A fresh update to the Mozilla Firefox web browser has arrived.
Last month’s Firefox 134 release included a refreshed New Tab page layout for users in the United States, introduced touch-hold gestures for Linux, added the Ecosia search engine, and improved the built-in pop-up blocker’s performance.
Firefox 135 brings a similar collection of updates, including a broader release of the new New Tab page layout to all locales where Stories are available.
The updated layout adjusts the size and positioning of the Firefox logo, shifting it to the left. This change prioritizes the search box, site shortcuts, and Stories, with the latter now spanning four columns on wider displays.
Future enhancements to the New Tab page are planned, providing users with greater control over the types of Stories recommended by Pocket, based on their browsing history, according to an updated privacy page from Mozilla.
Credit card autofill, initially launched in select regions, is now available to all users in Firefox 135.
The “Copy without Site Tracking” option has been renamed to the simpler “Copy Clean Link”. This change aims to clarify the feature’s function: link cleaning.
Mozilla has stated that “AI Chatbot access is being gradually rolled out to all users” in this release. This feature, which is not new and has not added any new AI chatbot providers, remains opt-in via the Settings > Firefox Labs option.
Firefox 135 also expands language support for Firefox Translations, its privacy-focused translation technology, to include converting text/pages in Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean to a chosen language – with Russian now being supported!
On the security front, Firefox 135 enforces certificate transparency for servers using certificates issued by a certificate authority in Mozilla’s Root CA Program and starts rolling out CRLite certificate revocation checking to improve the process.
The browser also includes “safeguards to prevent sites from abusing the history API by generating excessive history entries, which can make navigating with the back and forward buttons difficult by cluttering the history.”
Web platform and developer-related changes include a new console command $$$ for searching within a page, a post-quantum key exchange mechanism (mlkem768x25519) for HTTP/3, and support for WebAuthn getClientCapabilities().
Firefox 135 also removes the ‘Do Not Track’ option, though a “Tell websites not to sell or share my data” setting remains available.
See the official change-log for additional details on this update.
Getting Firefox 135
If you want to install Firefox, here are a few options.
Using the Distro-Agnostic Linux Binary
This method offers maximum control and avoids package management complexities.
Step 1: Download the Linux binary from the Mozilla website.
Step 2: Extract the downloaded XZ archive.
tar -xf firefox-*.tar.xz
Step 3: Run Firefox by double-clicking the firefox file inside the extracted folder.
Using the Official Snap Package
This method is suitable for systems with Snap support.
Step 1: Open your terminal.
Step 2: Install Firefox using Snap:
snap install firefox
Step 3: Launch Firefox from your application menu or by running firefox in the terminal.
Using the Official Flatpak
This method is useful for systems with Flatpak support.
Step 1: Ensure Flatpak is installed and configured on your system.
Step 2: Install Firefox using Flatpak:
flatpak install org.mozilla.firefox
Step 3: Run Firefox using:
flatpak run org.mozilla.firefox
With these updates, Firefox 135 delivers improvements in usability, security, and privacy.