Firefox released version 52.0 today. It brings the usual bug fixes and security enhancements but most noticeably it takes away the ability to use NPAPI (Netscape Plugin API) plugins like Silverlight, Java, Acrobat, and others. Adobe’s Flash Player is the one exception to this removal and Mozilla promises to further restrict Flash to only activate with click-to-play later on.
If you were using the 64-bit version of Firefox, you have been without NPAPI plugins for a while. Firefox 52 brings this restriction to the 32-bit version now. Google Chrome dropped NPAPI support in September 2015 and Mozilla had previously promised that Firefox would drop NPAPI support by the end of 2016.
From the Firefox 52.0 release notes, other noteworthy changes to the browser include:
- Showing “Untrusted Connection” when encountering a SHA-1 certificate
- Windows XP/Vista users are migrated to Firefox’s ESR (extended support release) version
- CSS Grid Layout is enabled
- Added automatic captive portal detection (signing in to wifi at hotels, restaurants, and other hotspots)
- Warnings for non-HTTPS pages that have logins since your credentials will not be encrypted across the wire
- WebAssembly support added
You can see more details in the Mozilla blog article or update the browser by downloading Firefox for Windows, Mac, or Linux.