The new version of «Firefox 134» is now available along with updates for extended support branches 115.19.0 and 128.6.0. Among the most outstanding news Firefox 134 features a refreshed new tab page design, improvements to the address bar, support for additional touchpad gestures on Linux, and more.
On Firefox 134 20 vulnerabilities are resolved in this version, 11 of them rated as critical. Issues addressed include memory issues such as buffer overflows and improper access to freed memory, which could allow malicious code to be executed. A specific vulnerability in the Android version that allowed manipulation of the address bar using a malicious protocol scheme is also fixed.
Main new features of Firefox 134
One of the new features of this new version of Firefox 134 is the Renewed page design that is displayed when opening a new tab. The redesign includes a search bar, a weather widget and a list of recommended pages, arranged in a line instead of a grid. In addition, the number of columns with content automatically adjusts to the width of the window to optimize the use of screen space. This new redesign is Initially available for users in the United States and Canada, while for users outside these countries they can enable this feature in about:config under “newtab” and add their country code to the fields with the value “US, CA”.
Another important change is the address bar dropdown menu improvement. Now includes not only recommended and previously opened pages, but also those recent search queries, allowing them to be corrected or reused quickly. This menu also Add buttons for additional actions such as printing pages or switching between tabs.
In addition to this, Firefox 134 also highlights the Introduction of additional gestures on touchpads for Linux, such as two-finger tap to pause inertial scrolling. In Windows, support for HEVC (H.265) video decoding is incorporated, improving multimedia playback on this system.
Moreover, the Handling of user activation status is further adjusted to the specifications as of this new version, since This state, which is activated by actions such as clicks or mouse movements, Enables some previously blocked web APIs, such as popup dialogs. The changes reduce false blocking warnings and make handling more flexible. On the CSS side, absolutely positioned elements can now take advantage of properties like align-self, justify-self, and place-self for more fine-grained control over their layout.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- RegExp.escape() method: Facilitates the construction of regular expressions by automatically escaping reserved characters, allowing escaped strings to be used as templates in the RegExp() constructor.
- Logpoints in JavaScript: Logpoints in the debugger are automatically converted to profiler flags, allowing these flags to be added from the debugger
- Promise.try() method: Simplifies error handling by converting any function result into a promise, integrating both asynchronous and synchronous operations.
- Experimental support is introduced for the HTML autocorrect attribute and the HTMLElement.autocorrect property, which enable automatic correction of text in HTML elements. and . Enabled via the dom.forms.autocorrect option in about:config.
- The debugger now automatically reloads code after updating a plugin.
- Support for VP8 codec added to WebRTC
- The Network panel in the Developer Tools now displays data transmitted in responses with HTTP code 103 ("Early Hints").
Interested in knowing more about it, you can consult the release notes in the following link
How to install Firefox on Linux?
If you are already a Firefox user, you should know that you can easily update to the latest version accessing the configuration menu. Those with automatic updates enabled need not worry as they will receive the new version without manual intervention.
Alternatively, if you prefer not to wait for the automatic update, you can do it manually by going to Menu > Help > About Firefox. This will open a window showing the installed version and, if the feature is enabled, it will check for available updates.
For Ubuntu, Linux Mint and other derivatives users from Ubuntu, too It is possible to update Firefox through the official PPATo do this, open a terminal and enter the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa -y sudo apt-get update sudo apt install firefox
Another available installation option is via Flatpak. To use this method, you need to have Flatpak support on your system. Once enabled, you can install Firefox by running 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