As a Web Design Company, we are constantly using different browsers to test websites and make sure our projects are looking the same across the board, so we have a lot of experience with the different versions of Firefox, to say the least.
On Tuesday, Mozilla, the developer of the Firefox browser announced the release of Firefox Quantum. Normally, that wouldn’t mean much to me as I have never been a huge fan of the browser and I typically stick with Google Chrome for all my own web surfing needs. My design teams happen to all use Chrome as well to develop our projects. However, the new release of Firefox Quantum had us intrigued so we decided to check it out for ourselves.
Here are the main features of Quantum Firefox they list on their website:
- 2X faster (than previous versions)
- 30% lighter than Google Chrome
- Faster page loading that uses less memory
- Built for rapid fire performance
- The most powerful private browsing mode
- Engineered for next-gen gaming
There are also other new features it has that are designed to make your experience better overall such as private browser page load speeds being up to 44% faster by limiting ads and scripts that bog down the browser. These new features all sound amazing and wonderful and if true would definitely have me considering a change but at the end of the day it’s going to come down to whether or not this new browser is an ideal fit for me.
So, I downloaded the new version on my PC and put it through some tests. My first impression was that it does seem a bit faster than the previous version. But was it twice as fast? 2X the speed is a big leap and that would be a very noticeable change, but the truth is, it’s barely different. Moreover, when I compare it side by side with the current version of Chrome it’s pretty equal, whereas before, I felt it to be maybe a tad slower. After using the browser for a good portion of my workday, there just wasn’t enough improvement or difference for me to want to change from Chrome.
I am not trying to hate on Mozilla because there are some cool features and overall the performance is not bad. In fact, its pretty good. I know there are a lot of people that will be very happy with it, I am just not one f them. I would recommend to any one to give it try for yourself to see if a change is in order for you. For now at least this guy is going to stick with what he has.