Mozilla is bringing the last Firefox update for this year: With version 84, Adobe Flash will also be supported for the last time – Adobe itself will end support next year. Originally it was said that 84 is over. As of the upcoming browser version, it will no longer be possible to activate Flash support via about: config.

The focus of the browser is mainly due to the native support of macOS devices with silicon processors. According to a blog post about the update, Firefox will start 2.5 times faster on Apple’s M1 devices in the future, web apps should be twice as responsive as before with the non-native support in version 83. In order to be able to use the new architecture, the browser must be closed after the update. Under about: support you can then check whether Rosetta Translated is false. Mozilla also warns, however, that there may still be problems playing encrypted content – this affects most streaming services. There is an extra help page that explains how to install Rosetta so that the services are running again.

WebRender for Linux WebRender is now also available for macOS Big Sur as well as Windows devices with Intel Gen 5 and 6 and Intel laptops with Windows 7 and 8. Mozilla had the rendering engine with Firefox 67 first introduced, but since then availability has only been achieved gradually. For Linux, Gnome and X 11 users there is also an accelerated rendering pipeline for the first time. In addition, “more modern techniques” for the allocation of shared storage under Linux would be used, which increase both the performance and the compatibility with Docker.

For developers the network panel has been improved. It can handle unexpected crashes and display debugging details and associated Stack.Traces.

The new version also comes with 14 Patches for security holes, some of which have been classified as critical.

(emw)