Firefox 4 Beta 7 Has New, Faster JavaScript Engine
Great news for all the Firefox fans out there. Mozilla has released the 7th Beta version of the upcoming Firefox 4b browser and the incredibly interesting thing is that this latest Beta release comes with a new, faster JavaScript engine. Instead of the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, Firefox 4 Beta 7 uses the JägerMonkey JavaScript engine.
“JägerMonkey is an invisible but powerful addition to Firefox 4 Beta,” explained Vice President of Products with Mozilla, Jay Sullivan. “The Firefox SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine now incorporates the new JägerMonkey JIT compiler, which, along with enhancements to the existing TraceMonkey JIT and SpiderMonkey’s interpreter, add up to speeds that really show off today’s rich Web apps. You’ll notice this in faster start-up time, improved page-load speed and the performance of Web apps and games.”
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A new JavaScript engine is just one new thing Firefox 4 Beta 7 brings to the table. Firefox 4 Beta 7 also comes with better support for hardware-accelerated graphics, hardware acceleration for Windows XP and Mac OS X, and last but not least, uses WebGL to enable 3D capabilities, without the need for plug-ins. If you would like to get Firefox 4 Beta 7, you can download the browser straight from Mozilla here. Don’t forget to check out the release notes here.
If you don’t want to try out Firefox 4 while it is still carrying the Beta tag, I can’t say that I blame you. Beta versions tend to be fidgety, the browser may crash, it may not function properly, it may “eat your data and burn your house down” as Mozilla Evangelist Christopher Blizzard jokingly said once. If you don’t want to face the problems that inherently plague Beta versions of any application, it is better you wait for the final, stable version – or at least the release candidate.
You have to be willing to wait until the 2011 though. Firefox Director Mike Beltzner announced that Firefox 4 RC will be released at the beginning of 2011. “Our estimate is now that release candidate builds will ship in early 2011, with a final release date close behind,” said Beltzner.
We can only imagine how good the final version of Firefox 4 will be. Firefox 4 Beta 7 is already better than previous versions on several benchmark tests as you can see from the image below.
Great news for all the Firefox fans out there. Mozilla has released the 7th Beta version of the upcoming Firefox 4b browser and the incredibly interesting thing is that this latest Beta release comes with a new, faster JavaScript engine. Instead of the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, Firefox 4 Beta 7 uses the JägerMonkey JavaScript engine. 
