In this tutorial, we’re gonna install Firefox Developer Edition on Ubuntu/Mint and Debian via terminal. The firefox developer edition is available for other operating systems as well like, Windows, macOS, and Linux. It gives web developers freedom to debug and inspect web applications with ease, and this edition is specifically for developers not for everyday internet users.
Firefox developer edition is specifically built for developers and was first introduced in November 2014 by Mozilla. It does lack some features such as it doesn’t have the leaked password alert feature if you use the Firefox built-in password manager.
Uninstall the Traditional Mozilla Firefox Version
Before proceeding, we’re gonna uninstall traditional firefox to avoid conflict between packages.
To uninstall firefox follow these specific commands:
- Ubuntu:
sudo apt remove firefox - Arch Linux:
sudo pacman -R firefox - Debian:
sudo apt-get remove firefox-esr - OpenSUSE:
sudo zypper remove firefox - Linux Mint:
sudo apt purge firefox* - Fedora:
sudo dnf remove firefox
Install Firefox Developer Edition via Ubuntu Make
Let’s install the Firefox developer edition via Ubuntu Make:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lyzardking/ubuntu-make sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install ubuntu-make
And now, let’s install firefox-dev. This will start downloading the required packages for the successful installation of the Firefox developer edition.
umake web firefox-dev --lang en-US
You won’t see the firefox developer edition icon in the menu, because you installed a different desktop environment.
You have to run it through the terminal via the path that it shows after the installation.
/home/ph0enix/.local/share/umake/web/firefox-dev/firefox
Install Firefox Developer Edition Through PPA
Let’s install Firefox developer edition through PPA in ubuntu, Fire up your terminal window (CTRL+ALT+T) and type the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/firefox-aurora sudo apt update sudo apt install firefox
Install Firefox Developer Edition on Linux
Go to the Firefox developer edition download page, Download the ‘tar.bz2’ file, and move it to the home folder with the file manager.
The first thing you need to do is give the terminal root permission through the following command.
sudo -s
After that navigate to the /opt directory and create another folder inside.
cd /opt mkdir -p firefox-dev
Now, move the firefox*.tar.bz2 file to the folder which you created /opt/firefox-dev.
Now, after you moved it. Un-tar the firefox*.tar.bz2 file inside the folder.
sudo tar xjf firefox*.tar.bz2
It’s time to change the ownership of the directory containing the Firefox Developer Edition /opt/firefox-dev/
sudo chown -R $(whoami):$(whoami) /opt/firefox-dev/
Create a shortcut for Firefox Developer Edition using nano editor,
nano ~/.local/share/applications/firefox_dev.desktop
Inside you can enter the following (or change it how you like):
[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Version=35.0a2 # version of the app. Name[en_US]=firefox_dev # name of the app. GenericName=Firefox Developer Edition # longer name of the app. Exec=/opt/firefox_dev/firefox # command used to launch the app. Terminal=false # whether the app requires to be run in a terminal. Icon[en_US]=firefox # location of icon file - Firefox Dev currently has no icon of its own, so just using the system default for Firefox Type=Application # type. Categories=Application;Network;Developer; # categories in which this app should be listed. Comment[en_US]=Firefox Developer Edition Web Browser. # comment which appears as a tooltip.
Now, make the executable file trusted and you’re ready for the launch.
chmod +x ~/.local/share/applications/firefox_dev.desktop
Conclusion
If you’re a web developer and use Linux, then you must have used the Firefox developer edition or you just installed it right now following our installation method. Firefox developer edition has lot to offer especially when it comes to web development. Let me know your thoughts about the firefox developer edition in the comment box below.
