Linux Mint and Mozilla have struck a new deal for the native presence of Firefox on the system, announced the distro’s development lead Clement Lefebvre. With this, the platform will no longer have a customized version of the browser “out of the box”, but the standard edition of Raposa, accompanied by occasional changes.
The agreement keeps Firefox as the system’s default browser and goes into effect with Mint 20.3, released on January 6th. Therefore, as soon as the OS is installed, the available Firefox will be gradually updated on computers running the system in versions 19.X or 20.X (before the latest build).
Because of the new, some things change in Firefox on Linux Mint, among which the following stand out:
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- The browser’s default start page is no longer https://www.linuxmint.com/start/
- Built-in search engines no longer include Mint partners (Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and others) and become Mozilla’s chosen ones (Google, Amazon, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ebay, and others) — Google is the initial default
- The program’s default settings are now defined by Mozilla*
- Firefox will no longer include specific patches for Linux distros like Mint, Debian or Ubuntu
- The app icon will be the Firefox default
*If you are already a Firefox user on Mint, upgrading to the new version should not affect your personal settings.
The idea is apparently to minimize Firefox’s cross-platform segmentation and provide the common browser experience for Mint users. This modification both makes it easier for users to access the latest functions with less delay and makes implementing them (and maintaining the program) easier for Mozilla.
New Firefox brings advantages
For the Mint team, the change also brings improvements to the development flow. “For us, this change means a tremendous simplification in terms of maintenance and development. We used to build Firefox using the Ubuntu package (which is set to be deprecated as it gets closer to snap),” explained Lefebvre.
The change also “fulfills Mozilla’s requests for the preservation of intellectual property” about Firefox, the developer claimed. Also, the Fox Program will continue to be distributed as a DEB package in the official Linux Mint repository, so the installation method will follow the same.
