Firefox 95 for Mac adds performance and security improvements to the popular browser

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Firefox Mac Purple
Firefox Mac Purple (Image credit: Mozilla)

What you need to know

  • Mozilla has released Firefox 95 for Mac.
  • The new update includes performance improvements and CPU usage alongside reduced power consumption.

Fans of the popular Firefox browser can now download version 95, an update that Mozilla says includes performance and power efficiency improvements as well as a focus on security.

According to the release notes, this update includes "reduced CPU usage on macOS in Firefox and WindowServer during event processing," while power usage during video playback from sites like Netflix has also been improved.

Beyond that, new security improvements see Firefox now use WebAssembly to "isolate potentially-buggy code" while adding a layer of zero-day protection, too.

This technique, which uses WebAssembly to isolate potentially-buggy code, builds on the prototype we shipped last year to Mac and Linux users. Now, we're bringing that technology to all supported Firefox platforms (desktop and mobile), and isolating five different modules: Graphite, Hunspell, Ogg, Expat and Woff2.Going forward, we can treat these modules as untrusted code, and — assuming we did it right — even a zero-day vulnerability in any of them should pose no threat to Firefox. Accordingly, we've updated our bug bounty program to pay researchers for bypassing the sandbox even without a vulnerability in the isolated library.

Existing Firefox users can download the update now, while new users can get in on the ground floor by downloading direct from the Mozilla website, too. Firefox is considered by some to be the best Mac browser around right now and is definitely worth checking out if you're keen to test something other than the pre-installed Safari or more mainstream Chrome.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.