Mozilla has released Firefox 121, the final version of this year. The major change is the transition to the Linux version, where Firefox now directly uses the Wayland display manager instead of relying on XWayland emulation of the X Window environment.
Wayland is a protocol for displaying applications on screens. It was first developed in 2008 as a replacement for the outdated X Window system. However, the transition has been slow. Fedora switched to Wayland in 2016, Ubuntu in 2017, and Debian in 2019.
In the case of Firefox, discussions about adopting Wayland started as early as 2011 but faced various obstacles. Thus, a compromise was reached to use XWayland instead. However, in this version, Mozilla has made the decision to fully transition to Wayland. (Some distributions may have already patched their Firefox versions to support Wayland, but this is Mozilla’s first official change.)
The direct usage of Wayland in Firefox improves its performance on Linux. It provides smoother usage, better support for touchpads and touchscreens, and allows separate monitor resolution settings. Additionally, the graphics performance has improved.
Apart from the adoption of Wayland, the new release also includes a Windows version that prompts users to install the Microsoft AV1 Video Extension add-on for AV1 hardware video playback. It also supports Voice Control commands on macOS and introduces the “always underline links” option to enforce underlined links.
TL;DR: Mozilla has released Firefox 121, which now fully supports Wayland display manager on Linux, providing smoother performance, better touchpad and touchscreen support, and improved graphics performance. The release also includes additional features such as AV1 hardware playback support, Voice Control on macOS, and an option to always underline links.
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