How to Install Firefox Developer Edition on Ubuntu & Linux Mint

Firefox developer edition, which is a browser built specifically for web developers, was first introduced by Mozilla back in November 2014. It streamlines the development workflow so developers don’t need to bounce between different platforms and browsers. This browser comes preloaded with many web developers tools such as WebIDE and Valence which allows developers to debug other browsers and apps directly from within the Firefox developer edition.

By using the Developer Edition, you also gain access to tools and platform features at least 12 weeks before they reach the main Firefox release channel. It can run alongside your existing Firefox browser.

The latest version is 50.0a2, released on August 5, 2016. Changes includes:

  • Find in page now supports a mode to search for whole words only
  • New preference for allowing Ctrl+Tab to cycle through tabs in recently used order
  • Improved printing by using the Reader Mode
  • Emoji for everyone! Firefox will use built-in Emoji on operating systems without native Emoji fonts (Windows 8.0 and lower and Linux)
  • Use accel-(opt/alt)-r as the reader mode keyboard shortcut
  • changes for web developers can be found here.

Note that Firefox developer edition may missing some standard Firefox features. For example, it doesn’t have the leaked password alert feature, if you use the Firefox built-in password manager.

Install Firefox Developer Edition on Ubuntu/Linux Mint via Ubuntu Make

With this method, Firefox D.E. coexists with your default Firefox browser and can be updated in Help > About Firefox window. First, install Ubuntu Make which is available from repository.

sudo snap install ubuntu-make --classic

Then install firefox-dev.

umake web firefox-dev --lang en-US

You will be asked to choose the installation path and language. Pressing Enter will choose the default option. Once it’s installed, you can start it from your application menu.

firefox developer edition ubuntu 16.04

Note that because Linux Mint ships with a different desktop environment, you won’t see the firefox developer edition icon in the menu. You can start it from the terminal. For instance, if you chose the default installation path, then start it with:

~/.local/share/umake/web/firefox-dev/firefox

You can also log out and log back in, then the icon will show you in your application menu.

Install Firefox Developer Edition from PPA

With this method, your existing Firefox browser will be replaced. Open up a terminal window (CTRL+ALT+T), and run the following 3 commands one at a time.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/firefox-aurora
sudo apt update
sudo apt install firefox

Firefox developer edition linux

That’s it! I hope this article helped you install Firefox Developer Edition on Ubuntu and Linux Mint. As always, if you found this post useful, then subscribe to our free newsletter or follow us on Twitter or like our Facebook page. Thanks for visiting!

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10 Responses to “How to Install Firefox Developer Edition on Ubuntu & Linux Mint

  • MarkJonesMDJ
    8 years ago

    Hi. I got “ERROR: Download page changed its syntax or is not parsable” when trying to install using umake.

    • Xiao Guo-An (Admin)
      8 years ago

      This is a new bug in ubuntu-make. To fix it, edit a file.

      sudo nano /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/umake/frameworks/web.py

      Find this line.

      reg_expression = '< href="(.*)" title'.format(tag_machine)

      Replace it with the following line.

      reg_expression = r'href="(S+os=linux{}&lang=S+)"'.format(tag_machine)
    • umake version 16.09 its OK
      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-desktop/ubuntu-make
      sudo apt-get update

  • Wellington Torrejais
    4 months ago

    Nice!

  • brandobandit
    4 months ago

    As of November 2017, you can install ubuntu make by doing these:
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-desktop/ubuntu-make
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt install ubuntu-make

    Then download and install firefox dev:
    umake web firefox-dev

  • Go to their github page and you will find appropriate installation instructions.

    https://github.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-make#installing

  • William Dring
    2 months ago

    I have done everything you said verbatim but still comes up
    ERROR: Download page changed its syntax or is not parsable” when trying to install using umake.
    i will just stick to chrome . Thank you

  • Ubuntu 18.04 get error

    ERROR: One default was already registered, can't register a second one in that choices set: 
    ...
    

    Working command:

    umake web firefox-dev --lang en-US

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