Last Updated on October 17, 2021 by Mathew Diekhake

Mozilla Firefox 88.0 is now available to download and is also rolling out to computers over the next few days. As we write this, we don’t have it on our computers just yet but we do know of the new features regardless. The article will be updated with Firefox 88 screenshot and official changelog (also yet to be released) when we have them.

Firefox 88 is one of the rare updates where one of the main features is actually the removal of an old feature: FTP is no longer enabled by default. You can however enable it again still by setting the network.ftp.enabled option to true in about:config. We had been hearing for a long time that this day was coming (where FTP support would be dropped) and now it’s finally here.

Nevertheless, some people are also raving about this update because of the features it does have and how they are generally moving Firefox in the right direction. Many people are becoming increasingly happier with the world’s leading open-source browser. The features being spoken about are as follows: Total Cookie Protection improvements, HTTPS only mode improvements, more oxidation with rust components, webrendering enabled for more devices, proton and non-native themes, ETP shims enhanced, super comprehensive network partitioning, more warp and stencil improvements, and fission moving along nicely.

What’s new in Firefox 88

Here are the release notes for Mozilla Firefox 88.0.

Changelog

New:

  • PDF forms now support JavaScript embedded in PDF files. Some PDF forms use JavaScript for validation and other interactive features.
  • Print updates: Margin units are now localized.
  • Smooth pinch-zooming using a touchpad is now supported on Linux
  • To protect against cross-site privacy leaks, Firefox now isolates window.name data to the website that created it.

Fixes:

  • Screen readers no longer incorrectly read content that websites have visually hidden, as in the case of articles in the Google Help panel.
  • Various security fixes.

Changes:

  • Firefox will not prompt for access to your microphone or camera if you’ve already granted access to the same device on the same site in the same tab within the past 50 seconds. This new grace period reduces the number of times you’re prompted to grant device access.
  • The ‘Take a Screenshot’ feature was removed from the Page Actions menu in the url bar. To take a screenshot, right-click to open the context menu. You can also add a screenshots shortcut directly to your toolbar via the Customize menu. Open the Firefox menu and select Customize…
  • FTP support has been disabled, and its full removal is planned for an upcoming release. Addressing this security risk reduces the likelihood of an attack while also removing support for a non-encrypted protocol.

Download (Mozilla Firefox 88.0)

(This article was last updated on April 20, 2021.)

The Firefox browser will automatically update itself in the background when it’s closed. If the browser is open and you want to update it, you can navigate to the Settings > Help > About Firefox, and then the browser will automatically check for any new updates.

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