New Update Mozilla Firefox 96.0 release: here is what is new

silversurfer

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Firefox 96.0's release date is January 11, 2022. It is the first Firefox Stable release of 2022. The new Firefox version includes some improvements and fixes, including security fixes.

Executive Summary​

  • Firefox 96 is a security update.
  • Firefox changes how cookies are handled that come from the same domain but use different schemes, e.g. HTTPS and HTTP. The sites are considered different "with respect to the cookie SameSite directive".

Firefox 96.0 new features and improvements​


Changes in cookie handling

Firefox 96.0 enforces the Same-Site=lax cookie policy by default now. It is one of three available values for the Same-Site policy and blocks cookies from being sent in third-party contexts. Firefox will use the lax value automatically for sites that don't specify a Same-Site directive.

Mozilla explains:
Cookies are not sent on normal cross-site subrequests (for example to load images or frames into a third party site), but are sent when a user is navigating to the origin site (i.e., when following a link).
This is the default cookie value if SameSite has not been explicitly specified in recent browser versions (see the "SameSite: Defaults to Lax" feature in the Browser Compatibility).

Other changes

  • The main-thread load has been reduced "significantly" according to Mozilla.
  • Improvements to noise-suppression and auto-gain-control, and "slight improvements in echo-cancellation".
 

silversurfer

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Some Firefox users report connection issues (workaround inside)​

"The latest stable versions of the Firefox web browser seem to cause connection issues for some users. Firefox 96.0, released this week, appears to be affected."

It is unclear how widespread the issue is, only that it appears to be related to the HTTP3 implementation of the browser.

There is a fix for the issue, and it is quite easy to follow:
  1. Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
  2. Confirm that you will be careful.
  3. Search for network.http.http3.enabled.
  4. Set the preference to FALSE with a double-click on its line.
  5. Restart Firefox.
The issue should be resolved after the restart, all websites should load just fine. Please note that the preference needs to be enabled again once the issue is resolved by Mozilla, as it will cause breakage in the future when HTTP gets deprecated.

network-http3.png
 

silversurfer

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Upon installation of Firefox 96.0 I now have a black background. This is not part of a theme as I am running Black by Madonna theme and had a white background before. Any way of fixing this as the black background is hard on old eyes?

Do you have tried to change temporally your Firefox theme, just enable one of default themes...

Another possible reason might be special user tweaks like: userChrome.css
 

harlan4096

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Some Firefox users report connection issues (workaround inside)​

"The latest stable versions of the Firefox web browser seem to cause connection issues for some users. Firefox 96.0, released this week, appears to be affected."


Working fine here, no issues 🤔
 

franz

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This is reported to work also: Another solution that will work is to go to the usual settings in Firefox, select "Privacy and security" in the column on the left, and then disable all options under "Data collection and use for Firefox".
 

brambedkar59

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Was using FF last night with no issues.

This is reported to work also: Another solution that will work is to go to the usual settings in Firefox, select "Privacy and security" in the column on the left, and then disable all options under "Data collection and use for Firefox".
Telemetry doesn't seems to be the issue.
 

71Hemi

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@silversurfer
Yes I have tried other themes with success but I no longer have a default theme, at least nothing that says default on it, go figure. I have checked my settings under the general tab, language and appearance, fonts and colors, colors, and the text shows black and background shows white. Is there a way to change the background color in about:config? If so what is the value needed to change the background from black to white without changing the theme? Seems to me firefox or my profile somehow got corrupted during my manual update.

 

silversurfer

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@silversurfer
Yes I have tried other themes with success but I no longer have a default theme, at least nothing that says default on it, go figure. I have checked my settings under the general tab, language and appearance, fonts and colors, colors, and the text shows black and background shows white. Is there a way to change the background color in about:config? If so what is the value needed to change the background from black to white without changing the theme? Seems to me firefox or my profile somehow got corrupted during my manual update.


You can try to start a fresh user profile, that works for most issues on Firefox.

NOTE: I have read a new version Firefox 96.0.1 soon will be ready to be delivered by Mozilla, so may be that solves your mentioned issues...

We’re still preparing the notes for this release, and will post them here when they are ready. Please check back later.
 
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silversurfer

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@silversurfer
Thanks for the advice, I just downloaded the new 96.0.1 so hopefully that fixes it but in case it doesn't what's the easiest way to start a new profile and correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't that change all of the custom about:config settings and extensions?

You are right, but you may have no other choice because your user profile is corrupted, even tweaks in FF about:config might be the reason...

Mozilla offers guides to help:

 

silversurfer

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