Firefox Quantum released

[RandV]

Yeah, I figured that older Firefox versions had a similar feature. It's just not a given that a totally new version of a browser will have all of the same features, though, as anyone who's used Edge knows that so many IE features are still missing, and that's probably partly why Edge is so fast. Similarly, Quantum may be fast and use less memory largely because it dropped a lot of code that has yet to be re-written.

The old Firefox restore session wasn't perfect though. I always keep too much shit open that I mean to get to, but it seemed every few months I'd lose it all my tabs. Typically if you had another prorgam launch your browser while you had it close, like Steam for example, you'd often lose the restore previous session option.

 

[Osprey]

Yes, it has that. Though they've moved it from the start page into a menu command.

Thanks. If it didn't have that, I wouldn't have given it the time of day. I'll go ahead and test it out for memory usage.

The old Firefox restore session wasn't perfect though. I always keep too much **** open that I mean to get to, but it seemed every few months I'd lose it all my tabs. Typically if you had another prorgam launch your browser while you had it close, like Steam for example, you'd often lose the restore previous session option.

Chrome is the same way. If you don't launch it manually, you lose your "restore pages" option. You also lose it if Chrome closed gracefully, which happens sometimes when Windows or a program reboots the computer against my wishes. In both cases, I resort to my backup option, an extension called Tabs Outliner, which tracks the tabs that I have open and lets me get back to where I was with only a handful of extra clicks. I'm sure that Firefox has a similar addon.

Edit: Apparently, Chrome now asks if you want to restore pages even if an app opened Chrome before you could. It just happened for me.

 

[SuperScript29]

Firefox used to be my main browser, switched over to Opera a year ago and have not looked back.

 

[V13]

Looks nice so far but some add-ons are not compatible!

That's my biggest gripe so far. Like quantum but i need No Script and as of now it's not compatible.

UBlock Origins is though so at least there's that

 

[sabresfan129103]

Sounds like the noscript guys are working to get the new version up on Quantum ASAP.

 

[Osprey]

I've been running some tests and have found that Quantum doesn't use significantly less memory as Chrome on normal sites, but does save the reported 30% on heavy, demanding sites. HF is one of those heavy, demanding sites, though.

I tested a particularly demanding page, one of those in the "What are you listening to?" thread in the Entertainment forum, which is chock full of embedded YouTube videos, and I also have HF set to display 50 posts per page. Here are the results from having only that one tab open:

Chrome + AdBlock Plus: 1.2GB (w/o JavaScript: 880MB)
Chrome + uBlock Origin: 700MB (w/o JavaScript: 490MB)
Chrome + no ad blocker: 500MB (w/o JavaScript: 380MB)

Quantum + AdBlock Plus: 800MB (w/o JavaScript: 720MB)
Quantum + uBlock Origin: 490MB (w/o JavaScript: 420MB)
Quantum + no ad blocker: 380MB (w/o JavaScript: 300MB)

Keep in mind that this is a worst case scenario: a very resource-intensive page on a very resource-intensive site (that's even worse in Chrome if JavaScript is enabled on the site).

As you can see, Quantum does deliver ~30% savings. What really blew me away, though, is what an obscene memory hog AdBlock Plus is, regardless of browser. I also tried plain AdBlock and the results were similar. I then tried uBlock Origin, an ad blocker that I'd never used before, but which advertises itself as being easy on the CPU and memory, and you can see the huge difference that it makes: ~70% less memory than AdBlock Plus. Naturally, most sites won't see 300-500MB savings, since they're far lighter on memory than HF is, but ~70% still adds up on lighter sites.

The main takeaway should be... whether you're using Chrome or Quantum, if you're using AdBlock or AdBlock Plus, switch to uBlock Origin now!

The lesser takeaway is that switching from Chrome to Quantum could save you a little bit more memory, but mainly on heavy, demanding sites, including HF. The difference on more normal sites isn't as much to write home about (look at how the results are closer with JavaScript disabled, for example).

 

[Virtanen18]

Yea, ABP has always been known as a memory hog.

Digging this update. Looks fresh

 

[Led Zappa]

The old Firefox restore session wasn't perfect though. I always keep too much **** open that I mean to get to, but it seemed every few months I'd lose it all my tabs. Typically if you had another prorgam launch your browser while you had it close, like Steam for example, you'd often lose the restore previous session option.

Tab Mix Plus is great for tab management and some other tricks, but is not compatible with Quantum. I installed it on one of my work PC's and I just can't give up that plugin. One thing I hate is new tabs open at the end of all other tabs instead of next to the tab your working in, which can be changed with TMP. There may be a fix for that.

Another nice feature of TMP is you can save sessions, so say you have a window open and shopping for a certain thing or researching something, you can save that window and all the tabs by name and close it if you are not working on it at the time. I really hope they update that to work with Quantum. If they do I might switch, but my favorite theme doesn't work either. I could ditch that if all else works though.

One thing I've done with my FF is icons for folders on the favorites bar. Gonna guess that doesn't work with the new version, but we'll see.

 

[syz]

NoScript was updated today. Seems a bit more convoluted than it needs to be, although presumably that results in more options for people who know what they're doing with it.

 

[John Price]

Any way to disable the flashing tab at the top when the page loads? They show these ellipses and then the tab flashes, it's distracting

I appreciate the fast speed and all but UI wise that tab is distracting

 

[RandV]

NoScript was updated today. Seems a bit more convoluted than it needs to be, although presumably that results in more options for people who know what they're doing with it.

I went back to quantum when I read this... but I don't know if it's ready. One change that confused me at first but that I actually like is you have to hit a refresh button before the changes will take effect. The biggest problem I have though is where is the 'grant temporary permission' and 'revoke temporarypermissions' options? When you look at the list of scripts the options are Trusted, Untrusted, and Custom.

Also I've seen on a lot of pages there are duplicate scripts, and sometimes the line with the address can be truncated and ambigious. Like I tend to block Facebook unless I'm directly using it, but it was pretty confusing opening it up just to watch a video. And without the temporary permissions options I'll have to go through and uncheck it each time.