Firefox 9 Leaked; Promises 20-30% JavaScript Performance Boost [Mozilla Firefox 9 Official Build Now Available for Download; Will Result in Faster Webpage Speeds, But Can Firefox Regain Market Share from Chrome?]

Posted on TFTS by J. Angelo Racoma on Tuesday, 20. December 2011 under: Internet Highlights

2011 has not exactly been a good year for Mozilla, with Google Chrome surpassing Firefox (and Internet Explorer 8) in terms of browser popularity, and the foundation’s deal with Google reportedly expiring this year. But even with these difficulties, Firefox 9 is launching with a bang, promising performance improvements, among other updates.

Mozilla is planning to officially release Firefox 9 sometime today, although early leaks of the official build are already available for download through the official Firefox website. Among the significant changes are a improved JavaScript engine, which should singlehandedly improve JavaScript execution by about 20 to 30 percent, according to Mozilla. The new type inference featured by the update essentially brings JS processing closer to compiled languages in terms of speed and optimization.

Mozilla’s main competitors, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer, lack this type inference feature, which means Firefox should get a performance advantage, at least in processing JavaScript-rich websites. Other major improvements are the following:

Improved Mac OS X user interface, with support for two-finger swipe navigation gestures in OS X Lion;
Support for querying Do Not Track status via JavaScript;
Support for font-stretch;
Support for text-overflow;
Improved handling of HTML5, MathML and CSS standards;
Stability fixes.

Aside from the Firefox 9 release, web and extension developers have also been advised to check out the new release’s platform updates, which involves new development tools and markup changes. But will these changes warrant better user loyalty toward Firefox? Google Chrome has been making leaps and bounds in terms of popularity among users, and is now lauded as more popular than Internet Explorer 8. Google also claims its browser to be more secure than Firefox and IE. Will JavaScript performance be the magic bullet that can help keep Mozilla Firefox relevant in today’s changing browser landscape?

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