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Firefox

What is Firefox?

Firefox is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation.

From Debian Etch through Debian Jessie, Mozilla Firefox was not available in Debian with the official name or branding. Instead, a free-software fork named Iceweasel was provided. Starting in Debian Stretch, Mozilla Firefox is again available in Debian. See the article The end of the Iceweasel Age for a discussion of how the issue began and was eventually resolved.

Installing Firefox

Firefox ESR

On Debian Stable, you can install Firefox ESR by typing the following commands in your terminal :

apt update
apt install firefox-esr

Firefox Stable, Beta and Nightly

If you want to install Firefox Stable, Beta or Nightly on your Debian Stable, you can do it by following those steps.

  1. Download the Firefox version you want directly from the official website

    (Stable), Beta, Nightly).

  2. Uncompress the archives in the */opt* folder if you want to install it system-wide (you will need to have root privilege) or in your home folder if you only want to install it for your current user.
  3. Create a .desktop file named *firefox-stable.desktop* (replace *stable* with *beta* or *nightly*) in */usr/share/applications* if you want to install it system-wide (you will need to have root privilege) or in
  4. .local/share/applications* if you only want to install it for your current user.

Creating a .desktop file for firefox

Here is an example of a .desktop file :

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Firefox ''Your version''
Comment=Web Browser
GenericName=Web Browser
X-GNOME-FullName=Firefox ''Your version'' Web Browser
Exec=/path/to/firefox/firefox %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=/path/to/firefox/icon
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
StartupWMClass=Firefox
StartupNotify=true

As you can see, you will need to change the name accordingly to the version of Firefox you want to install. You will also need to change the path to the executable and the icon. Optionally you can add a name, a comment, a Genericname and a X-GNOME-?FullName for an other language than english. To do so, you will need to add the country two letter code. between two square brackets right after the variable name (e.g. Comment[fr]=Navigateur Web).

See also