mozilla announcement recently the launch of the new version of your browser Firefox 102 and with this announcement, Mozilla took the opportunity to give the information that Firefox 91, which is an ESR (Extended Support Release) release, will benefit from two other major updates and will no longer be supported as of September 20, 2022 .
Starting on that date, Firefox 91 users will automatically upgrade to Firefox 102, which is the new version of ESR and will therefore replace Firefox 91.
Main new features of Firefox 102
For this new version of Firefox, Mozilla explains that it is now possible to disable the automatic opening of the download panel which is activated every time a new download is started. Along with this new feature, the Firefox team also claims that Firefox now mitigates query parameter tracking when browsing sites when enabling ETP mode strict. This feature is Mozilla's response to online advertising companies that use query parameters to track users.
For those who like to browse the web in private mode, this new feature will not work. The tracking settings will not be removed, which means that the user can be tracked despite using the mode that is supposed to offer more privacy.
Another of the changes that stands out is the support for more extensive color levels for video playback in many systems, as well as the support for the new AVIF image format, which is based on the modern AV1 video codec.
The PDF viewer firefox now allows you to complete more forms (eg XFA based forms, used by various governments and banks).
Also the automatic download of tabs based on its last access time, memory usage, and other attributes when available system memory is critically low on Windows. This helps reduce Firefox crashes due to lack of memory. On the other hand, when you switch to a downloaded tab, it automatically reloads.
On the other hand, the Improved web support for privacy protection with SmartBlock 3.0 In Private Browsing and Strict Tracking Protection, Firefox goes to great lengths to protect users' web browsing activity from trackers. As part of this, built-in content blocking will automatically block the uploading of scripts, images, and other third-party content by Disconnect-flagged cross-site tracking companies.
Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:
- Download and install Firefox updates in the background on Windows, even when the browser is closed.
- Introduction of Site Isolation to protect Firefox users from side channel attacks
- Autofill and capture of credit cards in Germany, France and the United Kingdom
- Ability for Firefox users to use as many microphones at the same time during a video conference
- Improved WebGL performance on Linux to reduce power consumption;
- Improved Linux sandboxing by limiting access to the Windows system by processes exposed to web content
- Block downloads that rely on insecure connections, thus protecting users from potentially malicious or dangerous downloads.
- Support for images containing ICC v4 profiles enabled on macOS;
- Reduced CPU usage in Firefox on macOS and Windows Server when processing events;
- HDR video support on macOS.
How to install the new version of Firefox 102 on Linux?
Ubuntu users, Linux Mint or some other derivative of Ubuntu, They can install or update to this new version with the help of the browser's PPA.
This can be added to the system by opening a terminal and executing the following command in it:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa -y
sudo apt-get update
Done this now they just have to install with:
sudo apt install firefox
For Arch Linux users and derivatives, just run in a terminal:
sudo pacman -S firefox
Now for those who are Fedora users or any other distribution derived from it:
sudo dnf install firefox
For all other Linux distributions can download the binary packages from the following link.