First and foremost, there’s the Stable version, which is probably what you’re using now. The Stable version is reliable for most use cases and includes plenty of new features and security patches. There’s also the ESR version, which stands for Extended Support Release. This version is intended for large organizations, such as universities and businesses, that require a web browser at a larger scale. Firefox ESR does not come with the latest features but does include the latest security patches and stability fixes. The purpose of the ESR release is to offer the most stable version of the browser for organizations that depend on their tools working exactly as expected for as long as they are needed. Also: What are Firefox Container Tabs and how do you use them? The third version of Firefox, Firefox Nightly, is what we’ll focus on here. Also: What is Firefox View and how do you use it? I’ve seen a number of features come and go in Nightly that never wind up in the official version. Also: Firefox finally declutters the toolbar with the Unified Extensions button For those who are curious about how Firefox Nightly evolves into the Stable version, here’s how the timeline works:
Nightly is under heavy development and should only be adopted by experienced users and testers.Beta is the final development stage for Firefox where bugs are resolved and includes the most accurate list of features that will be found in the Stable release.Stable is the final product that is released to the public for everyday use.
Once upon a time, there was also the Aurora release, which was the next phase in the process between Nightly and Beta. The Aurora release version ended in 2017. Another part of the fun of using Nightly is that you get to experience new features before they hit the Beta or Stable releases. As I said earlier, sometimes these features don’t make it to the final release, but it’s kind of cool to get to experience them before they are dropped. Also: How to open websites as apps with Firefox on Linux Ultimately, however, the decision to use Firefox Nightly boils down to your ability to use a web browser that isn’t nearly as stable as the final release. If you’re OK knowing your browser might crash or experience issues, and you enjoy reporting bugs to developers to help them solve problems, then you might be a perfect candidate for Firefox Nightly. Just remember, Firefox Nightly is unstable. It will have issues. If the thought of getting your hands on those new features appeals to you, even at the cost of stability, I highly recommend using Firefox Nightly. If you’re using Linux, the process isn’t quite as simple. Let me show you how to install Firefox Nightly on an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution. Here are the steps: With the installation complete, you should now see the Firefox Nightly entry in your desktop menu. One thing that’s really nice about this installation method is that you can run both the final release and the Nightly release at the same time. And those are the ins and outs, and ups and downs of Firefox Nightly. As I said, I’ve been happily using Nightly as my default version of Firefox for a long time and haven’t come across any issue that the next day’s update didn’t mitigate. If you feel brave enough, give Firefox Nightly a try and see what the future has in store for your favorite open-source browser.
