Mozilla has released version 73 of its Firefox web browser, a version presented by its publisher as a modest development that mainly incorporates bug fixes and security improvements.
In addition, it adds a handful of new features, which are mainly related to accessibility features designed to make web browsing easier for people who need it, as well as useful additions for developers including CSS and JavaScript updates, and many DevTools improvements.
Firefox 73 introduces a global zoom setting accessible in the "Language & Appearance" section. This setting allows you to set a default Firefox zoom level that can be increased or decreased as needed. However, any custom zoom level changes made on websites are retained.
Secondly, Firefox 73 improves audio quality when playing at fast or slow speeds , and Windows users who have chosen the system's high-contrast display mode may notice that websites with page overlays always retain their background images.
These are no longer disabled when Windows high contrast mode is enabled. This measure should facilitate the readability of sites for visually impaired users.
Another notable change in Firefox 73 is the activation of the WebRender engine on computers with a screen resolution lower than 1920 x 1080 pixels (FHD) and equipped with an NVIDIA GPU with drivers higher than 432.00 . Additionally, the Network Settings tab now allows users to specify NextDNS as their DNS over HTTPS provider, instead of Cloudflare.
Regarding improvements to developer tools, the logical properties of CSS stand out , where this new version of Firefox has been enriched with two new elements: overscroll-behaviour-block and overscroll-behaviour-inline.
These new properties provide a logical alternative to the xy scroll behaviors, allowing you to control the behavior of the browser when the limit of a scroll zone is reached.
Furthermore, the HTMLFormElement interface also has a new method, requestSubmit() . Unlike the old (and still available) submit() method, requestSubmit() acts as if a specified submit button had been clicked, rather than simply sending the form data to the recipient.
Regarding DevTools updates : there are many interesting DevTools updates in Mozilla Firefox 73, and upcoming features can already be seen in Firefox DevEdition. For example, it's now possible to copy cleaner CSS snippets from the Inspector's Changes panel without the + and - signs.
The improvements in DevTools have focused on improving performance , for example, to make the user interface smoother or to speed up the loading time of large source-mapped scripts in the debugger, while generating fewer conflicts at the console level.
Generally speaking, Firefox 73 makes loading scripts much more reliable and ensures that you get the correct file to debug.
The Firefox 73 console has also become smarter , now flagging CORS network errors as errors, not warnings, to give them the visibility they deserve.
Also, the variables declared in the expression will now be included in the autocomplete. This change makes it easier to write long excerpts in the multi-line editor.
Additionally, the DevTools configuration for self-closing hooks now works in the console, bringing you closer to the authoring experience in an IDE. Finally, console logs can be designed using backgrounds in this new version of Mozilla's web browser.
How to install the new version of Firefox 73 on Linux?
Users of Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or any other Ubuntu derivative can install or upgrade to this new version using 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
Having done this, now you just need to install with:
sudo apt install firefox
For users of Arch Linux and derivatives, simply run the following command in a terminal:
sudo pacman -Syu
Or to install the browser, they can do it with the following command:
sudo pacman -S firefox
Now, for those who are users of Fedora or any other distribution derived from it, simply open a terminal and type the following command (if you already have a previous version of the browser installed):
sudo dnf update --refresh firefox
Or to install:
sudo dnf install firefox
Finally, if you are an openSUSE user , you can take advantage of the community repositories, from which you can add the Mozilla repository to your system.
This can be done with a terminal and in it by typing:
su -
zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/mozilla/openSUSE_Leap_15.1/ mozilla
zypper ref
zypper dup --from mozilla
For all other Linux distributions, you can download the binary packages from the following link.