Firefox 106 is out with Firefox View and other improvements

Martin Brinkmann
Oct 18, 2022
Firefox
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Mozilla released Firefox 106 Stable and Firefox 102.4 ESR. The new Firefox 106 Stable release introduces support for Firefox View, PDF editing, text recognition and extraction on macOS, and new Colorways themes.

firefox browser 106

All Firefox development editions are updated to new versions as well. Firefox Beta and Firefox Development move to version 107, and Firefox Nightly moves to version 108. Firefox for Android follows the versioning scheme of Firefox for desktop; it too moves to Firefox 106.0.

Executive Summary

  • Firefox 106 Stable and Firefox 102.4 ESR address security issues.
  • Mozilla fixed six unique vulnerabilities in Firefox 106 and 4 unique vulnerabilities in Firefox 102.4 ESR.

Firefox 106 download and update

Firefox 106.0 and Firefox 102.4 ESR downloads are available already. Most Firefox installations will receive the updates automatically, thanks to the browser's built-in updating functionality. Users who want to speed up the updating process may do so in two ways: run a manual check for updates or download Firefox from the official Mozilla website and install the new version manually.

Do the following to check for updates in Firefox.

  1. Select Menu > Help > About Firefox.

Firefox displays the installed version and runs a check for updates. It will download and install any new version that it discovers during that check.

Direct downloads are also available, follow the links below to Mozilla's download website, to download the new version of the browser.

Firefox 106.0 new features and improvements

Firefox View

firefox view

Firefox View is one of the main new features of this release. It improves access to previously opened tabs in the web browser and optionally other Firefox browsers on desktop or on Android. A new pinned icon on the tab bar of Firefox activates the feature. Firefox displays a short onboarding experience that explains Firefox View.

The Firefox View page is divided into the three main sections Tab pickup, Recently closed, and Independent voices. Tab pickup requires a Firefox account, as Mozilla uses Firefox Sync to display recently viewed pages on other devices in that section. It is designed as a way to continue reading or accessing content viewed on other devices.

The recently closed section displays the last closed tabs of the current browsing window. It is a bit limiting in this regard. Independent voices, finally, promotes Colorway themes.

You may check out Ashwin's in-depth review of Firefox View here for an even clearer picture on the functionality that it provides. Mozilla has a support page up as well in case you are interested.

Firefox View may improve the experience for users who use Firefox on different devices and are signed in to a Firefox Account in all of them. Users who don't get little out of the feature.

firefox view remove

Thankfully, it is easy enough to remove the Firefox View icon from the main Firefox toolbar. Just right-click on the icon and select the "Remove from Toolbar" option to get rid of it. Another option that is provided is to move the Firefox View icon to another location, e.g., next to the Firefox Menu on the right.

Basic PDF Editing

firefox pdf edit

Firefox's built-in PDf Viewer supports basic PDF editing in the new release. Mozilla notes that it has integrated options to write text, draw and add signatures to PDF documents open in Firefox.

The final version of Firefox displayed text and draw options in the main toolbar, but no signature option. Maybe it is being added later or there is another prerequisite that Mozilla did not mention in the official release notes.

Other changes and fixes

  • Windows users who use the Firefox web browser may pin a shortcut to the private browsing mode on the taskbar of the operating system. The option to do so is displayed on the private browsing startpage.
  • Windows users who set Firefox as the default web browser make it the default PDF application now on the system.
  • Linux users may now use swipe-to-navigate to go back or forward in history on Wayland.
  • Text recognition and extraction is now supported on macOS 10.15 or higher systems.  The feature supports English only at the time in macOS 10.15, and more languages on macOS 11.0 or higher.
  • New Colorway themes are now available. The 18 new themes remain available through January 16th, 2023.

Developer

  • WebRTC platform upgrade; libwebrtc library was updated from version 86 to 103 in the release. The upgrade introduces several improvements, including better screen sharing on Windows and Linux Wayland, lower CPU usage and more fps during screen capture on macOS, RTP performance and reliability improvements, and compatibility improvements.
  • The ability to set the "background" manifest key property "persistent" to false for Manifest V2 (to make a background page non-persistent) is now available by default.
  • The object-src directive in the "content-security-policy" manifest key is now optional (bug 1766881).

Enterprise changes

None published.

Known Issues

None listed.

