The next Firefox version promises better performance

Jul 6, 2015 09:08 GMT  ·  By

Mozilla has already announced the first Beta for Firefox 40, and it looks like Linux users are going to get some important improvements for scrolling and video playback, among other things.

Just a few days ago Mozilla launched Firefox 39 after a short delay, but it wasn't anything too exciting. Of course, a new Firefox version is always good news because the developers usually land numerous security fixes and other small changes, which are important enough to warrant the modification of a version number. From the looks of it, this new Firefox should be very different from the 39 branch because it brings a lot of new stuff, including some important improvements for the Linux edition.

Most of the changes that arrive with each new Firefox release are usually multiplatform, with a few exceptions. For example, Firefox 39 has a lot of stuff that only applied to Mac OS X. We don't usually see too many changes directed at Linux exclusively, but it's good to know that developers are working to make the Linux experience a better one.

What's new in Firefox 40

One of the main entries in the Firefox 40 changelog says, "improved scrolling, graphics, and video playback performance with off main thread compositing (GNU/Linux)." Firefox has made a name for itself of being slow and unresponsive in comparison with Google Chrome or Opera. It's not clear whether it's going to be just as fast as those two, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

Also, the developers are planning to add some sort of protection from potentially unwanted software, Suggested Tiles will show areas of interest based on stuff that you've already visited, a style is introduced for the add-on manager based on the in-content preferences style, add-on extensions that are not signed by Mozilla will display a warning, JPEG images will use less memory, and much more.

You can download Firefox 40 Beta 1 from Softpedia and give it a spin.