Zen Browser updates to latest Firefox version and fixes Linux performance bugs
If you've been looking for a new desktop browser on Windows, macOS, or Linux recently, you'll no doubt have heard of Zen Browser, the open-source fork of Firefox promises a "calmer" more aesthetically appealing web browsing experience that puts productivity first. Some of its stand-out features include a distraction-free compact UI mode, improved and customisable tab management, and Zen Mods for extensive customisation.
With the latest Twilight 1.15t update (think of the Twilight builds as alpha versions) to the Zen Browser, the developers have added a number of bug fixes, features, and under-the-hood changes to make the browser smoother, look better, and feel more intuitive. One of the more annoying bugs that was squashed resulted in the browser disabling Compact Mode whenever a browsing session was restored, but the other additions are somewhat more impactful.
Better site rendering, optimisations, and smoother updates
One of the biggest changes to the Zen is the move to Firefox 141.0, which is the current beta version of Firefox that adds WebGPU API support on Windows, which should improve GPU compatibility and increase efficiency and enable advanced GPU features. One of the other major improvements made, again seemingly courtesy of the new Firefox base, is improved performance and memory consumption on Linux. Linux users will also no longer need to restart Zen after they update the browser using a package manager.
Zen Twilight 1.15t also adds a better colour picker, optimises the glance UI and animations, and fixes some aspects of the browser's theming capabilities, which should make it more user-friendly to set custom colours. Meanwhile, the browser should also display those custom colours more accurately and more vibrantly.
Additionally, Windows users will get a new button style that adheres better to the native styling of Microsoft's desktop.
These features are currently only available on the Twilight 1.15t beta build, but they should make their way to the mainline "beta" of Zen (currently, there is no non-beta version, since the browser is still somewhat new).
Source(s)
Zen Browser on GitHub, Zen Browser
