Mozilla Project Quantum to Upgrade Firefox Web Engine for Faster Browsing

After introducing the multi-process feature with Firefox 48, Mozilla has announced that it is working on some big improvements over the course of next year. The company has launched Project Quantum that aims to make the browser significantly faster, and make graphic-heavy websites feel completely different with the advent of a modern web-engine.

David Bryant, Mozilla's head of platform engineering, wrote a post on Medium elaborating this new project plan. He said that because of the success of its Electrolysis project which aimed to deliver multi-process to all browsers, they are now aiming to build a modern web engine and start rolling out big updates by the end of 2017. A Web engine is basically the core of the browser that runs all the content you receive while browsing the Web.

"The resulting engine will power a fast and smooth user experience on both mobile and desktop operating systems~CHECK~-~CHECK~creating a "quantum leap" in performance. What does that mean? We are striving for performance gains from Quantum that will be so noticeable that your entire Web experience will feel different. Pages will load faster, and scrolling will be silky smooth. Animations and interactive apps will respond instantly, and be able to handle more intensive content while holding consistent frame rates. And the content most important to you will automatically get the highest priority, focusing processing power where you need it the most," Bryant explained in the post.

The first version of this future-ready web engine that can handle graphic-heavy websites easily, will only be rolled out to Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux users. The first-version won't roll out to iOS users simultaneously, but may be rolled out a little while later.

Faster loading time and instant response of animated websites are a welcome change, but all of these changes are still a year away. For now, Firefox users can make the most out of the multi-process feature that claims to reduce lags and crashes. For those unaware, multi-process is said to separate Web content and Firefox UI processes for more seamless browsing, and less lock-up of buttons and menus. Mozilla says this feature is being enabled in Firefox 48 slowly, and should be available to all desktop users in the next few months.