A brand new version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser is rolling out — and it’s a real doozy.
Linux users with Intel GPUs will be THRILLED to hear that Mozilla Firefox 115 finally supports hardware video decoding by default. Most devices with Intel graphics hardware will benefit from the feature which is, as I’m sure you’ve already assumed, powered by the open-source Video Acceleration API (VA-API).
Those on devices lacking platform support for H264 video decoding will benefit from a fallback to Cisco’s OpenH264 plugin when playing compatible content in this release and up.
Linux users can also middle click on the new tab button to open clipboard content (if its text) in a new tab. URLs stored in the clipboard load right away, while standard text forms initiate a search using whatever search provider is configured – nifty!
Mozilla has also made it possible to import payment methods saved in Chrome-based browsers to Firefox, a nice bug to compliment other work its done to streamline the UI when importing data from other browsers.
Other tweaks:
- Tab Manager dropdown now shows close buttons
- Undo and redo are available in Password fields
- Users on Windows 7 and 8 are migrated to Firefox ESR 115
- Users on macOS 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14 are migrated to Firefox ESR 115
Plus the usual selection of security fixes, performance buffs, and stability tweaks.
Get Firefox 115
Firefox 115 is free, open source software for Windows, macOS and Linux. You can grab the latest release from the Mozilla website though most Linux users will prefer to receive this update using their distro’s default software update mechanism (which for Ubuntu means snap).
If you want to use Firefox on Ubuntu but do not want to use a snap package, see our guide on how to use Firefox deb not snap.
Of note, Mozilla Firefox 115 ESR is also available alongside this build. Debian users will be particularly thrilled to hear this as the distro defaults to shipping the stability-focused ESR builds by default.