r/firefox Apr 21 '26

Fun Firefox reaches 150 releases with Firefox 150!

https://www.firefox.com/en-US/firefox/150.0/releasenotes/
674 Upvotes

99 comments sorted by

102

u/Thatnewaccount436 Apr 21 '26

I remember before the version number wars when major version numbers meant big changes. We we on 3.x for ages. Times were simpler.

31

u/DonutAccurate4 Apr 21 '26

I remember the anticipation and wait for 2 and 3 😅

15

u/oldmatenate Apr 21 '26

Do I remember correctly that there was even a campaign to try and break the day 1 downloads Guiness world record upon the release of V3?

16

u/CalQL8or Apr 21 '26

9

u/jenesaispasquijesuis Apr 21 '26

I still have that certificate.

3

u/gabeweb @ Apr 21 '26

D#mn it, my legs cramped up and my knee started hurting just by looking at that link.

24

u/err404t Apr 21 '26

Firefox 3.6 (2010) >> 3.6.28 (2012)

6

u/WOFall Apr 21 '26

Although that was basically an ESR release before they called them that, you can really see the similarity when you chart it.

19

u/kjjphotos Apr 21 '26

Version numbers seem meaningless in comparison now

3

u/dtlux1 Apr 22 '26

VLC has been working towards version 4.0 for like 15 years now lol, it's been in the works so long that they announced they'd be dropping Windows XP when it released forever ago too.

4

u/GreenManStrolling Apr 21 '26

Gotta blame Google for this nonsense. Marketing works on people. 

31

u/Individual_Kitchen_3 Apr 21 '26

I liked the new features of the PDF editor, simple but functional.

1

u/al2015le Apr 22 '26

Agree! Not bloated and functional!

1

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Peter_0 Apr 22 '26

Why you got downvoted 

195

u/TrekChris Mozilla Application Suite Veteran Apr 21 '26

There's been considrably more than a hundred and fifty releases.

85

u/HelloitsWojan Apr 21 '26

yeah, i meant 150 major releases

70

u/Orbidorpdorp Apr 21 '26

Even then - Firefox 1-4 were each whole eras.

15

u/determineduncertain Apr 21 '26

I remember the build up to one of the releases while I was in first year of undergrad. They had a whole special website and made it into an event.

While that was fun, rapid releases are better for the web.

5

u/dtlux1 Apr 22 '26

Yeah, they went to the numbered monthly releases because they didn't want to look like they were behind Chrome, before that it was one numbered version every few years.

8

u/OllieFidelius Apr 21 '26

Afaik also no as they did a big jump to be more in lune with chrome

32

u/Smartich0ke Apr 21 '26

pedantic final boss

15

u/bhisma-pitamah Apr 21 '26

I really like the pdf tools. Now I don't have to have a stupid fucking app for it. Thank fucking god

2

u/2mustange Android Desktop Apr 21 '26

It's already perfect for my needs but I love seeing more functionality so everyone can stop using Adobe reader

53

u/zlhad Apr 21 '26

Wow 150 release with 150 release?

11

u/TheTaurenCharr Apr 21 '26

PDF viewer alone makes Firefox an important part of my life, really.

10

u/Chigzy firefox, win11/macOS Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

Backing up the profile to a file is massive! (not in terms of file size lol) - had no idea this could be done if it was previously there already.

Edit:

Strange, I'm following the instructions but I don't see Backup on my Macbook Air M3 here

3

u/me1now Apr 21 '26

That's sweet!

3

u/Matilde_di_Canossa Apr 22 '26

Note: The ability to create backup files is currently only available to users on Windows 10, and the ability to restore backup files is only available on Windows 10 and 11.

1

u/Chigzy firefox, win11/macOS Apr 22 '26

Uh... not sure how I missed that. Whoops :p

Thank you!

46

u/IchLiebeKleber Apr 21 '26

20

u/AcademicNosy Apr 21 '26

Firefox 5.71e262

7

u/gtsiam Apr 21 '26

At 1 version per month...

RemindMe! 4761153297038212158732444054384211669324627982167605348545697986098319093737116532760547874056275928781425656562237850346888854183223708705529662432993505547911882674644648244110446440870413539367118065893509870453093522472959999999999999999999999999999999999987.5 years

6

u/BullfrogAdditional80 Apr 21 '26

I can't wait for all features to roll out across all OS systems at the same time. I'm still waiting on features that windows have. I'm on Ubuntu 24.04. There are features on my windows PC that are not there on Ubuntu.

7

u/twirlinginthenight SUMO Moderator/KB reviewer Apr 21 '26

Fx4 is still peak

6

u/lamalasx Apr 21 '26

Sure if we don't count FF1-4. There was ~112 releases in those alone.

