You’ll also find handy links to 64-bit versions of Flash, Silverlight and Sun Java on the Waterfox download page too, while all add-ons that work in Firefox should work with Waterfox too. Note, because the app is 64-bit, you’ll need to have installed the 64-bit version of Microsoft's Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable to avoid an MSVCR100.DLL missing error message when you try to launch the app. Aside from its name on the menu at the top of the main window, there’s nothing to differentiate it from Firefox. This makes it instantly familiar to existing Firefox users – Waterfox is based on the current stable Firefox build, which means it functions in exactly the same way. This is a dedicated 64-bit browser based on Firefox’s open source code, compiled specifically for 64-bit versions of Windows, complete with optimizations to help speed things up a little more. Despite the growing popularity of 64-bit though, we're still in that transitional phase where many applications are still only available in 32-bit builds – they're compatible with 64-bit, but you get none of the performance benefits 64-bit computing can bring.įirefox is one such example: the latest Nightly build is available in 64-bit, but we're at least six months away from it making the transition through Aurora and Beta to a final release.įor those who can’t wait for Firefox to embrace 64-bit, take a look at Waterfox instead. The new version of Waterfox will come out shortly after Mozilla releases Firefox 68 in July 2019.64-bit is the future of computing and one obvious benefit of running a 64-bit version of an operating system is the fact it allows you to access more than 3.5GB of RAM, helping speed up your computer. Existing Waterfox users may use it to test their extensions against the new version to find out if they can still be used without modification in the new version. Waterfox 68 is a development release that is used for testing primarily. You should expect scores similar to current versions of the Firefox web browser when it reaches version 68. Others, like Classic Theme Restorer, did notĮxisting Waterfox users may want to test all of their extensions in the new Waterfox 68 Alpha to find out how many of them are compatible with the new build.īenchmark scores have improved significantly when compared to the current version of Waterfox. I used Classic Archive to download extensions some, like Theme Font & Size Changer, installed fine and without issues. You will notice, however, that you cannot install (some) classic extensions at the time as these require compatibility changes. The extensions that are distributed with the release work fine in Waterfox 68. I still suggest that you back up existing Waterfox profiles to avoid any issues when testing the alpha build.Ī new profile means that the installation won't pick up any of the installed extensions either. The alpha installer creates a new profile for that version existing stable profiles should not be touched because of that. Several popular classic extensions, DownThemAll, SaveFileTo, PrivateTab or Ke圜onfig, are available already as well for download. The Waterfox 68 Alpha release, available on GitHub, can be downloaded for all supported operating systems. Waterfox 68 uses the same code to enable support for these classic extensions in the web browser. It created a solution that reintroduced support for different types of classic extensions in the email client. The Thunderbird team faced the same difficult situation: it had to update the email client to a newer core but did not want to drop support for classic extensions for Thunderbird just yet. Waterfox 68 uses code developed by the team that develops the Thunderbird email client. We talked about the compromise made in that version some days ago. Waterfox 68, on the other hand, will still support classic browser extensions to a degree. Mozilla dropped the classic add-ons system of Firefox in version 57. If you compare Firefox 56 to 68, you will notice huge changes in regards to support for web technologies, APIs, extensions, and other areas. The current version of Waterfox is based on Firefox 56 code. Waterfox 68 is the next major release of the web browser as it moves the web browser to a newer Firefox core.
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