Mozilla will now display a warning, JPEG images now use less memory when scaled, and a number of developer-centric changes have been made.
Make sure that you read the entire changelog at the bottom of the article in order to find out what changes the new version brings to the table.
You can download Firefox 40 right now from Softpedia. The Windows and Mac OS X counterparts can be found at the same location.