Install Firefox 59 and learn about its new features and improvements

Firefox is a popular free browser, open source and developed for Linux, Android, IOS, OS X and Microsoft Windows which uses Gecko as the engine for rendering web pages.

Yesterday, March 13, 2018, the new version of the Firefox browser was released, reaching version 59, with this new version new improvements are added to the browser and especially additional functions to those already known in it.

Con el mejoramiento de Firefox desde su pasado lanzamiento Quantum, con el cual construyeron un nuevo motor para el navegador obteniendo resultados muy positivos.

Los desarrolladores de Firefox han ido mejorando este y añadiendo nuevas funciones y sobre todo optimizando cada vez mejor el navegador.

Firefox 59 enhancements

En la versión para ordenadores de escritorio el navegador ha mejorado aun mas los tiempos de carga de las paginas.

También sobre las nuevas funciones añadidas se han agregado herramientas para anotar y recortar las capturas de pantalla.

En cuanto a la versión para Android se añadió el soporte para sitios web que transmiten video usando el protocolo HLS.

Resolved security bugs

On the other hand, as in any new version several security bugs are also fixed of which most of them are critical level, among the most notable fixed errors we find:

• URLs that use javascript: remove the protocol when pasted into the address bar to protect users from cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, but if a tab character is embedded in the URL javascript: the protocol is not removed and the script will run. This could allow users to be socially designed to run an XSS attack against themselves.
• A buffer overflow can occur when manipulating SVG animatedPathSegList through script, resulting in a potentially exploitable lock.
• A vulnerability in the Push API notifications where notifications can be sent through service workers by web content without direct user interaction. This could be used to open new tabs in a denial of service (DOS) attack or to display Unwanted content from arbitrary URLs to users.

Privacy

Regarding privacy, in Firefox's private browsing mode they have decided to delete the information of the routes of references to avoid cross-site tracking.

Other changes in Firefox 59

Finally, among the others in this version of Firefox 59 we find:

• Faster loading times for content on the Firefox home page
• Faster page load times loading from the network cache or from the cache on the user's hard drive (Race Cache With Network)
• Improved rendering of graphics using Off-Main-Thread Painting (OMTP) for Mac users (OMTP for Windows was released in Firefox 58)
• Drag and drop to rearrange the best places on the Firefox home page and customize new windows and tabs in other ways
• Additional features for Firefox Screenshots
• Basic annotation allows user to draw and highlight saved screenshots
• Repositioned to change the visible area of ​​saved screenshots

How to install Firefox 59 on Ubuntu and derivatives?

If you want to install this new version of the browser on your system, we must first add a repository to the systemThis is because this version is not yet available within the official Ubuntu repositories.

To add it we must open a terminal and execute the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa

Now we just have to update our list of repositories

sudo apt update

And finally we proceed to install the browser with:

sudo apt install Firefox

After the installation we just have to go to our application menu and run the browser to start using this new version.

Uninstall Firefox

If what you want is to uninstall this browser or you want to delete the version you have in order to install the new one, I leave these commands:

Now to completely remove Firefox from your system:

sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppasudo apt purge firefox

If you just want to uninstall Firefox

sudo apt-get remove --purge firefox