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Firefox can open over 1,500 tabs in 15 seconds

If you're a tab hoarder, then the latest Firefox builds might be the browser for you.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer
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It seems that versions 55 and 56 of Firefox can handle "ridiculous numbers of tabs," according to testing carried out by a Mozilla developer.

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Dietrich Ayala took a profile where he had 1,691 tabs and carried out testing to see how fast, and how much memory Firefox versions 20, 30, 40, and 50 through to 56 would take to handle this enormous load.

Impressive isn't a strong enough word to describe the results.

While Firefox version 51 took almost 8 minutes to open the tabs, Firefox 55 chewed through this workload in 15 seconds.

Firefox can open over 1,500 tabs in 15 seconds
Dietrich Ayala

In addition to the speed improvements, memory usage has plummeted from around two gigabytes to less than half a gigabyte.

Firefox can open over 1,500 tabs in 15 seconds
Dietrich Ayala

Ayala puts at least part of this improvement down to a Mozilla project called Quantum Flow, which he describes as "a bunch of engineers making changes that directly impact Firefox responsiveness."

If you're a tab hoarder, then you might want to take the latest builds for Firefox for a spin.

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