Introduces support for WebGL 2 and better video performance

Jan 23, 2017 22:00 GMT  ·  By

It's not yet official, but the binary and source packages of the Firefox 51.0 web browser are now available for download on your GNU/Linux, macOS, or Microsoft Windows operating system.

Mozilla will have the pleasure of unveiling the Firefox 51.0 release tomorrow, January 24, according to the official schedule, but you can already get your hands on the final version of the web browser by downloading the installers for your favorite OS right now from our website (links are at the end of the article).

Until then, and until the official release notes become public, we'd like to tell you a little bit about what to expect if you upgrade your Firefox browser to version 51.0 today, or tomorrow when it's going to be officially released. The first thing some of you will notice is less CPU usage (yes, finally!).

According to the preliminary changelog, it would appear that Mozilla Firefox 51.0 is improving the video performance for those of us with older computers that don't have GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) acceleration. Besides using less CPU power, the new Firefox version will also offer you a better full-screen experience.

FLAC and WebGL 2 support, Skia now takes care of content rendering

Among other goodies introduced by Mozilla's developers in the Firefox 51.0 release, we can notice support for playing FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) content, a high-end gaming experience thanks to the implementation of WebGL 2 support, and the ability to view passwords before saving them in the built-in password manager.

Other than that, Firefox 51.0 will make use of the Skia 2D graphics library for content rendering, add support for saving passwords for forms that don't have "submit" events, inform users when a login page doesn't offer a secure connection, as well as provide a visual indicator in the address bar for the current zoom level used.

It also supports the Kabyle (kab) and Georgian (ka) languages, but removes the Belarusian (be) locale. You can now download Mozilla Firefox 51.0 for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems right now from our website and update your current installation as soon as possible to try the new features.