Mozilla looses Firefox 43, including Windows 64-bit variant Mozilla has released version 43 of its Firefox web browser, introducing a 64-bit version for Windows and crushing four critical and seven serious vulnerabilities. The browser should now enjoy the security and performance boosts of 64-bit systems with fatter heap sizes to help fire up things like browser games and better …
"Firefox 43! Now Using Three Times More RAM!"
More realistically probably 1.2-1.5 times as much. Depends how they hold refs to Javascript in memory. Running a 32-bit app on a 64-bit OS isn't free either and goes through thunks and shims so it's not all one way. In addition 64-bit programs have access to more registers so they might perform faster despite their higher memory overheads. It's probably worth going 64-bit if you have 8GB or more.
People make a big deal of memory consumption but modern browsers including Firefox take the reasonable stance that if you have free memory that they may as well use it to improve performance.
Or you run into other issues, such as with FlashBlock where the current download points you to a version released in November, because the later version released in early December to fix some issues has yet to be signed.
Thankfully, Pale Moon doesn't enforce the silly signing thing, so the later version works without hiccups. Interestingly, I find it strange that Mozilla are only just releasing 64bit Firefox into the wild, whereas Pale Moon, Waterfox and other such forks of Firefox have been happily available in 64bit mainstream versions for years....
Firefox (and other modern browsers) allocate memory if you have a lot free in order to cache content, hang onto compiled JS and so on. Once system memory starts getting short (e.g. because you start a game or another large app), browsers respond by releasing some of that memory.
Would you rather the memory just sat there unused?
Try setting xpinstall.signatures.required to false in about:config, maybe you'll have to close and open the browser afterwards.
This is planned to stop working in Firefox 44 so you'll need to change over to the ESR build before the next update if you still want unsigned addons to work after then.
Yep, this version of Firefox now enforces signing of extensions, although there is still an over-ride switch - at least until the next version, when that disappears. The need to have every darned extension signed by Mozilla has been heavily criticised by those who develop extensions for their own use, both on ease-of-use grounds plus the fact it can't possibly work. But Moz has pushed on regardless.
Except that there has been a recent change of heart as the reality of what they are doing has become clearer (https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2015/12/01/de-coupling-reviews-from-signing-unlisted-add-ons/). From the way the announcement is phrased, you could easily miss what it means. In rough translation, it says:
"If an extension isn't going to appear on the official Mozilla site, then they will automatically sign it (via a web API) with no checks whatsoever."
Yes, it would appear that Mozilla are so determined that signing is a "good idea" that they're now prepared to sign code from anyone, anywhere; malware or not.
Signing addons is now compulsory, non-signed addons are disabled upon upgrade, which causes the issues other commenters experienced. You can override this with an "about:config" flag, but they want to remove that flag in the next release, making addons no longer supported by their developers completely unusable. Let's just say I'm less than thrilled about this. :/
Mozilla seem determined to trash what users liked about Firefox, e.g the recent chrome aping (lack of) menus irritated many users.
Now as the huge ecosystem of addins / extensions is the only real advantage of Firefox, they seem determined in breaking that too
The new style search box is now "compulsory" as the about:config fix has gone. You need Classic Theme Restorer to get the old drop down search engine picker back.
I usually have six DDG and six Google search engines for searches in different countries/languages installed in my browsers. The new search engine picker just presents me with six identical icons and I need to hover over each to see which one it which. The old search box drop down allows me to see the titles of each search engine which makes locating the right one very easy.
Yet another unhelpful UI change from Mozilla for no obvious benefit.
I do a load of research and f you do regularly swap between search engines for different searches (eg Google in various countries, dictionaries, manuals, encyclopedia, film sites, Amazon, scholar cross-checking) the enforced switch to the new style search is really frustrating. The new style is just so clunky, unintuitive and such a step backwards.
Things like if you've entered some text, choosing a search engine runs the search instead of switching the suggestions list. And there is initially no obvious indicator of which search engine is default on the menu line - so if you have to start typing to know which search engine is set. At least in the old release you could turn the new style off.
Linux has had official 64-bit Firefox for ages and even Windows users have had both official (nightly) and unofficial (Palemoon/Waterfox) 64-bit builds too, so 64-bit isn't big news for those who really wanted it on Windows.
One minor relief on the Linux side is that they've postponed the move from GTK+2 to GTK+3 until maybe version 45 in March next year - at which point it would break on at least one prominent LTS distro (CentOS 6) that's got support until Nov 2020.
Modernisation like getting a 64-bit version out (about time too)?
Security updates like the ones described in the article?
Getting plugins signed to help fight against, amongst other things, malware?
Do you people even read the articles any more, or do you just see a piece of software you don't use and immediately start writing the comment slagging it off?
Hope the 64bit version is more stable than pale moon/waterfox. I wanted to like them, I really did, but they had to go. Bit like my FF42 or wtf it is. It hard crashes my whole system so I've gone back to using the last version of Opera before it got all chromed out.
Now might be a good time to totally wipe the thing and try again with the 64bit. I don't suppose you can put both (x32) on the same system. Might have to rtfm.
It's only being bullied and beaten into submission by these bastards that has made me lose my will to live, that has stopped me from sorting it out. That and Opera still works, kind of. Then again, what with the indy and the guardian and the beeb being turned into comic book 'Top 10 ways to grow a bigger penis' and constantly fucking autoloading, and NOT working in any god damn browser anyway (except maybe chrome ironically enough), it really does not make much difference.
You may laugh, and you may sneer, but 2015 for me was truly the year they broke the internet.
I doubt doing a fresh install (32 or 64 bit) will make much difference to the insanity in web design these days, all the incompatibilities between the api for mobile etc. shoehorned into one magical write once work never framework.
Yup. 2015 - what a year that was. Not only the year that the internet stopped working, but Big Brother and 1984 became a reality, and when most sane people realised they had lost the good fight, forever...
Actually thinking about it, I can't be bothered anymore. I'll just crack on with Opera (in sandboxie).
All the best chaps, see you in re-education.
The search box change is unacceptable and was unnecessary. Installing Classic Theme Restorer did not restore the about:config ability to restore the old drop-down menu. I liked being able to select the search engine I wanted to use, select text, and go with the search. Nothing was gained with this change. Please let us know when Mozilla wakes up and restores the old functionality. Meanwhile, there's Chrome.
Wasn't me who downvoted you. But recommending Chrome? No thanks. It's nowhere near as versatile as Firefox in terms of extensions/tools, it has some very clunky interface characteristics (for my purposes) AND (by far worst) it's promulgated by the now-constantly-doing-evil Google. Wouldn't have it on any machine of mine.
But I totally agree about the idiocy of the new Firefox search menu. As others have said, at present you can get back a straightforward dropdown list of names using Classic Theme Restorer. But I assume it's only a matter of time before they break that as well...
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