14 DAY TRIAL // As expected, Mozilla released today the Firefox 59.0 "Quantum" web browser for all supported platforms, including GNU/Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows.
Packed with dozens of performance enhancements, the Firefox 59 web browser introduces faster page load times by loading the cache stored on the user’s computer or the networked cache, faster loading of the Firefox Home content, and better graphics rendering on macOS by using OMTP (Off-Main-Thread Painting).
Firefox Screenshots received support for basic annotations so you can highlight saved screenshots and draw on them, as well as the ability to re-crop the viewable section of the saved screenshot. Users can now drag-and-drop Top Sites on the Firefox Home page to rearrange them and customize the tabs and new windows.
The RTC (Real-time Communications) capabilities of the web browser were improved as well in this release with a new RTP Transceiver function to offer greater control over calls to web pages and support large-scale conferences. In addition, Firefox 59 enhances the WebExtensions API with better support for decentralized protocols.
New privacy controls, other improvements
As we reported last month, Firefox 59 adds several privacy options that allow you block new requests asking to access your camera, microphone or location, as well as the notification system. You can toggle the new privacy options in the new dialog of each of the Camera, Microphone, Location, and Notification settings under Permissions.
Firefox 59 ships with W3C specs support for pointer events, including touch screens, pens, and mice, adds the Ecosia search engine for German Firefox and the Qwant search engine for French Firefox, and updated the Firefox Private Browsing Mode to prevent cross-site tracking by removing path information from referrers.
Various security fixes are present as well in Mozilla Firefox 59.0, which you can download right now for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems through our web portal, or update your installations via the OTA (Over-the-Air) update system. Also, check out the screenshot gallery below for more details.
