NEWS  Software  November 26, 2023  Reading time: ~1 minute)

Max (RS editor)

Firefox 121 is gearing up to ship with Wayland support as the default setting on contemporary Linux desktops, a departure from relying on XWayland. Encouragingly, current indications suggest that this will hold true for the imminent stable release of Firefox 121, slated for next month.

Hot on the heels of the Firefox 120 stable release, Firefox 121 has entered the beta phase. The commitment to maintaining Wayland support as the default option persists, as evidenced by its continued activation through beta 3, released just yesterday. This positive trajectory is anticipated to endure into the stable release. The integration of native Wayland support in Firefox 121 brings forth a range of enhancements, including support for touchpad and touchscreen gestures, swipe-to-nav functionality, per-monitor DPI settings, improved graphics performance, and more. The evolution of Firefox Wayland support has progressed impressively, showcasing robust stability in recent tests of the Firefox 121 beta versions.

While there are a few bugs being tracked in the meta bug tracker, such as issues with the input method window position lagging behind and an unconfirmed Firefox crash during window dragging across multiple monitors, there is optimism that these will be addressed. Ideally, they won't necessitate a last-minute alteration to the default settings for Firefox 121.

The much-anticipated Firefox 121 is scheduled for release on December 19, just in time for a festive tech treat with Wayland support enabled by default. As KDE Plasma 6.0 gears up to default to the Wayland session, and significant Wayland adoption milestones are achieved across the Linux desktop landscape, there's speculation that 2024 could witness Wayland emerging as the dominant force in the Linux desktop arena.