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Mozilla Firefox 52 Released As ESR Branch, Will Receive Security Updates Until 2018 (softpedia.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the it's-about-time dept.

prisoninmate quotes a report from Softpedia: Back in January, we told you that the development of the Mozilla Firefox 52.0 kicked off with the first Beta release and promised to let users send and open tabs from one device to another, among numerous other improvements and new features. Nine beta builds later, Mozilla has pushed today, March 7, the final binary and source packages of the Mozilla Firefox 52.0 web browser for all supported platforms, including GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows. The good news is that Firefox 52.0 is an ESR (Extended Support Release) branch that will be supported until March-April 2018. Prominent features of the Mozilla Firefox 52.0 ESR release include support for the emerging WebAssembly standard to boost the performance of Web-based games and apps without relying on plugins, the ability to send and open tabs from one device to another, as well as multi-process for Windows users with touchscreens. With each new Firefox release, Mozilla's developers attempt to offer new ways to improve the security of the widely-used web browser across all supported platforms. Firefox 52.0 ESR implements a "This connection is not secure" warning for non-secure pages that require user logins, along with a new Strict Secure Cookies specification.

3 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Upgrade experience by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 1, Insightful
    • My bookmarks bar is invisible on start up and in every new private window. The only way to show it is to hide and then unhide it.
    • The settings button (three horizontal bars) doesn't work. You click it - nothing happens
    • Firefox doesn't restore saved windows/tabs from the previous session even though it's what my preferences say: Show my windows and tabs from last time.
    • Firefox has reset my lightweight theme (luckily I have a backup).

    The worst update ever. I'm horrified by the prospect of upcoming Firefox 57 which will kill at least the third of my XUL add-ons.

    The previous ESR release is no longer supported. Fuck you Mozilla.

    1. Re:Upgrade experience by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You must have zero add-ons installed, IOW you could use any other web browser. That's the sole reason Firefox was created, right? To allow extreme customizability, no?

      I have a shitton of addons installed because it's the only way to make Firefox behave like I want it to.

    2. Re:Upgrade experience by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nowadays Mozilla devs have a peculiar way of treating new bug reports: first, they offer you to disable all add-ons, then reset all settings, then try a fresh profile. I don't like any of these "options".

      Alas, that's what I'm going to do, because Firefox is still the best web browser out there. Too bad, it's headed in the direction of becoming a Chrome clone.