Mozilla on Tuesday posted the finished versions of Firefox 7 (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows). The new release is still part of Mozilla’s fast track schedule and focuses most on running faster and more efficiently than before. Version 7 uses 20 to 50 percent less memory and also now cuts back on memory leaks and waste from Javascript.
Closing tabs now directly removes those tabs from memory and leads to more resources free as time goes on.
Other changes are minor but noticeable. The address bar now eliminates the URI from the current page and highlights the primary domain to simplify spotting fake sites. Bookmark and password syncing occurs more frequently, and the renderer now supports CSS3’s Text Overflow and web load time analytics for developers. Windows users now get hardware acceleration of HTML5 Canvas pages.
Another major Firefox revision is expected within about six weeks. Mozilla has entertained the prospects of a partial return to slower, major milestone releases but hasn’t signaled any such change coming before Firefox 8.
