Linux Mint Announces New Partnership With Mozilla. What can we expect from Firefox?

Linux Mint announced a new partnership with Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser. This announcement coincides with the release of the latest Linux Mint update Firefox operating system, which is based on Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, among other things.

The new Firefox Linux partnership will allow them to share ideas and initiatives in order to advance web technologies and promote an open and accessible internet for people around the world.

According to a new partnership, Mint will no longer ship customized Firefox, which was never appreciated by users. In simple words, Firefox for Linux will no longer have to face restrictions as a search engine, no custom home page, etc. Firefox will officially come with all the default preferences.

Linux Mint lead Clement Lefebvre said in one of the statements, “For Mozilla, the goal is to make Firefox work the same way across all platforms to ease maintenance and simplify development and bug fixing. With these changes, Firefox will give the same experience in Linux Mint as it does in other operating systems.”

As Mozilla is known as one of the secure web browsers, it is crucial to know that it’s not 100% true. To make it completely secure, it is essential to use the Firefox VPN extension. We’ll discuss the free VPN extension for Firefox later in the article along with answering the following questions:

• Does Firefox work on Linux Mint?
• How do I install the latest version of Firefox on Linux Mint?
• What is the latest Firefox version for Linux?
• Which is the best free VPN for Mozilla?

So, stay tuned!

What changes have been proposed?

It is said that Firefox will continue distributing the .deb packages via official Linux Mint repositories and the configuration and other settings of this version will be the same as the version distributed by Mozilla officially.

Before, Linux Mint used its default settings and changed Firefox accordingly. The following configurations have been changed due to this new partnership:

• https://www.linuxmint.com/start/ is no longer the default start/home page.
• Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc. search engines are no longer included in Linux Mint Search partners. However, Mozilla search partners, including Google, Amazon, Bing, Ebay, etc. do.
• No more default Mint configuration. It switches to the default Mozilla configuration.
• Firefox will not include Linux Mint, Debian, or Ubuntu patches or code changes.

These changes will help Mozilla to provide the same user experience across all the platforms and fix bugs and perform maintenance easily. This change brings amazing simplification in terms of development, maintenance, and debugging.

This partnership also helps in satisfying Mozilla’s request to use their intellectual property like name, logo, brand, etc.

While this change will provide a new smooth and incredible experience for users, it is also important to know about the VPN Firefox extension for secure browsing. Let’s discuss it more.

How to make Firefox more secure with a VPN?

Over the years, data breaches and other cybersecurity problems have become more and more common. As a result, many people are looking for ways to make their online activity safer.

One such way is to use a virtual private network (VPN) with Firefox. With a VPN, your data will be encrypted while it's in transit and your browsing history won't be tracked by your ISP or anyone else that you don't want to know about it.

People can also unblock any website or content, browse anonymously, and download apps safely without compromising the data.

There are many VPNs, but we recommend people use VeePN for Firefox. VeePN is the best VPN when it comes to advanced security features, including Netguard, AdBlock, and so on. VeePN also offers a free trial to new users.

Related Common Questions:

Is this partnership technical or commercial?

The partnership is both technical and commercial. With this partnership, Linux Mint can directly communicate with Mozilla and work with them to improve their working.

When will the Firefox transition to Mozilla settings take place?

For Linux Mint version 19.x and 20.x, the transition will take place with Firefox 96. However, for version 20.3, Beta will take place with Firefox 95.

Are the transitions going to change “my” settings?

Technically, it will not change your preferred settings. Even after the update, since your default settings are on top of the Mozilla default values. So, we can safely say that the settings will remain the same.

Will my default engine, Google, remain there?

Yes, the default search engine will remain Google. However, it will no longer be considered as a user-added engine but a system core engine.

If your default search engine is Yahoo or DuckDuckGo, then these will no longer be default engines, but DuckDuckGo will be available with a different URL. The reason is that these were the core engines in the Mint configuration. The default engine after the update will switch to Google.

Will there be any negative effect on performance?

No, in reality, there will be a big positive improvement in performance after the transition.

In conclusion, Linux Mint has opened up a new partnership with Mozilla to help ensure that Firefox is the default web browser in the future without customization. This will give Linux Mint users a more open and secure internet experience with a VPN, and will also allow them to have a browser that is fully compatible with their operating system.