Here is what is new and changed in Firefox 74.0 Stable

oldschool · Mar 10, 2020

by Martin Brinkmann on March 10, 2020 in Firefox - 23 comments
Firefox 74.0 is the latest stable version of the web browser. Its release date is March 10, 2020.
All major Firefox channels are updated as well. Firefox Beta and Firefox Dev receive an update to version 75.0, Firefox Nightly is moved to version 76.0, and Firefox ESR to version 68.6. Additionally, Firefox for Android will also be upgraded to version 68.6.
You may check out the release overview for Firefox 73.0 here in case you missed it. The next stable version of Firefox, Firefox 75.0, is scheduled to be released on April 7, 2020.
Executive Summary

Firefox does not support TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1 anymore.
Privacy improvements by blocking access to certain information, e.g. geolocation from cross-origin iframes.

The official release date of Firefox 74.0 is March 10, 2020. The browser will become available on that day on Mozilla's website and as an in-browser upgrade.

Firefox users may select Menu > Help > About Firefox to run a manual check for updates. Once released, Firefox will pick up the new version automatically and install it on the device.

The following pages list direct downloads for supported Firefox channels (will be available later on March 10, 2020)

Firefox 74.0 Changes
Firefox 74.0 is a smaller release with just a few changes and improvements. Mozilla reduced the time period between releases; a new Firefox version is released every four weeks from 2020 on.

TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 support removed
Mozilla and other prominent browser makers announced plans to deprecate the old standards TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in browsers in 2020. Mozilla started to disable TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in Firefox Nightly last year and has now removed support for the encryption protocols in Firefox 74.0 Stable.

Firefox will throw a "secure connection failed" error when a site only supports TLS 1.1 or lower. Sites need to support at least TLS 1.2 to make sure that users can connect to the sites.

Non-user installed add-ons may be removed using about:addons

Firefox users may remove extensions installed by external applications using the browser's add-ons management page about:addons.

Mozilla plans to disallow extension installations by external applications going forward.

Other changes

Firefox now provides better privacy for your web voice and video calls through support for mDNS ICE by cloaking your computer’s IP address with a random ID in certain WebRTC scenarios.
The Facebook Container extensions for Firefox supports adding custom sites to the container now.
Firefox Lockwise, the built-in password manager of Firefox, now supports reverse alpha sorting entries (Z-A).
Geolocation, fullscreen, camera, mic, screen capture requests from cross-origin <iframe> are now disabled by default
Improved bookmarks and history importing from the new Microsoft Edge on Windows and Mac devices.
Mozilla fixed an issue that could cause pinned tabs to become lost or reordered.
Fixed Picture-in-Picture toggle on Instagram which sit on top of the "next" button when uploading photos to the site.
The shortcut Ctrl-I opens the Page Info window on Windows now (instead of the Bookmarks sidebar).

Firefox for Android
Mozilla lists "various stability and security fixes" without providing additional details.

Developer Changes

Cross-Origin-Resource-Policy header is enabled by default.
Feature Policy is enabled by default.
Javascript: Optional Chaining operator has been implemented

Security updates / fixes
Security updates are revealed after the official release of the web browser. You find the information published here.

Additional information / sources