Firefox 11 Due Today, Features Chrome Migration, Add-on Sync
by Andrew Cunningham on March 13, 2012 9:30 AM ESTMozilla is due to release Firefox 11 to the stable channel today, and like every Firefox release since 4.0 the new version adds a handful of new features and fixes without drastically changing how the browser works. Firefox 10, the current Firefox Extended Support Release, will see a new 10.0.3 patch that will implement Firefox 11's security patches but not its new features.
Firefox users looking to move back to Mozilla's browser after trying Chrome will now be able to import that browser's bookmarks, history, and cookies, with passwords, form data, and settings to follow in a later version. Users of Firefox Sync will now also be able to synchronize their browser add-ons across multiple computers, ensuring a more consistent experience for people with multiple systems.
Additionally, the new Firefox offers a couple of new developer tools: the first is called Tilt, and it's pictured above - when inspecting page elements (right-click a page, click Inspect Element), users with WebGL-capable systems can now click a 3D button to see a copy of the page rendered in 3D. You can move the page around and zoom in and out at will - in addition to looking pretty cool, it can also make it easier to interact with elements that overlap. The other addition is a new Style editor, accessible from the Web Developer menu.
All of this comes with a handful of smaller changes and security fixes which are laid out in the release notes, linked below. Firefox 11 is available for Windows XP, Vista, and 7, as well as OS X 10.5 (Intel), 10.6, and 10.7 and most Linux distributions.
Source: Mozilla
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Romberry - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
When you write "A browser that can't multitask simultaneous loading of pages is useless to me", what exactly do you mean? That makes no sense to me.dcollins - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
In Firefox, if one page misbehaves (eg a javascript bug that causes an endless loop), it can bring down the entire browser. In Chrome, tabs in other processes will continue working just fine. IE is somewhere in between since it is multi-threaded in many areas, but not as cleanly broken up as Chrome.Likewise, when opening several web pages at once, Chrome and IE will render them simultaneously using separate processes and threads, respectfully. Firefox will render them in series within the same process and thread.
The benefit of Firefox's approach is lower memory usage. The downside is inferior performance and stability. I personally believe Mozilla made the wrong decision by cancelling the Electrolysis initiative, but I understand both sides of the debate.
gorash - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
I think Pale Moon (a custom Firefox build) supports multi-core.webmastir - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
browser add-on sync! yesssssssssss /napoleon dynamite voiceSpivonious - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
Give the browser direct access to my graphics hardware? No thanks. Who knows what kind of security exploits are in Nvidia, ATI, and Intel graphics drivers.Andrew.a.cunningham - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
Hate to break it to you, but Tilt is just one new usage for WebGL - the tech itself has been present in Firefox since 4.0. Most other browsers are also using GPU acceleration at this point.JubeiYagyu - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
My problem with Firefox 10 was the browser would eat up quite a lot of CPU after several hours of use (3-4 tabs) and on closing it would NOT release any memory or CPU. Also had problems loading some images on sites and general slowness.Definitely preferred the previous version of FF. Hope FF11 fixes some of these issues.
arjuna1 - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
Nightly 13 has a *vastly* lower memory and cpu usage, open it and closing it is very fast,, it purges itself from memory in seconds now.Mind that I have like dozens of tabs open at all times.
Mr Alpha - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
In my experience Firefox 12 and 13 do wonders for this.Also the really bad issues are usually caused by some miss-behaving addon. I found that Firefox runs a lot better over the long haul when I got rid of Firebug.
kensiko - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
good news, can't wait to try Firefox 12, but I prefer to stay on the release channel