New Firefox 84.0 update adds native Apple Silicon support
Version 84.0 of Mozilla's Firefox web browser has been released, bringing with it native support for Apple Silicon M1 -- and also announcing that it's the last version which will support Flash.
Mozilla Firefox
Following its praising of Apple for iOS 14 security, Mozilla has released Firefox version 84.0 for macOS Big Sur, and Apple Silicon M1.
"Native support for macOS devices built with Apple Silicon CPUs brings dramatic performance improvements over the non-native build that was shipped in Firefox 83," says Mozilla in a statement. "Firefox launches over 2.5 times faster and web apps are now twice as responsive (per the SpeedoMeter 2.0 test)."
"WebRender rolls out to MacOS Big Sur," it continues. "Additionally we'll ship an accelerated rendering pipeline for Linux/GNOME/X11 users for the first time, ever!
Even with the support for Apple Silicon, Firefox 84.0's recommended hardware remains a Mac with an Intel processor. Firefox 84.0 is also available for Windows and Linux. Mozilla notes, though, that, "Firefox 84 is the final release to support Adobe Flash."
Firefox 84.0 can be downloaded from the official site. Mozilla notes that, "we kept our schedule to release a new Firefox every month" in 2020, despite the coronavirus. Its January 2020 update was one that fixed a bug so severe that the Department of Homeland Security advised updating to it.
Mozilla Firefox
Following its praising of Apple for iOS 14 security, Mozilla has released Firefox version 84.0 for macOS Big Sur, and Apple Silicon M1.
"Native support for macOS devices built with Apple Silicon CPUs brings dramatic performance improvements over the non-native build that was shipped in Firefox 83," says Mozilla in a statement. "Firefox launches over 2.5 times faster and web apps are now twice as responsive (per the SpeedoMeter 2.0 test)."
"WebRender rolls out to MacOS Big Sur," it continues. "Additionally we'll ship an accelerated rendering pipeline for Linux/GNOME/X11 users for the first time, ever!
Even with the support for Apple Silicon, Firefox 84.0's recommended hardware remains a Mac with an Intel processor. Firefox 84.0 is also available for Windows and Linux. Mozilla notes, though, that, "Firefox 84 is the final release to support Adobe Flash."
Firefox 84.0 can be downloaded from the official site. Mozilla notes that, "we kept our schedule to release a new Firefox every month" in 2020, despite the coronavirus. Its January 2020 update was one that fixed a bug so severe that the Department of Homeland Security advised updating to it.
Comments
It's not their first rodeo (I know you know that); 100% agree though. Their 'secret' roadmaps which lots of people complain about really allow them to take the time (most of the time) to delivery something and make it look easy. As others have pointed out, 3rd huge and successful transition (68K -> PPC -> Intel -> ARM/ASi). Who else has done it and done it so well.
I am not so sure, firefox already uploaded the Apple Silicon version yet...
Just updated my Intel install of Firefox and ran lipo -i on the binary. Shows that it includes x86_64 and arm64.
it’s in there.