Firefox finally makes better use of your computer’s hardware
Firefox 54.0 has been released on June 13, 2017. The new version is offered through the Firefox web browser’s automatic update functionality, and also provided as a direct download from Mozilla’s website.Mozilla launched Firefox 54 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The new version includes the next major phase of multi-process support, which streamlines memory use, improving responsiveness and speed. Firefox now uses up to four processes to run webpage content across all open tabs. Firefox Stable users who run a multi-process Firefox copy right now, run it with one content process and one browser process. This system divides the browser’s core from the content — read websites, services and apps — that the user opens in the web browser.
All other Firefox channels-Beta, Nightly and ESR, are also updated. Firefox Beta is promoted to version 55, Firefox Nightly to version 56, and Firefox ESR to version 52.2.
Mozilla enabled multiple content processes for Firefox’s multi-process architecture for the majority of eligible systems. Firefox Stable is configured by default to check for updates automatically. The browser’s automatic update feature will pick up the Firefox 54.0 update automatically, download it, and install it on most Firefox systems.
The update check may be run at any time manually in the following way:
Tap on the Alt-key on the keyboard, and select Help > About Firefox from the menu.
Firefox demands Mozilla’s servers for update information. Depending on how the browser is configured, if an update is found it may be downloaded and installed directly.
Firefox 54.0 Changes
Support for multiple content processes
The big new feature of Firefox 54.0 is support for multiple content processes. Firefox’s multi-process architecture has been integrated in previous versions of the Firefox browser, but up until now with only one content process. It means that all websites and services open in Firefox at any time use the same content process. Mozilla picked four content processes as the default for the switch. So, once Firefox is updated to 54, the bulk of Firefox installations with multi-process enabled, will use four content processes instead of just one.
Other Firefox 54.0 changes:
• Burmese (my) locale added.
• Moved mobile bookmarks folder to the main bookmarks folder.
• Simplified download button and download status panel
Developer Changes
• 5.1 surround sound playback is enabled by default on all desktop versions of Firefox.
• The network request summary and the performance analysis view list the transferred size now.
• Support for VP9 codec in encrypted streams using Clear Key and Widevine added.
• VP8-encoded webm/video media playback is supported always now, regardless of system performance (previously not allowed if system was considered to be not fast enough).
• HTTP/1 pipelining is no longer supported. Veteran Firefox users may know related preferences from speed up articles that are a decade old, or older.
• Developers may add custom devices to the Responsive Device Mode of the developer tools.
• WebExtension APIS: Sidebars, New Tab Page customization, custom protocol registering, and custom DevTools panels.
Firefox 54.0 for Android
• Bookmark sync performance has been improved.
• Bulgarian (bg) and Kabyle (kab) locales added.
• More reliable audio and video playback.
• File names are preserved correctly on upload.
• Formatting for right-to-left languages fixed.