Firefox is ready to take on Chrome with much faster and lighter 'Quantum' browser

Mozilla, on Tuesday launched its next-generation browser Firefox Quantum that is faster, clocking in at twice the speed of Firefox 52 from March, according to the Speedometer 2.0 benchmark, and lighter with a completely new user interface, Photon.

Firefox Quantum, also called Firefox 57, is "by far the biggest update we’ve had since we launched Firefox 1.0 in 2004,” the company wrote in a blog post. “Firefox Quantum is over twice as fast as Firefox from 6 months ago, built on a completely overhauled core engine with brand new technology stolen from our advanced research group, and graced with a beautiful new look designed to get out of the way and let you do what you do best.”

Firefox was one of the fastest growing Internet browsers in the late 2000s. But it lost momentum as Google Chrome, which is the leading US browser on desktops, gained new users. With Quantum, Firefox is looking to reclaim some of its lost glory.

Mozilla claims that Quantum is faster than Google Chrome on a number of popular websites, including Google search, Google’s login page, Wikipedia, Bing, Tumblr and Shutterstock. But it's not just the speed, Mozilla has equipped Firefox Quantum with a new user interface called Photon.