14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla Firefox 79 is projected to officially launch on July 28, but the parent company has already updated its FTP servers with the new version.
In other words, while the official announcement will be made tomorrow, you can already download Firefox 79 for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
The first beta build of Firefox 79 was published on June 30, 2020, and while Mozilla hasn’t announced any major changes in this build, it still comes with a series of changes that are worth highlighting.
For example, Mozilla warns that older macOS versions are no longer supported by Firefox, so version 79 won’t be shipped to these releases.
“macOS versions 10.9, 10.10 and 10.11 are no longer supported by Firefox. Users of these macOS versions are recommended to switch to Firefox ESR 78.x in order to continue receiving security updates,” Mozilla says.
Automatic rollout beginning tomorrow
The official Mozilla wiki also reveals that Firefox 79 introduces version 2 of Enhanced Tracking Protection, or ETP, which “now automatically protects people from unwanted first-party cookies.”
Mozilla is also announcing a series of other changes, with Firefox 80 now being moved to the beta channel. The official launch of Firefox 80 is set for August 25, so a new build will be here in less than a month. The Nightly channel is being updated with the first build of Firefox 81.
Needless to say, users who download today’s installer of Firefox 79 need to manually install the update on their devices.
On the other hand, once the official announcement is shared tomorrow, Mozilla is also projected to begin the automatic rollout of Firefox 79 using the built-in updating engine that comes bundled with the browser. At that point, users of Firefox 78 should be served the new browser without the need for manual downloads.