Mozilla has issued Firefox version 102 to Release channel users with three new features and several fixes and other changes.
New features include:
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Prevent the Downloads panel from opening automatically. By default, Firefox displays the Downloads panel every time you trigger a web download. But with Firefox 102, you can prevent this panel from appearing every time a new download starts.
Improved anti-tracking. Firefox now mitigates query parameter tracking when navigating sites in ETP strict mode, Mozilla says.
Improved subtitles and captions for Picture-in-Picture (PiP). Subtitles and captions for PiP are now available for HBO Max, Funimation, Dailymotion, Tubi, Disney+ Hotstar, and SonyLIV.
Additionally, Mozilla has fixed an issue with screen reader support on Windows, fixed various bugs, and improved security by moving audio decoding into a separate process with stricter sandboxing.
dftf
<p>According to the latest <em>StatCounter</em> for the month of May this year, <em>Firefox</em> is now at a 7.7% share on desktop OS systems; <em>Chrome</em> is at 66.2%, <em>Edge</em> at 10.1%, and <em>Safari</em> at 9.1%. On tablet devices, <em>Firefox</em> is non-existent; on smartphones, it’s on 0.5% and has not gained any market-share since June 2021 (then 0.51%).</p><p><br></p><p>I guess <em>Firefox</em> will see a rise in desktop OS installs in February 2023, as come January 2023, <em>Google Chrome </em>and <em>Microsoft Edge</em> are both ending-support for <em>Windows 8.1</em> and <em>Windows 7 SP1</em>; I’d guess other <em>Chromium</em>-based browsers, like <em>Brave, Opera</em> and <em>Vivaldi</em>, may also have to drop-support too, if the underlying <em>Chromium</em> engine is no-longer supported. So <em>Firefox</em> will likely then be the only browser to offer continued support for around another year or two, similar to how it did for both <em>XP</em> and <em>Vista</em>.</p><p><br></p><p>But I’d argue it’s hardly a great claim to say "we’ve seen a rise in installs… on two unsupported OSes"! ;)</p>