Each new release of Mozilla’s Firefox brings improved performance to this popular open-source web browser. But despite these welcome tweaks, Firefox remains hobbled in one major respect: it’s resolutely 32-bit.
There is an experimental 64-bit build of Firefox Nightly for Windows and Linux, but it’s an extremely early, unstable release and isn’t recommended for the casual user. So how can you enjoy Firefox in 64-bit without major risk? The answer lies with Waterfox 8.0.
As its name implies, Waterfox is a close relative of Firefox. In actual fact, it’s the same source code as found in the latest stable build of Firefox, compiled specifically for 64-bit versions of Windows. That means, name aside, you’re effectively running Firefox 64-bit, complete with all the performance improvements that brings, mostly through the improved handling of large amounts of memory that 64-bit computing brings.