Security updates / fixes

Security updates are revealed after the official release of the web browser. You find the information published here after release.

Firefox 106 comes with 6 fixed security vulnerabilities. Firefox 102.4 ESR fixes 4 unique vulnerabilities. The maximum severity rating of the vulnerabilities is high.

Outlook

Firefox 107 Stable is expected on November 11, 2022.

Firefox extension reviews and news

Recent Firefox news and tips

Additional information / sources

Summary
Firefox 106 is out with Firefox View and other improvements
Article Name
Firefox 106 is out with Firefox View and other improvements
Description
Firefox 106 introduces a new Firefox View feature, PDF editing capabilities, and new Colorway themes that uses may select.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. nosamu said on October 20, 2022 at 3:16 pm
    Reply

    To disable “Independent Voices” side panel:
    Set browser.theme.colorway-closet to False in about:config.

    To hide “Tab Pickup” section:
    1. Create a userContent.css file with the following content:
    #tab-pickup-container {
    display: none;
    }
    2. Open the Firefox user profile folder: about:support => Profile Folder => Open Folder
    3. Create a “chrome” folder and copy the userContent.css file into it.
    4. Set toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets to True in about:config.

    Finally, Firefox View is usable!

  2. Ashwin said on October 20, 2022 at 6:51 am
    Reply

    The update changed the Firefox icon on Mac, it has a black background and looks horrible.

    1. PBear.SF said on October 20, 2022 at 5:38 pm
      Reply

      Couldn’t agree more. Was horrified this morning to see the Firefox 106 icon in my Mac’s dock suddenly had a black background. It sticks out like a sore thumb and is constantly drawing my attention to it. How do we get Mozilla to put it back the way it was and the way it should be?

      1. Molly said on October 21, 2022 at 8:56 pm
        Reply

        I’ve literally been searching for a way to change this back for the last hour

      2. NG said on October 23, 2022 at 10:39 pm
        Reply

        I hate it too. I will have to find another browser if Firefox keep making these sort of changes without warning.

  3. Henk said on October 19, 2022 at 1:25 pm
    Reply

    I stick to Firefox 102.4.0 ESR. Happily, a little less of all this never-asked-for nonsense applies to me. For now, that is… Because in the end, eventually, of course it will come to me too. Sigh.

    I still am convinced that if Mozilla were to launch a severely trimmed-down, radically simplified, faster, less resources-hungry “Firefox Light” alternative browser version, that one might become a huge success.

  4. John C. said on October 19, 2022 at 12:46 pm
    Reply

    Given that there always seems to be a point one update shortly after a major whole number update, I think I’ll hold off on updating until it comes out.

  5. Anonymous said on October 19, 2022 at 7:11 am
    Reply

    When I watch videos on Odysee one of the Firefox processes always runs high cpu usage.
    But when I watch the same videos in ungoogled chromium cpu usage never goes up too much.
    Does anyone know why this happens, the codec or the encoder Odysee uses is H264.
    Try and see yourself on Odysee , you’ll notice the difference with the Task Manager open.

    1. nealis said on October 19, 2022 at 8:18 am
      Reply

      @anonymous, not seeing high cpu usage on odysee, just regular levels. Using Windows 10

      1. Anonymous said on October 19, 2022 at 8:44 am
        Reply

        You must have a better cpu, mine is a intel pentium.

  6. Troy said on October 18, 2022 at 11:35 pm
    Reply

    More nonsense to undo
    browser.privateWindowSeparation.enabled

    1. m3city said on October 19, 2022 at 9:27 am
      Reply

      @Troy
      Why do you consider it a nonsense? What are the pro and cos of such separation?

      1. Anonymous said on October 19, 2022 at 1:51 pm
        Reply

        @m3city
        I don’t like = must be nonsense.

  7. Ray said on October 18, 2022 at 11:01 pm
    Reply

    For those of us that disable Firefox Sync, Firefox View is pretty much useless. If you do use Firefox Sync though, it could be useful to you, but I just IM myself URLs that I need to open on another device.

  8. Anonymous said on October 18, 2022 at 9:12 pm
    Reply

    When will those ugly tabs go away?

    1. Anonymous said on October 19, 2022 at 12:06 pm
      Reply

      Rent free.

