Available for Ubuntu 16.10, 16.04, 14.04, and 12.04 LTS

Jan 28, 2017 04:20 GMT  ·  By

If you've been waiting to install the recently released Mozilla Firefox 51.0 web browser on your Linux-based operating system, today we have some good news for you, especially if you're using the popular Ubuntu.

Canonical today released both Mozilla Firefox 51.0.1 and Thunderbird 45.7.0 to the stable channels of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin), Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr), Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), and Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak), allowing users to enjoy the latest new features and security improvements that landed in these updates.

Yes, you're reading that right, Mozilla Firefox 51.0 already received its first minor security update, versioned 51.0.1, which made the multiprocess incompatibility to correctly register with various add-ons, as well as to fix geolocation support on Windows systems.

On the other hand, the Mozilla Thunderbird 45.7.0 email and news client is a bugfix and security release that attempts to improve the message preview pane with support for renaming or moving of IMAP folders, and fixes the "Move To" button on the "Search Messages" panel.

In Thunderbird 45.7, Mozilla's developers also made it possible for the built-in Calendar to accept or decline email invitations from email messages that are being stored in the same folder, as well as to finally display recipients for emails sent to "undisclosed recipients," which was broken since Thunderbird 38.

21 security issues patched in Firefox 51.0.1, sixteenth in Thunderbird 45.7.0

Of course, both Mozilla Firefox 51.0.1 and Mozilla Thunderbird 45.7.0 come with numerous security fixes. According to Canonical's latest USN (Ubuntu Security Notice) messages, a total of 21 vulnerabilities were patched in Firefox 51.0.1 and sixteenth in Thunderbird 45.7.0.

Therefore, we recommend users to update their Firefox and Thunderbird installations as soon as possible. Both versions are now live in the stable repositories of all supported Ubuntu Linux operating systems, as well as all of their official derivatives, so fire up the Synaptic Package Manager or Ubuntu Software and install them.

Canonical also provides CLI (command-line interface) update instructions and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades if you don't want to use a graphical package manager, and don't hesitate to take a look at those new security fixes for Firefox and Thunderbird to see what flaws have been addressed.

We would also like to remind you that Mozilla Firefox 51.0 is a major release featuring WebGL 2 support, a new warning that informs users of non-secure websites that aren't using the HTTPS protocol, support for playing FLAC audio, the ability to view passwords before they're saved, and the use of a new Skia 2D graphics library for content rendering.