14 DAY TRIAL // Now that Mozilla released the final Firefox 60 "Quantum" web browser, it's time for them to concentrate on the next release, Firefox 61, which enters beta testing today with a bunch of much-needed enhancements.
While Firefox 60 marked the Quantum series as ready for enterprise deployments, Firefox 61 will focus on performance enhancements and improvements of all sorts. For starters, Firefox 61 promises to enable faster tab switching on both GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows platforms and makes WebExtensions run in their own process on Apple's macOS.
Talking about WebExtensions, Firefox 61 will improve the way they manage and hide tabs. Mac users are also getting a new feature in the Page Actions menu that allows them to share the current URL with the sharing providers from macOS, and it looks like the dark theme will receive various improvements for a more consistent experience across Firefox's user interface.
With Firefox 61, Mozilla also wants to make its widely adopted web browser snappier when loading pages, so it implemented more improvements to the Quantum CSS (a.k.a. Stylo) component for faster page rendering. Additionally, Firefox 61 will introduce a new retained display list feature that also promises to improve the page rendering times.
Firefox 61 to block access to FTP subresources inside HTTP(S) pages
Other noteworthy changes coming to the Firefox 61 release later next month include an extra layer of security by blocking access to FTP subresources inside HTTP or HTTPS web pages by default, as well as more straightforward installation of OpenSearch plugins offered by various websites by allowing the user to add them from the page action menu.
Firefox 61 is also moving the settings for customizing the new tab page and the default homepage to a brand-new Preferences section simply called Home, which users will be able to access directly from the sidebar in Preferences or through the about:preferences#home URL. Check out the screenshot gallery attached below to see some of these changes in action.
For web developers, Firefox 61 promises a new drop-down menu in the Developer Tools Network panel to allow the use of bandwidth throttling. Previously, developers had to access bandwidth throttling via the Responsive Design Mode. Early adopters and bleeding-edge users can download Firefox 61 beta for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows right now. Firefox 61 will be released on June 26, 2018.
