It’s been a while since I talked about Firefox, that’s because I’ve been waiting the new release, but apparently there’s still a long way until it arrives; so then let’s talk about the latest beta release, Firefox 4 b7.
I think this is one of the best releases of the beta version, unlike the other releases which mostly fixed bugs, this one has an improved JavaScript engine and a lot faster graphics. Let’s see what’s new.
A faster JavaScript engine.
As I said, unlike the other releases that were focused on fix bugs and minor features, this one is different because the JavaScript engine is a lot faster now. This is because an additional and invisible new compiler called JägerMonkey which keeps the engine running at full power.
Graphics Performance and 3D Graphics
Firefox now has hardware acceleration, which helps a lot in the website rendering for a faster page load time. Not only that, the experience with web apps and games gets improved as weel. On Windows (except XP), hardware acceleration is done using DirectX; on Mac OS X, it’s done using OpenGL.
Also, the 3D graphics finally is enable to developers so they can render these using WebGL. This is also points web apps, a variety of games and any kind of graphic; with this the visual experience is enhanced and without the need of any plugin or add-on. WebGL requires an OpenGL-capable graphics card on Windows or Mac OS X. Additional support for other graphics cards on Windows (specifically Intel GPUs) and Linux will come in future beta releases.
New Font support with Open Type and Improved HTML5 Forms
With the Open Type support you will able to see the different types of effects developers add to certain fonts and texts across the web, and not only see the Times New Roman when something is not compatible.
In addition, the beta version also improves HTML forms. Detailed HTML5 forms are a snap to create with auto-complete, HTML5 form validation and the new Form API.
Link | Download Firefox 4 Beta 7
Via | The Mozilla Blog
