Get Firefox 19 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux Now

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Get it while it's hot (or at least before Firefox 20 comes out).

Firefox 19 was last month released in beta but already Mozilla is pushing out the finished version of the browser. The most notable new feature with Firefox 19 is a new, built-in PDF viewer to ward off the potential for security exploits due to PDF reader plugins. Speaking about the new feature last month, Bill Walker and Brendan Dahl, Mozilla Engineering Manager and Software Engineer, said that the feature was driven by a desire to push the boundaries of HTML5.

"For a number of years there have been several plugins for viewing PDF's within Firefox," they said. "Many of these plugins come with proprietary closed source code that could potentially expose users to security vulnerabilities. PDF viewing plugins also come with extra code to do many things that Firefox already does well with no proprietary code, such as drawing images and text. These problems, and the desire to push the boundaries of the HTML5 platform, led Andreas Gal and Chris Jones to start a research project they named PDF.js. The project quickly picked up steam within Mozilla Labs, where it grew into a full-fledged PDF viewer."

Firefox 19 also boasts start up performance improvements, Remote Web Console for connecting to Firefox on Android or Firefox OS, a Browser Debugger for add-on and browser developers, as well as bug fixes. 

Download it here for Windows, Linux and Mac.

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Jane McEntegart
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mariusmotea
    A new version and the new big future is the built-in PDF viewer ??!
    Reply
  • bisso
    ".js" as in javascript? Oh god.
    Reply
  • shikamaru31789
    Can't wait to see how it performs in the next Web Browser Grand Prix.
    Reply
  • tpi2007
    For me Firefox 18.0.2 has been the best Firefox until now in terms of performance, especially with flash videos with several tabs open, so I'm glad they are improving performance even more. Start-up performance, even though it's relative if it's that important to all people, has been one of Firefox's main drawbacks compared to other browsers, so it's always good to know when they make improvements on that.

    Also good to know about the built-in PDF viewer. I had switched from Adobe Reader to Foxit Reader, and to maximize performance and security within the browser I had even disabled the plug-in, so that Firefox would request to open the main Foxit application to open the file, it will be interesting to see how their HTML5 implementation works, both from a performance and a security point of view.
    Reply
  • blazorthon
    mariusmoteaA new version and the new big future is the built-in PDF viewer ??!
    Go ahead and try making your own PDF reading program and see how *easy* it is. There's nothing wrong with that being the major feature for a new version. Heck, I don't think that it'd make much sense to not make a new version to start off a feature like that. Besides ,there were several other important features along with the regular performance enhancements and bug fixes that one expects with a new version.

    bisso".js" as in javascript? Oh god.
    Javascript is required to log into Tom's. There is absolutely no good reason to be posting on Tom's articles if you can't stand Javascript, which is relied on for many websites to work properly.

    otacon72I had 8 identical tabs opened up in IE and FF. IE was using 249MB... FF was using 750MB PLUS another 90MB for it's stupid plug in container. FF has been garbage since v4.
    I have over 40 tabs open in FF right now. It's using about 200MB total. Perhaps you have other issues, especially since your experience is not normal.
    Reply
  • srap
    blazorthonI have over 40 tabs open in FF right now. It's using about 200MB total. Perhaps you have other issues, especially since your experience is not normal.More details would be needed to verify or refute what he says, as memory usage depends from pretty much everything, excluding weather.
    - what did he use to measure memory usage? (task manager is not ideal for this for reasons)
    - what add-ons and extensions can be found on his IE and Firefox
    - what sites did he use
    Reply
  • brightsmith
    I think Google Chrome is faster, safer and innovative than others. That is why I use Chrome more than Firefox (Firefox only for web design offline testing).
    Reply
  • soundping
    Version 21 nightly works well.
    Reply
  • unwanted
    Iv'e always had trouble with fireffox and flash/videos.

    Even with FF18 if I look at something on youtube the sound will play fine but nothings happening visually then a fww seconds later it will change to that frame but still no movement, it takes about 30 seconds or so before the video is displaying and running fine which it then runs fine untill it's finished but about 90% of video I look at (youtube, somewhere else, embedded or not) have this problem at the start of the video.

    On the other hand if I view it in IE there's no problem at all. Everytime i get a new FF I tryit for a while but I always end up just using IE anytime i'm looking at a video :s
    Reply
  • blazorthon
    unwantedIv'e always had trouble with fireffox and flash/videos.Even with FF18 if I look at something on youtube the sound will play fine but nothings happening visually then a fww seconds later it will change to that frame but still no movement, it takes about 30 seconds or so before the video is displaying and running fine which it then runs fine untill it's finished but about 90% of video I look at (youtube, somewhere else, embedded or not) have this problem at the start of the video.On the other hand if I view it in IE there's no problem at all. Everytime i get a new FF I tryit for a while but I always end up just using IE anytime i'm looking at a video :s
    Flash works in FF for me. read about many people saying they have issues, but I don't, so that seems to imply the the issue is not FF or at least not entirely FF.
    Reply