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Many users, either because of their work or because they like it, prefer to have a development version of their browser. Something that can be practical if you are a developer. In any case, we can currently install development versions of the main web browsers in any way we want.
Next we are going to explain how to install Firefox Nightly, the development version of Firefox using Flatpak package. Yes, through the new universal package system that competes directly with Canonical's snap packages.
The Firefox Nightly flatpak package will ask us to add an extra repository
To install a Flatpak package in Ubuntu, we must first support it. For that, we just have to open a terminal and write the following:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexlarsson/flatpak sudo apt update && sudo apt install flatpak
After this, we already have the possibility to install applications that come or use the flatpak format. Now, continuing with the terminal, we will write the following to install Firefox Nightly:
flatpak install --from https://firefox-flatpak.mojefedora.cz/org.mozilla.FirefoxNightly.flatpakref
This will start installing Flatpak from the Gnome repository. Something to know because every time we run Firefox Nightly it will ask us if we want to enable this repository or not. Usually it is not necessary, so the choice falls on each of you.
Taking into account the above, it is necessary to know that for run any Flatpak formatted application, its execution must be using the command «Flatpak run». Thus, when we want to run Firefox Nightly we have to write the following, either in a terminal or in a shortcut:
flatpak run org.mozilla.FirefoxNightly
If we want to update Firefox Nightly, something usual if we want have the latest development version, we have to execute the following:
flatpak update org.mozilla.FirefoxNightly
And if this does not convince us, always we can uninstall it as follows:
flatpak uninstall org.mozilla.FirefoxNightly
And this is all you have to do to have Firefox Nigthly using Flatpak, but fortunately there are other methods to have Firefox Nightly without Flatpak packages.