Firefox

Installation

Deb package

• How to Install Firefox as DEB on Ubuntu (Not Snap) 2024/1/24

PPA for Ubuntu

https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/firefox-next

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-next
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install firefox

Note that

• this method does not work on Linux Mint (tested on Mint 18.3).
• this method will download a beta version (eg. 64.0) than the official download from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/ (eg. 63.0)

Firefox ESR

How To Install Firefox ESR In Ubuntu Or Linux Mint (PPA Or Snap)

Beta, Developer Edition, Nightly

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/desktop/

Why Firefox

8 Reasons Why I Keep Coming Back to Firefox

Cookie protection

Firefox Total Cookie Protection Rolling Out: Here’s How It Works, Firefox: Our new cookie protection will stop companies tracking you across sites 2022/6/15

Release history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_version_history

Multiple profiles

This site https://libre-software.net/how-to-install-firefox-on-ubuntu-linux-mint/ has an update and information about installing FF on Ubuntu/Mint.

Back Up (and Restore) Profiles

How to Back Up (and Restore) Mozilla Firefox Profiles

Multiple accounts

• Firefox Multi-Account Containers add-on.
• What is Firefox Multi-Account Containers? Why and How to Use It?.
• How to Improve Your Online Privacy With Firefox Multi-Account Containers

Set scrollbar width

https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/653105.

In about:config, set widget.non-native-theme.scrollbar.size.override to the desired numeric value (eg 20).

Add-on = extensions + plugins + others

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7575658/firefox-add-on-vs-extensions-vs-plugins

Add-on: essentially anything that can be installed into the browser. This includes for example extensions, themes, plugins, dictionaries, language packs, search engines.

Extensions != Plugins

• http://www.howtogeek.com/geeknote/the-more-you-know-browser-plugins-and-extensions-aren%E2%80%99t-the-same-thing/
• Firefox is killing support for browser plugins.
• Browser Extensions Are Like Tiny Web Pages That Live In Your Browser
• Browser Plugins Are Like Automatically Opening Every File You See. Browser plugins are actually applications compiled into a special format. Instead of being a .EXE file, they are usually a .DLL file and they are loaded only by the browser. But once they are loaded they are running much like any other application on your computer, except they are used to open a video (or other) file from the website you are visiting. So when there is a security hole bad things are going to happen.

Extensions

32 Most Used Firefox Add-ons to Improve Productivity in Linux 2024

Recommended extensions

Full list

Dark Reader

https://darkreader.org/help/en/

Print friendly

https://www.printfriendly.com/

User-Agent Switcher

User-Agent Switcher and Manager by Ray. Options -> White-list Mode -> www.bing.com -> Save. Then all sites still use the original user agent except www.bing.com uses the one (e.g. Android) we have specified.

Noise control

It is mentioned in the pcworld.

Facebook Container

https://www.howtogeek.com/fyi/facebook-container-isolates-facebook-from-the-rest-of-your-firefox-browsing/

Chrome Store Foxified

How to Install Any Chrome Extension in Firefox

Flash video downloader

https://lifehacker.com/chrome-firefox-extension-of-the-week-flash-video-downl-1825010162

Video download helper

• http://www.downloadhelper.net/
• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/ (>3M users). See also VLC page.

Free VPN

• The Best Free VPN for Firefox
• Mozilla VPN, Mozilla VPN Review

Plugins

Uninstall or Disable Plugins to Make Your Browser More Secure

Popular Plug-ins You May Not Need: Silverlight, Java, and Flash.

Shockwave Flash

It is better to disable it.

Add-ons

ClearURLs

ClearURLs (Firefox), Chrome.

Internet Annoyances

11 Internet Annoyances You Can Get Rid of Immediately 2019

Privacy/security protection

5 Firefox extensions to protect your privacy Oct 2018

• Privacy Badger
• DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
• HTTPS Everywhere
• https://noscript.net/ NoScript Security Suite
• Facebook Container

10 Quick Firefox Tweaks to Maximize Your Online Privacy:

• Facebook Container Extension,
• Privacy Badger Extension,
• uBlock Origin Extension,
• Cookie Autodelete Extension,
• Disconnect Extension,
• Decentraleyes Extension,
• Temporary Containers Extension,
• Private Browsing Feature,
• Firefox’s Do Not Track Feature,
• Change Permissions for Location and Camera.

DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-for-firefox/?src=collection

Privacy Badger

Make your Firefox browser a privacy superpower with these extensions

uBlock Origin

This is very popular. It is included in Firefox Ad Blocker Collection.

After installation, it will ask if we want to enable it in private window. Just check the box.

Youtube

• 6 Firefox Add-Ons to Improve Your YouTube Viewing Experience
• Youtube High Definition

Android PDF.js

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/android-pdf-js/. It works when I installed it on Onyx Note Air (Android 10) & Firefox Nightly.

Troubleshooting

Disable video autoplay

Firefox 66 blocks auto-playing audio, improves multi-tab search, and more

https://www.technologyhint.com/stop-video-autoplay-chrome-firefox/. The method works on html5 video on PCWorld.

For Flash

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + A or type about:addons.
2. Click on "Plugins" section and find Shockwave Flash plugin.
3. Click the drop-down menu besides the plugin and choose "Ask to Activate" option.

For HTML5

1. Type the following in the address bar: about:config
2. Search for this option: media.autoplay.enabled. Once you find the option, right-click on it and select "Toggle" option. This will change the value of the option to false. It does not help on FF 63 for Mint.
3. Search for this option: media.autoplay.default. Change its value from 0 to 1 to block for all domains and change the value to 2 for domain specific. See How to Disable Video Autoplay in Chrome and Firefox Nov 2018. It works on FF 63 for Mint.

Disassociate zip/tar.gz files with VLC

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1108470

In the file /home/$USER/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list,

I had this line:

application/octet-stream=vlc.desktop;

I erased "vlc.desktop" and it seems to resolve my problem.

Others

Passwords

Type about:logins in URL

In-page Popups

• Future Firefox Builds May Purge Annoying In-Page Popups
• How to Block Website Popup Notifications Using Firefox 59

Automated Translation

Firefox 117 Release Adds Automated Translation Feature Support

How to Keep Your Mobile Browsing Private

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/mobile-browsing-private/

Webkay: What every Browser knows about you

http://webkay.robinlinus.com/

File sharing

• https://send.firefox.com/, How to use Firefox Send for secure file sharing
• Mozilla’s Firefox Send is a free, encrypted file transfer service (for any browser)
• ffsend command. Secure File Share From The Command Line (Firefox Send Client)

DNS over HTTPS

How to enable DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) in Firefox

HTTPS and self signed certificates

Get Firefox to trust your self signed certificates

How to Block Images on Websites

How to Block Images on Websites in Firefox