Firefox

Mozilla releases 64-bit Firefox for Windows with latest Developer Edition

Mozilla has finally released a 64-bit version of their Firefox web browser for Windows, joining other major browsers including Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Opera in offering 64-bit variants.

However, at this stage the 64-bit version of Firefox is a Developer Edition build, which is one of Mozilla's beta builds of Firefox. While the Developer Edition channel is far more stable than the Nightly channel, it's not the same as the main builds of Firefox that users will typically download. As such, 64-bit Firefox could be considered as being in the beta phase at this stage.

If all goes to plan, Mozilla will release a stable version of 64-bit Firefox for Windows with Firefox 38, scheduled for release in May. At that point it will sit alongside the already-released 64-bit variants for OS X and Linux.

Firefox 38 Developer Edition, complete with 64-bit addressing, brings support for web applications larger than 4 GB, which is great for developers wanting to build large browser-based games. Thanks to new hardware registers and a larger address space, Mozilla claims the 64-bit version is also faster and more secure than before.

The latest Developer Edition also includes some WebRTC changes and fixes, as well as a few other improvements for developers. Anyone interested in upgrading to the 64-bit version of Firefox can do so via Mozilla's Developer Edition page.