Firefox 18 Launches with Support for High-Resolution Retina Displays

[Akshay Masand]

Mozilla’s Firefox officially gained support for Apple’s Retina displays recently with the release of version 18 of the popular web browser. Firefox 18 is now available for users to download. It boasts compatibility with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later and requires at least 512 megabytes of RAM and 200 megabytes of hard drive space.

For Macs running OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the latest iteration of Firefox adds support for the high resolution displays found in Apple’s latest 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros as well as the 21- and 27-iMacs. Other new features in Firefox 18 include faster JavaScript performance via the IonMonkey compiler and preliminary support for WebRTC. The browser also offers better image quality with a new HTML scaling algorithm, while performance related to tab switching has been improved.

Firefox (Official Site Download Link)

The addition of Retina display support in Firefox is one that can be assumed is better late than never. When compared to Google’s Chrome browser, which gained support for Apple’s high-resolution Mac screens five months prior, it certain makes it seem like Firefox was late to the bandwagon. Software that isn’t upgraded with Retina display support can look blurry and poor on the pixel-packing screens, particularly when displaying text. With Firefox now being compatible, users with products that tout Retina displays are just holding out for a few popular services to join the club including Spotify and Valve’s Steam.

Source: Mozilla (blog)

[Scotty Manley Silberhorn]

10.6 is snow leopard, 10.7 is lion.

[max53389]

Firefox feels snappier...On Windows.

[Aehmlo]

Firefox feels snappier...On Windows.

And even snappier on Linux!