UbuntuHandbook

FireFox 60 Released with YubiKey Support

Last updated: May 9, 2018

Firefox 55

Mozilla Firefox 60 was released a few hours ago with new enterprise features, Web Authentication / YubiKey support, and new tab enhancements.

“Firefox 60 offers something for everyone and a little something extra for everyone who deploys Firefox in an enterprise environment. This release includes changes that give you more content and more ways to customize your New Tab/Firefox Home. It also introduces support for the Web Authentication API, which means you can log in to websites in Firefox with USB tokens like YubiKey.”

Firefox 60 release highlights:

Added a policy engine that allows customized Firefox deployments in enterprise environments.
Enhancements to New Tab / Firefox Home.
Redesigned Cookies and Site Storage section in Preferences
Added support for Web Authentication API.
Applied Quantum CSS to render browser UI
Added an option for Linux users to show or hide page titles in a bar at the top of the browser.
Improved WebRTC audio performance and playback for Linux users
Enhanced camera privacy indicators.
And various security fixes.

Install / Upgrade in Ubuntu:

Ubuntu offers the latest Firefox packages though the updates and security repositories.

Once Firefox 60 packages (check the build page) are published in the repositories, you can install or upgrade it via Software Updater:

In Howtos, News Firefox

Firefox 59 Released with Faster Page Load Time

Last updated: March 14, 2018

Mozilla Firefox reached the new stable 59.0 release last night. The new release focus on improvements to page loading time, firefox screenshots, and more.

Changes in Firefox 59.0 include:

Faster load times for content on the Firefox Home page
Faster page load times by loading either from the networked cache or the cache on the user’s hard drive (Race Cache With Network)
Improved graphics rendering using Off-Main-Thread Painting (OMTP) for Mac users (OMTP for Windows was released in Firefox 58)
Drag-and-drop to rearrange Top Sites on the Firefox Home page, and customize new windows and tabs in other ways
Added tools to annotate and crop your Firefox Screenshots
Enhanced WebExtensions API including better support for decentralized protocols and the ability to dynamically register content scripts
Improved Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities.
Implemented RTP Transceiver to give pages more fine grained control over calls
Implemented features to support large scale conferences
Added support for W3C specs for pointer events and improved platform integration with added device support for mouse, pen, and touch screen pointer input
Added the Ecosia search engine as an option for German Firefox
Added the Qwant search engine as an option for French Firefox
Added settings in about:preferences to stop websites from asking to send notifications or access your device’s camera, microphone, and location, while still allowing trusted websites to use these features
And various security fixes.

Upgrade to Firefox 59 in Ubuntu:

The distribution builds will be available in a few days, check the link before doing following steps.

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 17.10, simply launch Software Updater (Update Manager) and you’ll see Firefox in the update list after checking for updates.

If you don’t see the Firefox update, make sure “security” and “updates” repositories are enabled by Software & Updates utility:

That’s it. Enjoy!

In News Firefox

Mozilla Firefox 58 Released! How to Upgrade

Last updated: January 24, 2018

Mozilla Firefox reached new stable 58.0 release hours ago. Ubuntu Mozilla team has built the packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and their derivatives.

Changes in Firefox 58.0 include:

Loading pages faster by changing how Firefox caches and retrieves JavaScript
Rendering graphics for Windows users by using Off-Main-Thread Painting (OMTP)
Firefox Screenshots now works in Private Browsing mode
Copy and paste screenshots directly to your clipboard
Add support for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) in Firefox on Android.
Added Nepali (ne-NP) locale
Read the release note for more details.

Upgrade to Firefox 58 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 17.10, simply launch Software Updater (Update Manager) and you’ll see Firefox in the update list after checking for updates.

If you don’t see the Firefox update, make sure “security” and “updates” repositories are enabled by Software & Updates utility:

That’s it. Enjoy!

In News Firefox

Firefox 57 Released! Over 2x Faster Than Before

Last updated: November 14, 2017

Mozilla Firefox reached the 57.0 release earlier today. The new release, Firefox Quantum, features a completely new browsing engine makes it over twice as fast as before.

Mozilla Firefox 57.0 release highlights:

A completely new browsing engine.
A redesigned interface, and optimizations for touch screens
A unified address and search bar.
A revamped new tab page that includes top visited sites, recently visited pages, and recommendations from Pocket
An updated product tour to orient new and returning Firefox users
AMD VP9 hardware video decoder support for improved video playback with lower power consumption
An expanded section in preferences to manage all website permissions
Also various security fixes and other changes. See release note.

How to install Firefox 57 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, the latest Firefox 57 will be published through Ubuntu security & updates repository.

Once it’s published (check Firefox in launchpad), you can upgrade Firefox via Software Updater:

Can’t wait? Mozilla offers non-install Linux packages (select i686 for 32-bit, x86_64 for 64-bit os):

In Howtos, News Firefox

Mozilla Firefox 56 Released with Built-in Screenshot Tool

Last updated: September 28, 2017

Mozilla Firefox web browser has reached the new stable 56.0 release a day ago.

Firefox 56 features a built-in screenshot tool, allows you to take, save, and share screenshots without leaving the browser.

The new release updated the Preferences section with a search tool so users can find a specific setting quickly.

Other changes in Firefox 56:

improved Send Tabs feature, it can be discovered even by users without a Firefox Account
Added hardware acceleration for AES-GCM
New Encoding Standard-compliant implementation written in Rust
Updated the Safe Browsing protocol to version 4
Reduced update download file size by approximately 20 percent
Improved security for verifying update downloads
Added Layout Panel to CSS Grid DevTools

Download / Install Firefox in Ubuntu:

The best way to install the latest Firefox in Ubuntu is waiting for the distribution builds published in security/updates repository.