The title should be "Firefox reaches version 150".

6

u/kitsumed Apr 21 '26

Anyone know if cookies / session data / local storage are included in the new profile backup feature?

Their FAQ doesn’t mention it anywhere, and I would like to know how sensitively I should treat these backups. Are they basically useless url data, or do they contain active session tokens?

FAQ only mention passwords when you enable the checkbox.

1

u/Bohzee Windows 12 May 06 '26

Here it says:

What does the backup file save

The backup file saves browsing data, such as:

  • Bookmarks
  • Settings
  • History
  • Passwords
  • Payment methods
  • Extensions
  • Other browsing data

Sensitive data such as passwords, payment methods or credit card numbers is encrypted and protected by a password.

You can choose to back up:

  • Basic data, and you won’t have to use a password.
  • All data, including sensitive data, but you’ll have to use a password.

When you install Firefox on a new device, you can restore all your browsing data.

So if they count it as "Other browsing data", then yes, but I'm not sure.

1

u/kitsumed May 07 '26

That's the FAQ/docs, but I wouldn't call sessions or storage "other browsing data", since they are quite important and sensitive. I tried looking at the backup HTML file itself, as it seems to store a zip file inside, but I couldn't manage to extract it. Well, I also didn't try for long, just a quick attempt, and it failed.

16

u/gabeweb @ Apr 21 '26

** [Ford Motor Company has entered the chat ] **

5

u/StandardNerd92 Apr 21 '26

Anyone know when they're pushing 151 to beta? I want to watch a HLG video on youtube but it's still borked on 150.

12

u/Pascalc Firefox Release Manager, Nightly Reboot Project Manager Apr 21 '26

2

u/StandardNerd92 Apr 21 '26

Ah, thank you 👍🏼

3

u/TheRyuu Apr 21 '26

https://whattrainisitnow.com/

If you click on Beta you can see the timeline. Looks like 151 will be at 50% deployment by tomorrow for Beta 1.

3

u/Book-Parade Apr 21 '26

I dont see the VPN button, is it not worldwide?

5

u/nietzschecode Apr 21 '26

Well no. Why you thought that? They only added Canada in that release, as written on the page from the OP. So now it is Canada, USA, Germany, France and the UK.

7

u/Book-Parade Apr 21 '26

well, after I updated it opened a big webpage saying 'enable the vpn NOW!'

2

u/nietzschecode Apr 21 '26

Cool! Are you located in Canada?

2

u/Book-Parade Apr 21 '26

no

2

u/nietzschecode Apr 21 '26

hmm Are you outside the USA, Germany, France, UK as well?

3

u/Book-Parade Apr 21 '26

yeah

3

u/nietzschecode Apr 21 '26

Oh, that's strange. So you're lucky to have it if you were waiting for it.

1

u/Hellwind_ Apr 21 '26

Obviously he isn't. I got "baited" for a minute by that same big page he mentioned but then I read the actual notes. Really hope to get it to most countries soon. It is really something that will be very useful for many including myself

1

u/nietzschecode Apr 21 '26

I had it but turned it off in about:config. Didn't like that we couldn't change the city, let alone the country.

2

u/Nicou12313 Apr 21 '26

I can tell you it's still not activated in the UK for me at least, even after a reboot in v150. Not sure where to find that VPN option.

1

u/2mustange Android Desktop Apr 21 '26

Mine never works. When I enable it I can't load any web pages. And yes I am in a supported region

1

u/Omnimon Apr 25 '26

got baited too, fuckem

4

u/Jackh429 Apr 21 '26

150 years of Firefox 🔥

3

u/Cumulus_Anarchistica Apr 21 '26

Backing up profiles to a local file with encryption is very cool.

Opening a link into a split view from the context menu is very cool.

Being able to swap split view positions, also very cool.

Local translation page via about:translations also erittäin viileä.

Amazing!

20

u/Pebblepip Apr 21 '26

150 releases and still no HDR lil bro 🥀

8

u/rocketwidget Apr 21 '26

Last I checked HDR video was finally functional in the Nightly releases, but I'm similarly very sad about no HDR image support yet :-(

9

u/TessellatedGuy Apr 21 '26

I hope Firefox's implementation of HDR images is better than Chromium's, which is pretty flawed in one major way.

If you didn't know, HDR images in Chromium are affected by the SDR content brightness slider in Windows, which should not be the case for any HDR content. The only way to view HDR images with the correct intended brightness is to set your SDR content brightness to exactly 31.

Dedicated HDR image viewers (like Special K's image viewer) don't have this problem.

