Firefox is a popular web browser
Mozilla recently announced the launch of the new version of Firefox 122, which comes with several improvements, both for the desktop edition as well as for the Android version.
In this new version of Firefox 122, Mozilla has given a small nod to Ubuntu, Debian and Linux Mint users, as well as improved search suggestions, implemented improvements to development tools and more.
Main new features of Firefox 122
Firefox 122 presents expanded search suggestions, which while the user types in the address bar shows recommendations. For search engines that provide thumbnails in addition to text descriptions, the browser will now show visual suggestions.
Another of the highlights of this new version of Mozilla is the launching an official DEB repository for Ubuntu, Debian and Linux Mint users. These new .deb packages include security, privacy, and translation improvements.
When building the packages, the compiler includes additional optimizations, as well as flags to improve security. The package includes a .desktop file to place a shortcut on the desktop and in the distribution menu.
In addition, it is highlighted that in Firefox 122 WebRTC includes support for the ULPFEC mechanism by default, it allows you to recover damaged or lost packages.
It is also highlighted that added support for Screen Wake Lock API, which allows a web application, such as a media player, to block the screen saver call after a long period of user inactivity.
Moreover, in Firefox 122 the possibility of enabling the GPC mechanism is offered which replaces the “DNT” (Do Not Track) header and allows sites to be informed that the sale of personal data and its use to track preferences or movements between sites is prohibited.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- On Android added the ability to set Firefox as the default PDF viewer.
- To improve protection against passive user identification, the User-Agent header is now always set to "Android 10", regardless of the actual platform version.
- The LargestContentfulPaint API has been implemented, which provides information about the time it takes to draw the largest image or text before the user starts interacting with the page.
- Added experimental API support:
Shadow DOM declarative API (enabled via dom.webcomponents.shadowdom.declarative.enabled in about:config) to create new branches in the Shadow DOM. - Emergent API (enabled via dom.element.popover.enabled in about:config) to create UI elements to display on top of other web UI elements.
- Clipboard reader and writer (enabled via dom.events.asyncClipboard.clipboardItem, dom.events.asyncClipboard.readText, and dom.events.asyncClipboard.writeText in about:config) that allows use of the ClipboardItem interface and read methods (), readText() and write().
How to install or update the new version of Firefox on Linux?
As always, for those who already use firefox, they can simply access the menu to update to the latest version, meaning Firefox users who have not disabled automatic updates will receive the update automatically.
While for those who don't want to wait for that to happen, they can select Menu> Help> About Firefox after the official launch to initiate a manual update of the web browser.
The screen that opens displays the currently installed version of the web browser and runs a check for updates, provided the functionality is enabled.
Another option to update, is if you are a user of Ubuntu, Linux Mint or some other derivative of Ubuntu, you 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 sudo apt install firefox
The last installation method that was added “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