Mozilla has released Firefox 36 for Windows, Mac, and Linux with support for the new HTTP/2 standard and various performance and bug fixes.
Firefox has been getting releases regularly, both major and minor. This one is not a major update but only gets support for the new HTTP/2 standard which is the second major update to the HTTP protocol. It was published as a standard this month while browser developers such as Google and Mozilla had already been working on implementing it in their browsers.
HTTP/2 brings benefits such as multiplexing for faster page loading, server push, prioritization of certain web elements over others, to name a few. However, to take full advantage of HTTP/2, servers and browsers both need to enable support for the protocol.
Given the advantages, it should not take long for major websites such as Facebook and Twitter to support HTTP/2 and other to follow suit.
Here’s the changelog for what’s new in version 36 of Firefox:
- Pinned tiles on the new tab page can be synced
- Support for the full HTTP/2 protocol. HTTP/2 enables a faster, more scalable, and more responsive web
- Locale added: Uzbek (uz)
The complete release notes can be reviewed here.
The new release is already available via auto update for Firefox. Even if you are using other browsers, it is worth going back to Firefox to see if it convinces you to switch. At a time when Chrome is bloating with every release, and Internet Explorer is still not a viable alternative, Firefox is doing well to improve its performance for the modern web.
