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Firefox 18 With IonMonkey Now in Beta

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Firefox just released the first beta of Firefox 18, which will be a milestone release for Mozilla as it introduces the IonMonkey JIT compiler.

Firefox users can expect a considerable speed bump in complex JavaScript applications over the JaegerMonkey engine that was launched with Firefox 4 in early 2011. Mozilla currently claims that IonMonkey, which is similar in its architecture to Google's Crankshaft in Chrome, is not too far behind Chrome in the Kraken benchmark, and provides a substantial performance increase in Google's v8 benchmark.

Besides IonMonkey, Firefox 18 will not deliver much else. According to Mozilla's feature tracking, the browser will get per-site third-party cookie setting support as well as inline PDF support. The final version of the browser is scheduled for release on January 1, 2013.

The beta version can be downloaded here.

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10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • vaughn2k 29 November 2012 07:29
    Benchmark results will make me think and consider...
    Reply
  • greghome 29 November 2012 07:37
    I like the name :)
    Reply
  • arunphilip 29 November 2012 08:01
    I thought the date had been pushed out to 3/4 Jan to avoid the NY?
    Reply
  • johnsmithhatesVLC 29 November 2012 08:03
    vaughn2kBenchmark results will make me think and consider...What about the tab management? Unlike Chrome it will always be able to show like the first 10 characters of the web page and everything about the browser is much more customizable. Also tab candy is really useful for organizing.
    Reply
  • ta152h 29 November 2012 11:33
    They go from a hunting monkey to a monkey that's missing an electron? I'm not sure I follow that progression; but it's kind of weird. In a creepy way.

    I'd name it Schwerpunkt. Then they could use the line "A browser without Schwerpunkt is like a man without character."

    Reply
  • dangerism 29 November 2012 11:49
    Not sure if author knows what a speed bump is...
    Reply
  • sharpless78 29 November 2012 13:46
    ta152hThey go from a hunting monkey to a monkey that's missing an electron?
    There could be extra electrons too. ;)
    Reply
  • soundping 29 November 2012 14:25
    That's one funky monkey. :kaola:
    Reply
  • john15v16 29 November 2012 16:35
    I hope they got it right this time...I used to only use firefox...would love to start using it more again...but it's chrome for the time being...
    Reply
  • randomizer 30 November 2012 16:49
    I ran a couple of tests that I've used before on jsperf, and if anything this version was slower than 17. In fact it was considerably slower than IE10, let alone Chrome. Anyone can make benchmarks that make a browser look good or bad.
    Reply