Mozilla has released Firefox 142, accompanied by updates for the branches with extended support: Firefox 140.2.0, 115.27.0 and 128.14.0. This versionn comes with improvements in the user experience, new experimental features, and a change to how the browser handles TLS certificate revocation.
Mozilla has fixed 17 vulnerabilities In this version, twelve of them are related to memory errors, such as accesses to freed memory and buffer overflows. These flaws could be exploited to execute malicious code through specially crafted pages, making the update essential to maintain the browser's security.
Main new features of Firefox 142
Firefox 142 introduces a redesign to the new tab page. Now the Recommended articles are grouped into thematic sections such as sports, food, or entertainment. Below each block, the user finds a Follow button, which allows them to subscribe to a type of content or block it entirely.
For now, This feature is only available in the United States, although it will gradually expand to other countries. Those who wish to activate it manually can do so from about: config adjusting options browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.discoverystream.sections.enabled y browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.discoverystream.sections.personalization.enabled.
Another of the new features that Firefox 142 presents is one of the most striking experimental functions, which is the link previewWhich enables evaluate the content of a page before visiting ita. This pop-up window displays a summary and, optionally, the highlights generated by an AI engine that runs locally on the user's system.
To activate it, enough with Hold down the Shift key on a link, long-click, or choose Preview Link from the context menu.. Currently only available by default in regional settings en-US, en-CA, en-GB, and en-AU on computers with more than 3GB of RAM, although it will be rolled out to more users over time. Those who prefer can manually enable it with browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled.
Privacy and tracking protection improvements
Enhanced Tracking Protection mode (ETP) At Strict level it receives a key optimization: the possibility of automatically applying exclusion lists To prevent website failures due to tracker blocking. Users can choose to allow exceptions only in the case of serious outages or also for minor issues.
In parallel, a change of great importance for security and privacy has been introduced: Firefox 142 discontinues the OCSP protocol to check for TLS certificate revocation.
OCSP posed a privacy risk because it required sending requests to certificate authority servers every time a user visited a secure site, thereby exposing information about their browsing habits. Instead, the browser uses CRLite, a local database of revoked certificates that is periodically synchronized with Mozilla. This solution not only better protects privacy but also eliminates latency and the dependence on external servers.
Streamlined workflow across tabs and add-ons
Tab management also received improvements in Firefox 142, and that is The active tab is now allowed to be displayed within a collapsed tab group, without having to expand the entire set. Additionally, you can now remove add-ons directly from the sidebar by simply right-clicking and selecting Delete.
On windows, another notable improvement is that when opening a pending notification while the browser is closed, Firefox opens the highlighted page directly instead of redirecting to the home page.
Developer improvements, new APIs, and more
The new version of Firefox 142 also includes improvements to developer tools, as well as new APIs:
- The Network Monitoring tab displays parameters, cookies, and headers even while a request is in progress.
- The JavaScript debugger now offers a setting to decide whether it remains visible during execution pauses.
- Plugins can leverage the wllama API, a WebAssembly wrapper for llama.cpp, which opens the door to running local language models directly in the browser.
- The Prioritized Tasks API is introduced, allowing JavaScript callbacks to be assigned different levels of importance.
- Added support for URLPattern to check for link matches and redirect requests from a Service Worker.
- The Animation.overallProgress property is added to calculate estimated progress in animations.
- The Selection.getComposedRanges() API extends text selection capabilities.
- Additionally, the Android version offers a new menu design that's cleaner and faster to navigate.
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