Yes, Firefox 59 is a whole new Firefox, built for faster page loading, smoother scrolling, and more responsive tab switching. These performance upgrades come paired with a modern, intuitive design. Start browsing and experience it for yourself: the best Firefox yet. Firefox Quantum 59 boosts page loading times, adds options for blocking intrusive website requests and more. This page shows how to install the latest version of Firefox 59 on a Linux operating system.
Step 1 – Download Firefox 59
Open the Terminal app and type the following wget command:
cd /tmp/
wget -L -O firefox.tar.bz2 'https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest-ssl&os=linux64&lang=en-US'
Sample outputs:
--2018-01-23 23:01:04-- https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest-ssl&os=linux64&lang=en-US Resolving download.mozilla.org (download.mozilla.org)... 54.201.111.182, 34.209.161.100, 52.24.26.241 Connecting to download.mozilla.org (download.mozilla.org)|54.201.111.182|:443... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found Location: https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/59.0/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-59.0.tar.bz2 [following] --2018-01-23 23:01:05-- https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/59.0/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-59.0.tar.bz2 Resolving download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net (download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net)... 13.33.178.58, 2600:9000:2098:2a00:e:19d6:1546:5981, 2600:9000:2098:e000:e:19d6:1546:5981, ... Connecting to download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net (download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net)|13.33.178.58|:443... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 54189435 (52M) [application/x-tar] Saving to: ‘firefox.tar.bz2’ firefox.tar.bz2 100%[=========================================================================================================================================>] 51.68M 2.87MB/s in 21s 2018-01-23 23:01:27 (2.41 MB/s) - ‘firefox.tar.bz2’ saved [54189435/54189435] |
Step 2 – Install Firefox 59 Quantum on a Linux
Untar the tar ball named firefox.tar.bz2 into your home directory, run:
mv firefox.tar.bz2 $HOME
tar xf firefox.tar.bz2
OR
tar xvf firefox.tar.bz2 -C $HOME
Sample outputs:
firefox/gmp-clearkey/0.1/libclearkey.so firefox/gmp-clearkey/0.1/manifest.json firefox/libmozgtk.so firefox/gtk2/libmozgtk.so firefox/chrome.manifest firefox/firefox firefox/dictionaries/en-US.dic firefox/dictionaries/en-US.aff firefox/icons/updater.png firefox/dependentlibs.list firefox/libplds4.so firefox/libnspr4.so firefox/updater.ini firefox/libnssdbm3.so firefox/crashreporter.ini firefox/firefox-bin firefox/libmozavutil.so firefox/minidump-analyzer firefox/browser/chrome.manifest firefox/browser/crashreporter-override.ini firefox/browser/blocklist.xml firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default32.png firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default16.png firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default48.png firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default64.png firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png firefox/browser/features/firefox@getpocket.com.xpi firefox/browser/features/followonsearch@mozilla.com.xpi firefox/browser/features/shield-recipe-client@mozilla.org.xpi firefox/browser/features/aushelper@mozilla.org.xpi firefox/browser/features/onboarding@mozilla.org.xpi firefox/browser/features/activity-stream@mozilla.org.xpi firefox/browser/features/screenshots@mozilla.org.xpi firefox/browser/features/webcompat@mozilla.org.xpi firefox/browser/features/formautofill@mozilla.org.xpi firefox/browser/extensions/{972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}.xpi firefox/browser/omni.ja firefox/fonts/EmojiOneMozilla.ttf firefox/liblgpllibs.so firefox/libfreeblpriv3.so firefox/libsmime3.so firefox/precomplete firefox/plugin-container firefox/icudt60l.dat firefox/libnssdbm3.chk firefox/crashreporter firefox/application.ini firefox/defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js firefox/Throbber-small.gif firefox/libplc4.so firefox/updater firefox/libnss3.so firefox/libsoftokn3.so firefox/libmozsqlite3.so firefox/libmozsandbox.so firefox/libxul.so firefox/libssl3.so firefox/libnssckbi.so firefox/libmozavcodec.so firefox/libsoftokn3.chk firefox/removed-files firefox/omni.ja firefox/update-settings.ini firefox/libnssutil3.so firefox/libfreeblpriv3.chk firefox/pingsender firefox/platform.ini firefox/plugin-container.sig firefox/gmp-clearkey/0.1/libclearkey.so.sig firefox/firefox.sig firefox/libxul.so.sig firefox/firefox-bin.sig |
Before launching firefox type the following command to kill all instance of older firefox using the killall command:
$ killall firefox
Step 3 – Start Firefox 59 from the CLI
Just type the following command:
$ ~/firefox/firefox
OR
$ ~/firefox/firefox &
Sample session (about box):
Another screenshot of Firefox running on my Linux desktop:
Firefox version 59 is faster as compared to both older version of Firefox and Chrome. Yes, it consumed less memory in my test while providing a smooth user experience.
Update: Ubuntu Linux 17.10 rolled out Firefox v59
Yay, you can install an updated version with the following apt command/apt-get command:
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade
$ egrep -o firefox.* /var/log/apt/history.log
Restart your browser. Verify new version from the command line:
$ firefox --version
9 comment
What distribution of Linux?