Firefox
Installation
Deb package
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
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.
FindBar Tweak
Noise control
It is mentioned in the pcworld.
Facebook Container
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
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
Awesome Screenshot Plus - Capture, Annotate & More
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
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
- Press Ctrl + Shift + A or type about:addons.
- Click on "Plugins" section and find Shockwave Flash plugin.
- Click the drop-down menu besides the plugin and choose "Ask to Activate" option.
For HTML5
- Type the following in the address bar: about:config
- 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.
- 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/
- 9 Firefox Settings I Always Keep Disabled
- Autofill Passwords
- Search Suggestions in the Address Bar
- Turn Off Speculative (conjectural) Connections
- Never Remember History
- Autoplay for Audio and Video
- Telemetry and Data Collection
- Hardware Acceleration
- Microphone and Camera Permissions
- WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication)
Webkay: What every Browser knows about you
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