Hi Group,


Well, it's finally here: the much talked about full release of Firefox 57.  I opened Firefox shortly after 7:00 AM Eastern Time USA this morning and got the update Firefox dialogue.  I am now running Firefox 57.0.


Here are some of the conditions under which I am running Firefox 57.0 full release.

Windows 10 latest update version 17.09

8 core 64 bit Intel composite machine

12 GB RAM 13.8 GB Virtual memory.

Firefox 32 bit version.


Here is my basic analysis.


I first tried a run of the mill web page--an old still functional local ISP that offers dial-up service and has low graphics and is not very cluttered: The Blue Moon Internet System: http://www.bluemoon.net.  The navigation and overall performance was normal--I did not notice anything different from earlier versions of Firefox.


Being somewhat encouraged, I next visited one of my favorite sites espn.com and one of its sub pages for NFL articles: https://espn.com/nfl.  This site is fairly cluttered but usually very simple to navigate.  Again, I had no real issues. Navigational keys, automatic reading and other basics operated normally.


I then got a little bolder.  I visited the CNN website: https://cnn.com.  It might have taken a little longer time to load than normal, but I don't visit that site very often, so I am really not sure.  It seemed relatively normal with perhaps a small lag--2 or 3 seconds maybe.  Once the page loaded, I had no real issues.  I was able to click on various section: world, USA, sports, breaking news, ETC.  I chose to read the article about the coup in Zimbabwe--that deposed long time and ailing President Robert Magobbi.  Everything seemed to work normally.


I then got real brave and visited the Yahoo sports page: https://sports.yahoo.com.  This site hasn't worked very well for years.  The page refreshes quite often--about every 30 seconds to a minute--even moreso during active sports events.  This site also has the habbit of moving to the search field and activating forms/edit mode with every page load.  All these aspects of this page were evident with Firefox 57, but they weren't any worse than with earlier versions of Firefox.  I really wish Yahoo would fix these pages.  Even using JAWS 17, the suppress web page refreshes hasn't worked in years and still doesn't--but I digress.


I then visited various live streaming pages which had accessible embedded players: Democracy Now: https://democracynow.org and AM 740 Toronto: https://zoomerradio.ca.  Both these sites read normally and the embedded players showed buttons and I could activate, play, pause and control volumes as normal.  There were no significant issues.


Finally, it has been reported that the downloads window does not read in Firefox 57.  I tried downloading a small fie of 11 MB in size from the file storage site Send Space: https://www.sendspace.com.  The download window showed up normally and I saw the progress as usual.  Again, there was no significant difference from ealrier versions of Firefox.


Conclusion and possible causality:


I see very little difference using Firefox 57 with my current system. There may be a bit of sluggishness on sum pages, but not very much.  The causes I am going to site are simply educated guesses--nothing more.  You will see that I am using the 32 bit version of Firefox.  I believe there is a 64 bit, but I have lways been warned off from using this version.  I have always used a 32 bit version and had very good results.  Maybe if some people are using the 64 bit version on a 64 bit system, that could cause issue.  In addition, my system is a reasonably fast system. With 8 core and a lot of RAM and virtual memory, it is a real speed demon.  The system boots in about 25 seconds from a cold boot. Programs launch rapidly and seldom lock up.  Although Gene Asner might bite me (we've had debates over fast VS slow systems and how they affect other programs) I am wondering if my fast system mitigates issues with Firefox sluggishness and bad performance that others are having.  (sorry Gene only kidding!) Again, this is simply an educated guess, but there must be some intrinsic issue on more than a few systems running Firefox 57 that are causing all these negative reports that I am receiving on this and other mailing lists for the blind.


Hopefully, this analysis will induce others to give Firefox 57 a try and allay some of the fear associated with it's installation.



--
They Ask Me If I'm Happy; I say Yes.
They ask: "How Happy are You?"
I Say: "I'm as happy as a stow away chimpanzee on a banana boat!"