35 Years of Web, Speedometer 3, Chrome 123-124, Firefox 124-125, Vivaldi mobile 6.6, and more | Front End News #108

NOTE: This is issue #108 of my newsletter, which went live on Wednesday, April 17. You might find this information valuable and exciting and want to receive future issues as they are published ahead of everyone else. In that case, I invite you to join the subscriber list at frontendnexus.com.

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We mark a significant milestone in this issue - 35 years of the World Wide Web. Speedometer 3.0 sets a new standard for browser performance. Browser News brings you the latest updates for Chrome (123-124), Firefox (124-125), and Vivaldi mobile (6.6), ensuring you stay ahead in the digital landscape. The Release Radar has new releases and updates, including Angular 17.3, Bun 1.1, Deno 1.42, ESLint v9, Gulp v5, WordPress 6.5, and more. We wrap things up with tools, utilities, images, and fonts, equipping you with everything you need for your web design and development needs.

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The Web’s 35th Birthday

March 12 marks 35 years since the birth of the Web. This year, we received an open letter from its creator, Tim Berners-Lee, and an article from the CEO of the W3C.

What are the key points we should remember? Big corporations still influence the Web, and the fast rise of AI only exacerbates the situation. We must address power concentration and the personal data market that enables targeted advertising.

• Marking the Web’s 35th Birthday: An Open Letter

• From a humble beginning 35 years ago, the Web is now central to the daily lives of billions

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Speedometer 3.0

Speedometer is a browser benchmark that has just reached the third major iteration.

• Announcing Speedometer 3.0: A Shared Browser Benchmark for Web Application Responsiveness

• WebKit: Speedometer 3.0: The Best Way Yet to Measure Browser Performance

• Firefox: Improving Performance in Firefox and Across the Web with Speedometer 3

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💻 Browser News

Rachel Andrew provides the March synopsis of what new things launched on the web platform.

• New to the web platform in March

Chrome

Chrome 123 supports the new light-dark() function, allows you to diagnose responsiveness on your site with the Long Animation Frames API, and more. The DevTools have been updated extensively, including the Elements and Network panels and upgrading Lighthouse to version 11.5.

• New in Chrome 123

• What's new in DevTools (Chrome 123)

Chrome 124 has just been released. It brings two new APIs for using declarative shadow DOM in JavaScript, a new API for WebSocket Stream, better view transitions, and more. DevTools include a new AutoFill panel, better CSS nesting, Lighthouse 11.6, and so on.

• New in Chrome 124

• What's new in DevTools, Chrome 124

Firefox

Firefox 124 brings a suite of quality-of-life improvements and security fixes.

• Firefox 124 Release Notes

• Firefox 124 for developers

Firefox 125 supports the AV1 codec and the popover global attribute, providing numerous security fixes and minor web platform additions.

• Firefox 125 Release Notes

• Firefox 125 for developers

Vivaldi

Vivaldi mobile users get their upgrade to version 6.6, both on Android and iOS.

• Vivaldi on Android gets Custom Wallpapers

• Vivaldi on iOS goes colorful

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📡 The Release Radar

• Angular v17.3.0 - The modern web developer's platform

• Babylon.js 7.0.0 - A game and rendering engine packed into a friendly JavaScript framework

• Bun 1.1 - An all-in-one toolkit for JavaScript and TypeScript apps

• Cypress 13.7.0 - Fast, easy, and reliable testing for anything that runs in a browser

• D3 v7.9.0 - A free, open-source JavaScript library for visualizing data

• Deno 1.42 - A modern runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript

• Docusaurus 3.2 - Easy to maintain open source documentation websites

• ESLint v9.0.0 - Find and fix problems in your JavaScript code

• Express 4.19.0 - Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for Node

• Gulp v5 - A toolkit to automate & enhance your workflow

• Neutralinojs v5.1.0 - Portable and lightweight cross-platform desktop application development framework

• Next.js 14.2 - The React Framework for the Web

• Node: Security Releases April 3, April 10 | Current: v21.7.0, v21.7.1, v21.7.2, v21.7.3 | LTS: v20.12.0, v20.12.1, v20.12.2, v18.20.0, v18.20.1, v18.20.2 - An asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime

• Nuxt 3.11 - The Intuitive Vue Framework

• Preact 10.20.0 - Fast 3kB alternative to React with the same modern API

• Storybook 8 - A frontend workshop for building UI components and pages in isolation

• VitePress 1.0 and 1.1 - Vite & Vue powered static site generator

• WordPress 6.5 “Regina” - The most popular website platform in the world

• zx 8.0.0 - A tool for writing better scripts

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🛠️ Front End Resources

• AI Color Combination Generator - Generate color combinations for any project using AI

• CSSmatic - The ultimate CSS tools for web designers

• Figma Checklists - A set of benchmarks to elevate the design and quality of your Figma components

• Gradientor - A minimalist, beautiful Radial Background Generator

• Hex Colors - Free color tools, palettes, and color schemes

• Lumni - free AI-generated stock photos and royalty-free images

• The Inter typeface family - A free and open source font family

• Variable Fonts - A simple resource for finding and trying variable fonts

There's more where that came from. Explore the rest of the Front End Resource collection.

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Wrapping things up

Ukraine is still suffering from the Russian invasion. If you want to find ways to help, please read Smashing Magazine's article We All Are Ukraine 🇺🇦 or contact your trusted charity.

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That's all I have for this issue. Have a great and productive week, keep yourselves safe, and spend as much time as possible with your loved ones. I will see you again next time!