Mozilla Firefox 95.0 release: these are the news
The release date of Firefox 95.0 is December 7, 2021. It is the last major stable version of Firefox in 2021. Firefox 95 includes several new features and improvements, but also bug fixes and security patches.
The other Firefox channels, Firefox Beta, Dev and Nightly, Firefox ESR and Firefox for Android, are also updated around the same time from a new stable version.
Firefox Beta and Developer editions moved to version 96, Firefox Nightly to version 97, and Firefox ESR to version 91.4.
You can check out the Firefox 94.0 version overview here.
Executive Summary
- Firefox is now officially available on the Microsoft Store.
- The new version reduces CPU usage and power usage on Mac OS X in some use cases.
- Site isolation is enabled for all users.
Download and update Firefox 95.0
Firefox 95.0 is downloaded and installed automatically on most devices running the browser. Desktop users can manually check for updates to get the version as soon as possible, Android users will have to wait until Google Play sends the release to their mobile devices.
On desktop systems, select Firefox Menu> Help> About Firefox to display the version of the browser that is currently installed and to run a manual check for updates.
New Features and Improvements in Firefox 95.0
RLBox sandboxing technology for all platforms
RLBox is a new sandbox feature that Mozilla integrated into Firefox 95. It is designed to “isolate sub-components to make the browser more secure.” Mozilla developed the technology in collaboration with researchers at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Texas.
RLBox isolates the following five modules in Firefox Stable in this initial release: Graphite, Hunspell, Ogg, Expat, and Woff2. Mozilla notes that the technology allows Firefox to treat modules as untrusted code, which, provided the implementation is correct, could protect against zero-day vulnerabilities in the browser.
See the RLBox article on the Mozilla Hacks website for additional details.
Stable Firefox Site Isolation
Originally programmed for Firefox 94, Site Isolation should now be available to all Firefox Stable users. Here is the information I wrote for the Firefox 94 launch article:
Mozilla began testing the Firefox site isolation feature in Firefox 70 and rolled it out to Firefox Nightly in September 2020. Internally called Project Fission, site isolation aims to significantly improve privacy and security through isolation of third-party web pages and iframes.
Site Isolation is based on a new security architecture that extends current protection mechanisms by separating the content (web) and loading each site in its own operating system process.
This new security architecture allows Firefox to completely separate code that originates from different sites and, in turn, defend itself against malicious sites that try to access confidential information from other sites that you are visiting.
Other changes
- The Picture in Picture button can now be moved to the opposite side of the video.
- Firefox CPU usage on Mac OS X and Windows Server is reduced during event processing.
- Firefox’s power usage on Mac OS X is reduced, especially when full-screen mode is enabled (even when watching video streams, for example, on Netflix or Amazon Prime).
Developer changes
- The global attribute input mode is now supported on all platforms and not just Android. Provides suggestions on the most suitable virtual keyboard for a specific task.
- The Crypto.randomUUID () function is now supported. This returns a cryptographically strong 36 character fixed length UUID
- CSS cursor property is now supported in Firefox for Android
Business changes
Not yet published.
Error correction
- Users of the JAWS screen reader and ZoomText magnifier do not have to switch applications after starting Firefox to access the browser.
- Mac OS VoiceOver now correctly reports the function states of the ARIA switch.
- Quicker start of content process on Mac OS.
- Memory allocator improvements.
- Improved page load performance by ‘speculatively compiling JavaScript ahead of time.
- User-Agent override for Slack.com, which allows Firefox users to use more features, for example call features and access Huddles.
Known issues
None on the list.
Security updates / fixes
Security updates are revealed after the official launch of the web browser. You find the information posted here after launch.
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Firefox 95.0 is the latest version for 2021 according to the calendar. A minor update may be released, but the next major version of Firefox, Firefox 96.0 Stable, will arrive on January 11, 2022.
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