14 DAY TRIAL // If Chromium-powered browsers aren’t necessarily your cup of tea, Mozilla Firefox is pretty much the only worthy choice that you have right now.
Currently the third most-used desktop browser out there, after Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox receives major updates every four weeks, all as part of a new release calendar that was adopted by Mozilla earlier this year.
Previously, major Firefox updates were published every six weeks, so without a doubt, this accelerated release cadence is good news for users. And it’s all because we get to try out new features faster, all without the need for downloading the beta builds of Firefox.
Earlier this week, Mozilla rolled out Firefox 82, and one of the most notable changes in this version concerns the actual performance of the application. Needless to say, this is something that really helps Firefox in the fight against Chromium browsers, especially because users are always looking for the fastest and most secure experience when going online.
And Mozilla says this new version of Firefox includes major improvements in this regard, as everything feels faster now, including the page loads and the start-up time.
According to the official statistics, websites that use layouts based on flexbox now load a lot faster in Firefox. And if we are to trust Mozilla’s data, these websites should now record a 20 percent speed increase after installing Firefox 82.
There are also welcome improvements on Windows devices, though there’s a chance that you may not even notice them. Mozilla says that opening a new window on a computer running Microsoft’s operating system is now 10 percent, but again, while this is a refinement that’s obviously good news for Windows users, some might not even notice it given it’s not a substantial increase.
Everyone running Firefox should actually notice a performance boost in another area. Beginning with Firefox 82, the browser now restores sessions some 17 percent quicker, according to Mozilla. While this may not seem impressive at fast, if you combine all the other speed improvements that come with this update, the experience overall is substantially refined.
In addition to the speed boost, Firefox 82 also comes with Picture-in-Picture refinements, as Mozilla says this has become an essential feature of the browser.
The following improvements are now part of the PiP update on Firefox:
- The Picture-In-Picture button has a new look and position, making it easier for you to find and use the feature.
- Picture-In-Picture now has a keyboard shortcut for Mac users (Option + Command + Shift + Right bracket) that works before you start playing the video.
- For Windows users, Firefox now uses DirectComposition for hardware decoded video, which will improve CPU and GPU usage during video playback, improving battery life.
As with every other Firefox release, version 82 also comes with security fixes, so if you haven’t updated the browser just yet, you should consider doing it rather sooner than later.
But on the other hand, one thing that is worth knowing is that Firefox 82 might not play nice with some antivirus products, including with Microsoft’s very own Windows Defender that comes pre-loaded with Windows, with several users reporting that the browser just crashes all of a sudden on launch.
Mozilla has reportedly slowed down the automatic rollout of Firefox 82 via the built-in update engine, so right now, some devices that might be impacted by this problem may not get the new version. In this case, manually downloading Firefox is the only way to get the latest update, though it goes without saying that this isn’t necessarily a recommended workaround since the browser could end up hitting the bug mentioned above.