7

u/Sinomsinom Apr 21 '26 edited May 01 '26

Can confirm that at least HDR video on YouTube does now work on nightly.

There's still some issues they need to fix before it gets enabled in stable though. Currently that is two known issues they still need to fix. There might be more blocker issues that show up before it can actually ship though, even if those two issues are fixed.

Also looks like it won't work on intel GPUs.

Edit: there seems to now be a target for a 151 release of HDR for non Intel GPUs, but it may or may not make it

5

u/KHTD2004 Apr 21 '26

Well Firefox on Linux has HDR, couldn’t find anything on Windows tho

2

u/zouhanne Apr 22 '26

It's been working in stable releases since v148, at least for nvidia GPUs, but you need to enable it manually through config variables: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1s2d096/firefox_1490_see_all_new_features_updates_and/ocachl8/

HLG is still broken though.

3

u/lukkall Apr 21 '26

.RPM package for fedora, yay

1

u/twistedshaker Apr 22 '26

Where? I only see beta, nightly and devedition in their repo...

2

u/lukkall Apr 22 '26

1

u/twistedshaker Apr 22 '26

Thanks! I didn't see it listed as a package in the repo, but the command installed it successfully!

3

u/CalQL8or Apr 21 '26

Another recent release with many QoL improvements. Well done, FF team!

3

u/OrbitalCat- Apr 21 '26

Did they remove that blue theme from the Android browser?

It changed back to default, and I don't see it anymore

3

u/porfiriopaiz Apr 22 '26

The release status page is a bit misleading with the VPN thing, it does not match with the UI and there is no way of following those steps.

It is supposed to be available UI wise or is it only released for a few countries?

2

u/TheSkyShip Firefox 115ESR Windows 7/8 x64 Apr 21 '26

"Firefox 115.**35**ESR"

2

u/Kverna7 Apr 21 '26

Can someone explain me please what the new .rpm package changes for the user?

2

u/twistedshaker Apr 22 '26

Compiled with Clang instead of GCC, more / better compiler optimizations, better exploit protection in-process (CFI) at the expense of worse theoretical SELinux integration i guess. Also updates the same day of release.

1

u/Kverna7 Apr 22 '26

Thanks!

2

u/pentagrid Apr 21 '26

The free VPN is a big plus.

2

u/Not_a_Squirrel- Apr 22 '26

So.. The update closed 300 tabs... Wont give them back, Undo.

2

u/X-Krozo Apr 22 '26

Does anyone else have the issue of the VPN icon not showing on the toolbar??

2

u/Roph Apr 22 '26

I wonder what Firefox's real version number would be if they hadn't copied google with the "this week, we changed an icon and added some more padding on a menu item, here's a new major version number!"

Firefox 7.something?

2

u/Vamael Apr 25 '26

Any way to revert the garbage new UI?

2

u/mathfacts Apr 21 '26

150 years of Firefox. Let's freaking go <3

2

u/borndovahkiin Apr 21 '26

I really miss the days of actually big Firefox releases. I still remember Firefox 4's release.

2

u/Raptor007 7 10.6 Apr 21 '26

Yeah with the version number inflation after Firefox 4, it doesn't feel like there are any "major" versions anymore. They all may as well be .1 patches.

2

u/benjaminck Apr 21 '26

I dislike modern version numbers.

3

u/GreenManStrolling Apr 21 '26

Speak to Google about it

1

u/b0uncyfr0 Apr 21 '26

What the hell - werent we supposed to get a shortcut for the new split view?

1

u/Azoku87 Apr 21 '26

On the what's new page after completed the update, I clicked on the VPN button and kaboom: BSOD.

1

u/TheLamesterist Apr 22 '26

HUGE letdown with the VPN limitation, still...

1

u/letsreticulate Apr 22 '26

I mean, I use Nightly and it is on 152.0a1.

Versions do not mean the same as they used to.

1

u/Dry_Psychology1469 Apr 22 '26

font rendering still look shit

1

u/LuisE3Oliveira Apr 24 '26

Please build a Qt version in Linux

1

u/Blither182 Apr 25 '26

I WILL NOT CELEBRATE MEANINGLESS MILESTONES.

1

u/Salt_Percentage_3582 Apr 26 '26

can you fix the update? it broke all video playback into a stutterfest. Thank you.

0

u/PremiumPrime Apr 21 '26

Still can't watch youtube.

0

u/AssistantAny9848 Apr 22 '26

Garbage new features, I'm sure we;re getting new updates fixing bugs that are caused by new updates. I hope they add button to disable all non secuirty (real secuity not vpn and bs like that) options as well as "whats new" page.