Firefox is a popular web browser
A few days ago, Mozilla announced the release of the new version of its web browser, "Firefox 129," which includes new features such as "HTTPS-First Schemeless" mode, thumbnail previews of tab content, a new theme, security improvements, bug fixes, and more.
Firefox 129 has been released along with updates for the 115.14.0 and 128.1.0 extended support branches. Additionally, Firefox 130 has entered beta testing. Firefox 129 addresses 14 vulnerabilities, 11 of which are considered critical, with 6 of those caused by memory issues such as buffer overflows and access to freed memory areas.
Main new features in Firefox 129
In this new version of Firefox 129, Reader View integrates new menu options to customize text presentation and page layout, including adjustments for character and word indentation, as well as text alignment. A new "Theme" menu has also been introduced in Reader View , allowing users to customize background, text, and link colors, and select display modes such as dark, grayscale, light, contrast, and sepia.
Another new feature is the display of tab content thumbnails when you hover over tab buttons. In addition to the preview, the corresponding link is shown in an information block above the tab, making it easier to identify the desired tab without having to switch between them. Users who prefer to disable this feature can do so via the " browser.tabs.hoverPreview.enabled" setting in "about:config".
In addition, Firefox 129 introduces an experimental sidebar and the option to position tabs vertically, allowing for better use of screen space on widescreen displays. The sidebar can be displayed expanded or collapsed: in its expanded form, some titles of open pages and the names of available sidebar actions are shown, while in its collapsed form, only the corresponding icons are displayed. To enable vertical tabs, you need to enable the "sidebar.revamp" and "sidebar.verticalTabs" options .
By default, "HTTPS-First Schemeless" mode is enabled. In this mode, when you try to open a page from the address bar without specifying http or https, https will be used by default . If a secure connection is unavailable, the browser will use unencrypted http. To enable full "HTTPS-First" mode, use the dom.security.https_first option in the settings.
On Linux, Windows 11, and Android 10 or later , it's now possible to use a system resolver to manage the DNS records needed to transmit public key information in the ECH mechanism (an evolution of Encrypted Server Name Indication, offering greater security by encrypting the entire ClientHello TLS message). Hiding domains in HTTPS traffic has been shown in some cases to improve YouTube loading speeds, something that has been problematic for users of certain Russian providers.
For users in France and Germany, the autofill feature for address fields in web forms is now enabled by default . Previously, this option was only available to users in the US and Canada. To enable it, go to about:config and add the extensions.formautofill.addresses.supportedCountries option.
Regarding improvements for developers:
- New @starting-style rule that allows applying a style to an element from its first rendering, useful for creating transition animations when opening an element that is initially in state display:none or when adding a new element to the DOM.
- About the event textInput, although not defined in the standard, has been implemented to be used in place of the `beforeinput` event in some web applications that rely on older frameworks.
- In JavaScript, support for typed arrays has been added Float16Array, along with methods in DataView to manage values float16, and the method Math.f16round() to round numbers to 16-bit precision.
- Web developer tools have added new warnings about CSS issues that can arise when properties like resize and float, or when box-sizing applies to elements that ignore changes in height and width, and when table-specific properties are used on elements that are not related to tables.
- In the network activity analysis dashboard, the network blocking feature now applies to both responses and HTTP requests.
- The Android version now includes the option to download language packs to translate text offline.
If you're interested in learning more, you can check out the release notes at the following link.
How to install Firefox 129 on Linux?
For those already using Firefox , you can simply access the menu to update to the latest version. Firefox users who have not disabled automatic updates will receive the update automatically.
Those who don't want to wait can select Menu > Help > About Firefox after the official release to initiate a manual update of the web browser. The screen that opens displays the currently installed version of the browser and checks for updates, provided the functionality is enabled.
Another option to update is for users of Ubuntu, Linux Mint or any other Ubuntu derivative. You can install or update to this new version using the browser's PPA. To add it to the system, open a terminal and run the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa -y sudo apt-get update sudo apt install firefox
Another installation method that you can use is “Flatpak”. To do this, they must have support for this type of packages and the browser installation is done by typing the following command in the terminal:
flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.firefox
As for those who already have the browser installed, it is enough to execute the following command to not only update Firefox, but also all its applications that are in Flatpak format:
flatpack update
In the case of those who prefer the use of Snap, the installation of the browser can be done by typing the following command:
sudo snap install firefox
And to update the applications that we have installed in Snap format, just type the following in the terminal:
sudo snap refresh