Not everyone gets by with the default browser on their computer, and when it comes to picking an alternative, Firefox is one of the most popular out there, having clawed back support from upstart rivals like Google Chrome and Opera in recent years by switching to a rapid release cycle, ensuring major new versions of the browser are released every six weeks.
It’s true to say that individual updates often fail to deliver anything substantial, but cumulatively they roll together to produce a web browser that is radically different to the one – version 4 – that marked the start of a new era back in 2011.
Some of the landmark new features we’ve seen include a per-site Permissions Manager, enhanced Sync options, tabs on demand, silent updates and add-on enhancements. We also saw the launch of specific development branches including UX, which has led to the new Australis user interface, which sees a streamlined tab, revamped menu and customisation features.
One group particularly well served by the rapid release cycle have been developers, and a plethora of tools from Javascript Scratchpad (from Firefox 6) to full-blown Developer Toolbar (from Firefox 16) have worked their way into successive builds as Firefox courts this important community of users.
And underpinning this all are a constantly evolving set of performance improvements, standards support (HTML5 and CSS3 are constantly being added to, for instance) and bug fixes.
Verdict:
If you're going to stick it to the man and avoid the Chromium browser engine, then supporting Firefox is a no-brainer.
Changelog
Firefox 114 is now in the stable channel. Improvements/changes include:
- Say hello to enhanced Picture-in-Picture! Rewind, check video duration, and effortlessly switch to full-screen mode on the web's most popular video websites.
- Private windows now protect users even better by blocking third-party cookies and storage of content trackers.
- Passwords automatically generated by Firefox now include special characters, giving users more secure passwords by default.
- Firefox 113 introduces a redesigned accessibility engine which significantly improves the speed, responsiveness, and stability of Firefox when used with: Screen readers, as well as certain other accessibility software; East Asian input methods; Enterprise single sign-on software; and other applications which use accessibility frameworks to access information.
Importing bookmarks from Safari or a Chrome-based browser? The favicons for those bookmarks will now also be imported by default to make them easier to identify.
- Firefox 113 now supports AV1 Image Format files containing animations (AVIS), improving support for AVIF images across the web.
The Windows GPU sandbox first shipped in the Firefox 110 release has been tightened to enhance the security benefits it provides.
- A 13-year-old feature request was fulfilled and Firefox now supports files being drag-and-dropped directly from Microsoft Outlook. A special thanks to volunteer contributor Marco Spiess for helping to get this across the finish line!
- Users on macOS can now access the Services sub-menu directly from Firefox context menus.
- On Windows, the elastic overscroll effect has been enabled by default. When two-finger scrolling on the touchpad or scrolling on the touchscreen, you will now see a bouncing animation when scrolling past the edge of a scroll container.
- Firefox is now available in the Tajik (tg) language.
Your Comments & Opinion
Improve the performance of Firefox with just a couple of mouse clicks
A speedy web browser with a focus on security and privacy
A speedy web browser with a focus on security and privacy
Chromium-based browser that promises speed, security and privacy
Check out the next version of Firefox before it's released
Check out the next version of Firefox before it's released