  9. JeJ said on October 18, 2022 at 7:35 pm
    Reply

    browser.tabs.autohide is not longer working? Any way to hide top bar when only one tab is open? Disabling browser.tabs.firefox-view and browser.tabs.tabmanager.enabled still leaves the empty space at top. No reason for a tab if only one tab is open.

  10. Troy said on October 18, 2022 at 7:34 pm
    Reply

    Disable dark mode in private windows;

    browser.theme.dark-private-windows

  11. Anonymous said on October 18, 2022 at 6:02 pm
    Reply

    wow another load of useless bloat. thanks mo:zi//a.

    1. Iron Heart said on October 19, 2022 at 9:32 am
      Reply

      @Anonymous

      You don’t get any hateful comments under a Firefox article usually. The Firefox fans are going to other articles to advertise the moribund browser, the other way around it’s just not needed.

      1. Anonymous said on October 22, 2022 at 1:02 pm
        Reply

        Rent free.

    2. AnonymousII said on October 18, 2022 at 6:35 pm
      Reply

      Rent free.

  12. Andy Prough said on October 18, 2022 at 4:20 pm
    Reply

    It’s been a long time since Firefox had a new feature that I thought I might actually use, but PDF editing in the browser is intriguing. I might have to try that out if it works on Librewolf 106.

  13. Jorge Curioso said on October 18, 2022 at 4:18 pm
    Reply

    How do I disable the dropdown arrow on the tab bar if all open tabs are visible? Before 106 it only showed up when tab scrolling was necessary.

    1. x said on October 18, 2022 at 6:29 pm
      Reply

      Open about:config page and browser.tabs.tabmanager.enabled

    2. Shiva said on October 18, 2022 at 6:18 pm
      Reply

      If I understand correctly:

      #TabsToolbar .toolbarbutton-1 {
      display: none !important;
      }

      1. Troy said on October 18, 2022 at 7:23 pm
        Reply

        This will also remove the open new tab button.

      2. Shiva said on October 18, 2022 at 8:07 pm
        Reply

        @Troy

        You’re damn right. Maybe this is fine, but in any case it totally hides it. Better the other solution I just read. Well, to be honest it doesn’t even bother me.

        #TabsToolbar .toolbarbutton-1[id=”alltabs-button”] {
        display: none !important;
        }

    3. George Curioso said on October 18, 2022 at 5:48 pm
      Reply

      Okay, figured it out. Have to set browser.tabs.tabmanager.enabled to false in about:config

      Maybe related: Set browser.tabs.firefox-view to false to disable Firefox View (if hiding it from the tab bar is not enough).

      1. Troy said on October 18, 2022 at 7:22 pm
        Reply

        yep, both settings will disable these new useless features.

  14. Juraj M. said on October 18, 2022 at 4:01 pm
    Reply

    Also Firefox for Android Beta 107 should allow all addons (same was as Nightly does)
    https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/26948#issuecomment-1271117183

    I’m super excited I can move from Nightly to Beta now! (well, I’m still waiting for the update to be actually released in Play Store)

  15. Tom Hawack said on October 18, 2022 at 3:46 pm
    Reply

    Just updated Firefox to latest 106.0 – No issues at first sight.

    – Firefox View : totally disabled (“browser.tabs.firefox-view”=false).
    – Firefox’s built-in PDF Viewer now supports basic PDF editing : good!

    Note 1 : Firefox 106.0 Release notes states : “Setting Firefox as your default browser now also makes it the default PDF application on Windows systems.”.

    a) I don’t see the pertinence of such a correlation;
    b) hasn’t been applied here :
    – about:preferences#general / Applications / ‘Portable Documents Format’ has been set to ‘Always ask’
    – “browser.download.improvements_to_download_panel” has been set to ‘false’ (Default=true)
    Opening a PDF outside of Firefox still opens it in the default PDF reader (SumatraPDF)
    Opening a Web PDF from Firefox always asks.
    Opening a local PDF from Firefox opens it in Firefox.
    Nothing changed here, fortunately.

    Note 2 : No change in about:policies between Firefox 105 and 106.

    Surfin’ USA and abroad :=)

  16. John G. said on October 18, 2022 at 3:36 pm
    Reply

    I am using FF 102 ESR, however I think that the FF 106 PDF editing is a good choice to try it. Thanks for the article. :]

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