There was past versions of the Mozilla web browser in which we claimed that we could finally move forward or backward through the browsing history in Linux with two fingers without the need to press the Alt key. When the company made the changes public, and we verified that this was not the case, we also backtracked. This afternoon, Mozilla has released Firefox 106, and this novelty is no longer only available in preview versions.
Perhaps it is not the most outstanding novelty, but it is the most anticipated for that reason, because it was an announced "life". Starting with Firefox 106, Linux users will be able to two-finger swipe forward and backward, of course, if we are under Wayland. Like GNOME 40+ trackpad gestures, this will not work on X11. Below you have the official list of news that have arrived with Firefox 106.
Highlights of Firefox 106
- It is now possible to edit PDFs: including writing text, drawing and adding signatures.
- Setting Firefox as the default browser now also becomes the default PDF application on Windows systems. Users of the Microsoft system should be careful if they want to continue using their current PDF viewer.
- Private windows can now be pinned to the Windows 10 and Windows 11 taskbar for easier access. In addition, the private windows have been redesigned to increase the feeling of privacy.
- Swipe-to-navigate (two fingers on a touchpad swiped left or right to scroll backward or forward) now works for Linux users on Wayland.
- Text in Image Recognition allows users of macOS 10.15 and higher to extract text from the selected image (such as a meme or screenshot). The extracted text is copied to the clipboard to share, store or search, without the need to manually retype everything. This feature is compatible with “VoiceOver”, the screen reader built into macOS.
- "Firefox view" helps to return to the contents that we visited previously. A pinned tab allows you to find and open recently closed tabs on the current device, access tabs from other devices (via the new Tab Pickup feature), and change the look of the browser (with Colorways).
- With the launch of the “Independent Voices” collection, Firefox introduces 18 new “Colorways”. A “Colorways” modal experience can now be accessed through “Firefox View”; Each new color is accompanied by a bespoke graphic and text description that speaks to its deeper meaning. The collection will be available until January 16.
- A major update to WebRTC capabilities (the libwebrtc library has been updated from version 86 to 103) brings multiple improvements:
- Better screen sharing for Windows and Linux Wayland users.
- Lower CPU usage and higher frame rate during WebRTC screenshot on macOS.
- Improvements in the performance and reliability of RTP.
- More complete statistics.
- Improvements in compatibility between browsers and services.
- Various security patches and other contributions from the community.
Now available
Firefox 106 has arrived this afternoon and can now be downloaded since official website. From there, Linux users can download the “tarball”, or in other words, the binaries that can be installed (here how) or run directly by launching the executable. In the next few hours it will reach the official repositories of most Linux distributions, among which there is no Ubuntu that only offers it as Snap.
Alongside Firefox 106, Mozilla today also released Firefox 107 and 108, the former in the beta channel and the latter in the Nightly channel. At the time of this writing, the company hasn't yet updated the pages about these releases, so not much is known about what the new versions will include, at least not officially. At the moment, users of Firefox 106 on Linux can already use the two-finger gesture.
Images: Mozilla.