Mozilla has officially released the new version of "Firefox 147", an update that mmarks a significant advance in integration with the browser with the ecosystem of Linux and web traffic optimizationAlong with this new major version, the Extended Support Branches (ESR) have also been updated to versions 140.7.0 and 115.32.0, ensuring stability for enterprise environments.
Firefox 147 fixes 23 security vulnerabilitiesThis includes ten critical memory management issues that could have allowed malicious code to run. The Android version also benefits from these improvements, now incorporating the same Spectre-like side-channel attack protections already present on the desktop version.
Main new features of Firefox 147
One of the most anticipated new features for the Linux community is the adoption of the XDG Base Directory standardFirefox 147 now It allows you to store profiles, configurations, and extensions. in the ~/.config/mozilla path, aligning with modern freedesktop.org conventions and keeping the home directory cleaner. For those who prefer the classic ~/.mozilla location, compatibility is maintained as a legacy option that can be enabled via an environment variable.
In terms of web performance, this version introduces support for Compression Dictionary Transport. This mechanism It drastically reduces bandwidth consumption. Using the Zstandard and Brotli algorithms in combination with shared dictionaries between the client and server, this technology enables advanced scenarios such as delta compression. When updating a JavaScript file, the server only sends the changes compared to the previous version that the browser already has cached, accelerating the loading of complex web applications.
Personalization also receives attention with the New page about:keyboard. This internal interface It allows users to redefine browser keyboard shortcuts., facilitating adaptation for those migrating from other programs or wishing to avoid conflicts with system hotkeys.
At the hardware level, the Users with AMD graphics cards will experience a noticeable improvement in video playback. Hardware-accelerated decoding now works in "zero-copy" mode. This eliminates the need to duplicate data in memory and brings the performance of these cards in line with Intel and NVIDIA solutions. Furthermore, Apple Silicon devices running macOS have finally received support for the WebGPU API, unlocking next-generation graphics capabilities on the web.
Safety remains an absolute priority. Firefox 147 updates its implementation of the Safe Browsing protocol, allowing the download of malicious site blocklists for local querying, which improves privacy by reducing external queries. Furthermore, in strict mode of the Enhanced Tracking Protection has been activated By default, the specification of Local Area Network (LNA) AccessThis measure blocks attempts by public websites to scan or access devices within the user's local network, protecting routers and printers from CSRF attacks.
For web development tools, support has been added for the Navigation API, which optimizes history handling in single-page applications (SPAs), and the CSS Anchor Positioning specification, which allows anchoring visual elements such as tooltips to other components without relying on JavaScript. Support has also been added for importing CSS modules as if they were JavaScript modules, and the ICU library has been updated to version 78 to support Unicode 17.
Finally, if you're interested in seeing the full list of technical changes, you can check the details in the official release notes. The link is this.
How to install or update to Firefox 147
If you already have Firefox installed, the update should arrive automatically through your distribution's package manager in the next few days. However, if you want Get version 146 immediately without waiting for the official repositoriesThe best option is to use the official binary provided by Mozilla.
To install it from the binary on any Linux distribution (Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, etc.), you can follow these steps in your terminal:
wget -O firefox.tar.bz2 "https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest&os=linux64&lang=es-ES" sudo tar xjf firefox.tar.bz2 -C /opt/ sudo ln -sf /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
If you prefer to use the packages Snap (common in Ubuntu), you can force the update with:
Sudo Snap Refresh Firefox
For users who prefer Flatpak And on Flathub, the update can be performed by running:
flatpak update org.mozilla.firefox
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
Finally, if you prefer to wait for it to arrive in your distribution's native repositories (DNF, Pacman), you just need to run your system's usual update command, although keep in mind that this can take anywhere from a few hours (on Arch) to several days (on Debian/Ubuntu).