The new version of Firefox 94 has already been released together with the update to LTS (Long Support Period) 91.3.0 version. In this new version of the browser that is presented, various changes have been added that improve the performance and memory management of the browser, among other things.
In addition to innovations and bug fixes, Firefox 94 has fixed 16 vulnerabilities, of which 10 are marked as dangerous. 5 vulnerabilities are caused by memory problems, such as buffer overflows and access to already freed memory areas. These problems could potentially lead to the execution of attacking code when opening specially crafted pages.
Main new features of Firefox 94
Of the main changes that stand out in this new version of Firefox 94 is for example the nnew "about: unloads" service page, where the user cane forcibly download the most resource consuming tabs memory to reduce memory consumption without closing them (the content will be reloaded when switching to the tab).
The page lists the available tabs in order of priority for low memory preference. The priority in the list is selected based on the access time to the tab and not based on the resources consumed.
Another change that stands out is the new a strict site isolation regime, developed within the framework of the Fisión project. Unlike the arbitrary distribution of tab processing in the available process group (8 by default), which has been used so far, lock mode moves each site's processing to its own separate process with division not by tabs, but by domains. The mode is not enabled for all users, the "about: ferences # experimental" page or the "fission.autostart" setting in abou: config can be used to disable or enable it.
New mode provides more reliable protection against Specter attacks, reduces memory fragmentation and allows additional isolation of the content of external scripts and iframes and returns memory to the operating system more efficiently, minimizes the impact of garbage collection and intensive computation on other processes, increases the efficiency of load balancing between different CPU cores and improves stability (blocking the process that processes the iframe will not activate the main site and other tabs throughout).
Moreover, Multi Account Containers plugin offered with the implementation of the concept of context containers, which can be used to flexibly isolate arbitrary sites. Containers provide the ability to isolate different types of content without creating separate profiles, allowing you to separate information from individual page groups.
As for the Linux related changes, for graphical environments using the X11 protocol, a new rendering backend is enabled by default, which stands out for using the EGL interface to display graphics instead of GLX. The backend supports the open source OpenGL Mesa 21.x drivers and the proprietary NVIDIA 470.x drivers.
We can also find that eA layer is enabled by default that solves problems with the clipboard in protocol-based environments Wayland. The composition also includes changes related to the handling of pop-up windows in environments based on the Wayland protocol. Wayland requires a strict hierarchy of pop-ups, that is, the parent window can create a child window with a pop-up window, but the next pop-up window launched from this window must be linked to the original child window, forming a chain.
Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it of this new version, you can check the details in the following link
How to install or update the new version of Firefox on Linux?
Firefox users who have not disabled automatic updates will receive the update automatically. Those who don't want to wait for that to happen 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 yes 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
In the case of Arch Linux users and derivatives, just run in a terminal:
sudo pacman -Syu
Or to install with:
sudo pacman -S firefox
Finally for those who prefer to use Snap packages, They will be able to install the new version as soon as it is released in the Snap repositories.
But they can get the package directly from Mozilla's FTP. With the help of a terminal by typing the following command:
wget https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/94.0/snap/firefox-94.0.snap
And to install the package we just type:
sudo snap install firefox-94.0.snap
Finally, you can get the browser with the latest installation method that was added "Flatpak". To do this, they must have support for this type of package.
Installation is done by typing:
flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.firefox
For all other Linux distributions can download the binary packages from the following link.