Having seen the advantages on other systems (e.g. Linux) with regards to programs being compiled specifically for the capabilities of the machine it is installed on, it became obviously clear that Windows users were at a disadvantage.
Mozilla only releases windows executables with maximum compatibility in mind, meaning that Firefox is made to run on as many different systems as possible, sacrificing efficiency and speed in the process to be compatible with, by current standards, absolutely ancient hardware.
Mozilla does not provide optimized browser packages for Windows. That means you may be losing speed and efficiency when you use your browser.
That needs to change. Therefore Pale Moon project offers custom-built and optimized Firefox browsers for Windows Operating Systems. Make sure to get the most speed and efficiency out of your browser!
- Highly optimized for modern processors
- 100% Firefox sourced: As safe as the browser that has seen years of development.
- Support for Firefox extensions (add-ons), themes, and personas
- Able to use existing Firefox profiles, bookmarks, and settings with this migration tool
- Uses slightly less memory because of disabled redundant and optional code
- Significant speed increases for page drawing and script processing
- Support for HTML5 and WebGL (v4)
- Stability: experience fewer browser crashes.
- Support for SVG and Canvas, and downloadable fonts including WOFF
- Support for OOPP (Out-of-process plugin execution)
Homepage – https://www.palemoon.org
- Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, Server 2008 R2 or later
- A processor with SSE2 instruction support
- 1 GB of RAM
- At least 200 MB of free (uncompressed) disk space
In addition, our platform code has been changed to a more streamlined version over the past months and UXP is no longer used (or maintained) by us in this milestone. UXP has been released to the community for maintenance and coordination to continue building where desired. Instead, we are now building on the Goanna Runtime Environment™ (or GRE for short) focusing more tightly on the Goanna rendering engine and cutting out support for unmaintainable components and target platforms. More details about this change will follow in-depth documentation on the developer site and/or the forum.
Due to the extensive internal changes in the source tree, these release notes focus only on relevant changes in the browser about implementations, extensions, and security/bug fixes, and are by no means exhaustive.
Most notable user-facing/implementation changes:
- Implemented Global Privacy Control, taking the place of the unenforceable “DNT” (Do Not Track) signal. If you previously enabled DNT, then this preference will be adopted for Global Privacy Control (GPC). Through GPC, you indicate to websites that you do not want them to share or sell your data.
- “Default browser” controls in preferences have been moved to “General”.
- Updated emoji support to Twemoji 13.1.
- Implemented
Selection.setBaseAndExtent()for web compatibility. - Implemented
queueMicroTask()for web compatibility.