Firefox 91 ESR Released With Default HTTPS Mode and Support for Windows Single Sign-On
Published on August 10, 2021
- Mozilla released the next ESR version of the Firefox web browser, and it comes with HTTPS mode by default.
- Other new features include the reinstatement of ‘Simplified Printing’ and the addition of Windows Single Sign-On.
- Firefox is losing an average of 1.2 million users every month, and new releases have been unable to turn the situation around.
Mozilla has announced the release of Firefox 91 ESR (Extended Support Release), and the long-term support version of the popular web browser comes with some new security-minded features to be happy about. Most importantly, Firefox will now use HTTPS by default whenever this option is available for a website the user intends to visit. This is precisely what Chrome did in its latest major release that came out last month, so Firefox is following up shortly.
Enforcing HTTPS is a simple yet very effective method to help raise the level of security when browsing because it encrypts all data that comes and goes between the website server and the client. In general, it destroys the potential of man-in-the-middle attacks by rendering the stolen data useless. For more details on why HTTPS is important and why internet users should care about it, read this detailed piece by Sydney Butler.
Another new and important addition that landed with version 91 is the addition of support for Windows Single-Sign on, letting the user authenticate once and then unlock a set of credentials used across a range of software tools and products. And a third major new feature is the restoration of ‘Simplified Printing’ in the ‘Reader View,’ the removal of which was met with controversy from the community.
This version will run in parallel to the previous ESR, version 78, the support for which ends on October 10, 2021. Along with it, the project will officially say goodbye to Flash, which is only available on the older ESR. Also, macOS 10.12 and older will be stuck with Firefox 78.x, as the newer release hasn’t included these systems on its list with supported OSes.
In the background of all that, Mozilla cannot ignore the bleeding of users that is being recorded by multiple sources and statistical analysis tools. According to the most recent reports, Firefox lost roughly 46 million users in just three years, continuing to lose market ground steadily despite the sincere efforts of the development team.
