Firefox 71 and 68.3.0esr released

[German]Mozilla's developer just (December 3, 2019) released version 71 (and 68.3.0 ESR) of the Firefox browser. It is a major version and a maintenance update for 68.3.0. Here is a brief overview of what changes in the new version.

German blog reader Ralf pointed out the release of both Firefox versions in this comment (thanks). I just launched Firefox and was offered the update to version 71.

Firefox 71  at a glance

The following changes or bug fixes are listed in the Firefox release notes:

Improvements to Lockwise, the integrated password manager:

• Firefox now detects subdomains and automatically fills in domain logins from Lockwise.
• Integrated security alerts from Firefox Monitor are now available to users with screen readers.

Learn more about Enhanced Tracking Protection in action:

• Notifications when Firefox blocks Crypto-Miner.
• n ongoing collection of blocked trackers in the protection field that can be accessed by clicking the address bar label.

Picture-in-picture video comes to Firefox for Windows: Select the blue icon at the right edge of a video to open a floating window so that you can continue to see the video being played in other tabs as you work.

There is also native MP3 decoding in Windows, Linux and and macOS. The configuration page (about:config) has been reimplemented in HTML. For companies, Firefox 71 offers a new kiosk mode, which allows maximum use of the screen area for customer-side ads. In addition, various security vulnerabilities, some of which are rated as high, are fixed.

The browser should be offered via auto-update or manual update search in the help menu. The new Firefox is also available for download here for various platforms.

Firefox 68.3.0 ESR

In addition, Mozilla developers have updated the ESR version of Firefox to 68.3.0. The release notes for Firefox 68.3.0 also list various security fixes for this version of the browser. The update should also improve the performance and stability of the browser (list of fixes).

Early feedback from my German blog reader indicates, that Firefox 68.3.0esr may destroy profiles during upgrade. A blog post will follow.