Be patient, it will be available in a few days. At that time, you can simply install/upgrade it via Software Updater:

For those who don’t want to wait, download the official Firefox package, extract and run the executable to launch Firefox 56.

In Howtos, News Firefox

Mozilla Firefox 55 Released with WebVR Support

Last updated: August 8, 2017

Mozilla Firefox 55.0 was released earlier today. The new release features WebVR support, faster start time, updated address bar and more.

Firefox 55.0 release highlights:

Windows support for WebVR.
Option to enable Hardware VP9 acceleration on Windows 10 Anniversary Edition.
Significantly faster startup times when restoring lots of tabs.
Search with any installed one-click search engine directly from address bar.
Added support for stereo microphones with WebRTC
Made the Adobe Flash plugin click-to-activate by default
And see the release note for more.

How to Install Firefox 55 in Ubuntu:

Although Mozilla website offers non-install version Linux binaries, the best way to get the latest Firefox in Ubuntu is using Software Updater to upgrade it through Ubuntu main (security & updates) repository.

NOTE that there will some delay for the new release being published in main repositories, check the build page.

The security and updates repositories are enabled by default. If you don’t see the Firefox updates even after Ubuntu published it in these repositories, check out the Updates tab in Software & Updates utility.

In Howtos, News Firefox

Firefox 53 Released with Stability Improvements

Last updated: April 20, 2017

Mozilla Firefox has reached the 53.0 release. It features two new ‘compact’ themes and separate process for graphics compositing.

Firefox 53.0 release highlights:

Graphics stability for Windows users with compositor process separation (Quantum Compositor)
Two new ‘compact’ themes available, dark and light
Reader Mode now displays estimated reading time for the page
New visual design for audio and video controls
Drop Windows XP, Vista, and 32-bit Mac OS X support.
Drop Linux support for processors older than Pentium 4 and AMD Opteron
Various security fixes. See the release note

Install Firefox 53 in Ubuntu:

The new release will be made into official Ubuntu repository soon, available for Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10, Ubuntu 17.04, and derivatives.

Just keep your Ubuntu up-to-date by installing regular updates via Software Updater, and you’ll get Firefox 53 once it’s published in THIS PAGE.

For non-install version, go to the official FTP download page:

Grab the Linux package, extract and run executable file to launch Firefox 53.

In News Firefox

Firefox 51 Released with FLAC, WebGL 2 Support

Last updated: January 24, 2017

Mozilla Firefox web browser has reached the 51 stable release today, features FLAC playback, WebGL 2, video performance improvements, security fixes and other enhancements.

Firefox 51 release highlights:

Users can view passwords in the save password prompt before saving them
Added a zoom button in the URL bar
less CPU usage and a better full screen experience for users without GPU acceleration
Added support for FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) playback
Added support for WebGL 2, with advanced graphics rendering features like transform feedback, improved texturing capabilities, and a new sophisticated shading language
An even faster E10s! Tab Switching is better!
Use 2D graphics library (Skia) for content rendering on Linux
Various security fixes and more.

How to upgrade to Firefix 51 in Ubuntu:

Ubuntu Mozilla Team is maintaining the latest Firefox packages, and will soon build and publish the 51 release via Ubuntu’s main security & updates repositories (check this page).

At that time, you can launch Software Updater and upgrade Firefox after checking for updates.

In News Firefox

Mozilla Firefox 50 Released! [How-to-upgrade]

Last updated: November 15, 2016

Mozilla Firefox browser has now reached the 50 release, with updated keyboard shortcuts, other new features, various security fixes and more.

According to the release note, Firefox 50 features:

Updates to keyboard shortcuts
- Set a preference to have Ctrl+Tab cycle through tabs in recently used order
- View a page in Reader Mode by using Ctrl+Alt+R (command+alt+r on Mac)
Added option to Find in page that allows users to limit search to whole words only
Increased availability of WebGL to more than 98 percent of users on Windows 7 and newer
Added download protection for a large number of executable file types on Windows, Mac and Linux
Improved performance for SDK extensions or extensions using the SDK module loader
Playback video on more sites without plugins with WebM EME Support for Widevine on Windows and Mac
Fixed rendering of dashed and dotted borders with rounded corners
Added a built-in Emoji set for operating systems without native Emoji fonts (Windows 8.0 and lower and Linux)

Download / Install Firefox 50 in Ubuntu:

For the portable non-install version, please go to mozilla.org.

For Ubuntu 16.10, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and derivatives, Canonical will soon offer the new Firefox 50 updates via the updates/security repository. Check out the build page.

At that time, just launch Software Updater and upgrade Firefox after checking for updates.

In News Firefox

Firefox 49 Released with HTML5, Reader Mode Improvements [How-to Install]

Last updated: September 21, 2016

Mozilla Firefox browser has now reached the 49 release, features HTML5, Reader Mode, and video performance improvements, and Firefox Hello removement.

Mozilla Firefox 49 release highlights:

Removed Firefox Hello
Add features to Reader Mode:
- Controls that allow users to adjust the width and line spacing of text
- Narrate, which reads the content of a page out loud
Improved video performance for users on systems that support SSSE3 without hardware acceleration
Added context menu controls to HTML5 audio and video
Other Windows, Mac improvements and various security fixes.

How to upgrade to Firefox 49 in Ubuntu:

For all current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and their derivatives. The new firefox release will be made into the official Ubuntu updates & security repositories, check the launchpad page.

At that time, you can easily upgrade Firefox browser using the Software Updater (or Update Manager in Mint) utility:

In Howtos, News Firefox