A look at Waterfox 56.2.0

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The web browser Waterfox 56.2.0 was released by its developer Alex Kontos on May 16, 2018 to the public. The new version of the browser that is largely based on Firefox code includes security updates, performance improvements and a number of other changes.

The new version of the Waterfox browser is available through the browser's automatic update system and as a standalone download on the official website.

You can run a check for updates in Waterfox by selecting Menu > ? > About Waterfox in the browser user interface. Waterfox runs a check for updates, will pick up the new version so that you can download and install it to the local system.

Waterfox 56.2.0

Waterfox 56.2.0 includes the latest security patches that Mozilla released for the Firefox web browser. It includes updates listed under MFSA 2018.-10 and MFSA 2018-11. You can check out Mozilla's Security advisories website for individual patch information.

The new version of Waterfox includes a large number of changes; users who have set the preference privacy.resistFingerprinting to true will notice that Waterfox disguises itself as Firefox 60 when the preference is set. Waterfox with the preference set to false identifies as Firefox 56 to the Web.

Similarly, users who noticed high CPU usage while using Waterfox should see improvement. Kontos notes that the "high CPU usage" issue should be a thing of the past.

Several components of the browser were updated. The developer updated several media codecs, added support for ffmpeg-4.0, and built Rust components with optimizations.

The Android version of Waterfox has had its Google Play Services integration removed; the removal paves the way for integration in the F-Droid store.

Waterfox 56.2.0 includes Stylo as well but it is disabled by default.

Closing Words

There is still a lot that needs to be done; Kontos plans to add WebExtensions APIs of Firefox 57 in Waterfox, and integrate the classic add-ons catalog in about:addons.