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Firefox 77 Release

The release of the web browser has taken place Firefox 77, as well as mobile version Firefox 68.9 for the Android platform. Additionally, an update has been formed. branch with long-term support 68.9.0. Soon moving to the stage of beta testing the branch Firefox 78 will transition, with the release scheduled for June 30.

Key innovations:

  • Added a new service page "about:certificate" for accessing the built-in certificate viewing interface. The interface allows you to display a list of root and saved certificates, view details for each certificate, and export certificates (import support is not yet available).
    Firefox 77 Release
  • Experimental support for AVIF image format (AV1 Image Format) has been added, utilizing intra-frame compression technologies from the AV1 video encoding format (supported since Firefox 55). To enable AVIF in about:config, there is an option image.avif.enabled. The container for distributing compressed data in AVIF is identical to HEIF. AVIF supports both images in HDR (High Dynamic Range) and wide-gamut color space, as well as in standard dynamic range (SDR).
  • Expanded the number of systems for which the compositing system is enabled WebRender, written in Rust and allowing for a significant increase in rendering speed and a decrease in CPU load. WebRender offloads the rendering operations of the page's content to the GPU, which are implemented through shaders running on the GPU. WebRender is now included on hardware with Intel Skylake GT1, AMD Raven Ridge APU, AMD Evergreen, and on laptops with NVIDIA graphics cards running Windows 10. To force enable it in about:config, you should activate the settings "gfx.webrender.all" and "gfx.webrender.enabled" or launch Firefox with the environment variable MOZ_WEBRENDER=1.
  • In the address bar, improved the parsing of search phrases. Words with a dot are now evaluated for relevance to current domains (for example, previously entering keys like "test.log" led not to a search but to an attempt to open a site, while entering "data:url" with spaces and a question mark led to a search rather than loading).
  • Added disabling the tracker blocking optional permissions, requests for which in extensions do not lead to a notification about confirming new permissions during the installation or update of the extension, but are displayed when the extension directly invokes an operation that requires elevated rights. The permissions that can be declared as optional include management, devtools, browsingData, pkcs11.
    proxy and session. The motivation for adding optional permissions is mentioned as a desire to reduce the burden on users when updating extensions and to enable updates without mandatory permission confirmation (previously, if a user disagreed with the permissions, the extension would not be updated).
  • For users in the United Kingdom on the new tab page enabled the display of content recommended by the Pocket service. Previously, such pages were shown only to users from the USA, Canada, and Germany. Content personalization related to recommendations is performed on the client side without transmitting user information to third parties (the entire list of recommended links for the current day is loaded into the browser, ranked based on browsing history). It should be noted that sponsored blocks are shown only in the USA and are clearly marked as advertisements; in other countries, sponsored articles are not yet used. To disable recommended Pocket content, there is a the setting setting in the configurator (Firefox Home Content/Recommended by Pocket) and the option "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.topsites" in about:config.

    Firefox 77 Release
  • In the configurator, a new item has been added to the cookie blocking methods dropdown in the tracking protection settings implemented for dynamic cookie isolation based on the domain displayed in the address bar ("Dynamic First Party Isolation", where first and third-party inserts are determined based on the site's base domain). In about:config, the interface can be enabled via the setting "browser.contentblocking.reject-and-isolate-cookies.preferences.ui.enabled" or directly with "network.cookie.cookieBehavior = 5".

    Firefox 77 Release
  • To simplify navigation on touchscreen devices padding has been increased on the bookmarks bar (when opening a new tab, the new Megabar address bar partially overlaps the bookmarks bar, leaving little space for clicks).
  • Implemented New modal dialogs are tied to individual tabs and do not block the entire interface. To control the binding of dialogs in about:config, options "prompts.defaultModalType", "prompts.modalType.confirmAuth", and "prompts.modalType.insecureFormSubmit" have been added (1 — content binding, 2 — tab binding, 3 — window binding).

    Firefox 77 Release
  • In about:config has added A new setting middlemouse.openNewWindow, which allows disabling the use of the middle mouse button to open links in a new tab.
  • Removed The setting browser.urlbar.update1.view.stripHttps (support for the setting browser.urlbar.trimURLs is retained).
  • From the Gecko engine completely removed disabling the tracker blocking
    XUL Grids.
  • By default, automatic rotation of JPEG images based on Exif data is enabled.
  • The setting 'browser.urlbar.oneOffSearches' has been removed. To hide the buttons for alternative search engines that appear when you start typing in the address or search bar, you can select the necessary search engines on the page about:preferences#search.

    Firefox 77 Release
  • Text that exceeds the 'maxlength' limit is no longer truncated when pasted into and