Mozilla reboots with Firefox 57
Breakthrough
What’s new in Firefox 57 Quantum – and why does it matter so much?
Firefox 57 Quantum is probably the most important release in the Mozilla browser's 15-year history. Firefox 57 (FF57) is the biggest upgrade cycle yet for Firefox and the stakes are high: Public acceptance of FF57 is important for Mozilla's future health.
Market observers say the overall Firefox marketshare is somewhere between 8 and 12 percent. By comparison, Google Chrome weighs in closer to 60 percent. Firefox fares better within the Linux community, though, where many users prefer it for ideological reasons while others are attracted to its impressive range of extensions. But even among the Linux crowd, Chrome has been closing the gap in recent years.
Setting the Stage
One mistake Mozilla made was the failed excursion into Firefox OS. Mozilla spent a great deal of money on the ill-fated mobile OS, and the Firefox OS effort used up valuable developer resources, thus slowing down work on Mozilla's flagship browser. In addition, integrating the online bookmarking service Pocket and the WebRTC service Hello added more bloat. Mozilla also annoyed some customers by displaying ads on the New Tab page and by collecting too much data.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
TUXEDO has unveiled a new InfinityBook Pro with an AMD Ryzen AI 300
This new notebook offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Is This the Year of Linux?
Another major organization has decided to kick Windows and Office to the curb, in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.