Firefox

Firefox is a free, open-source web browser developed by Mozilla. It is known for its focus on privacy, customizability, and adherence to open web standards. Firefox uses the Gecko rendering engine and supports a wide range of web technologies.

Installation Paths

• Ubuntu/Linux:
  • System install: /usr/lib/firefox/
  • User config: ~/.mozilla/firefox/
  • Profile data: ~/.mozilla/firefox/<profile-id>.default-release/
• macOS:
  • App: /Applications/Firefox.app
  • User config: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/
  • Profile data: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile-id>.default-release/

Main Processes

• firefox — Main browser process (UI, window management)
• Web Content — One or more processes for rendering web pages (tabs)
• GPU Process — Handles hardware-accelerated graphics
• Extension Process — Runs browser extensions
• Plugin Process — For legacy plugins (rarely used now)

You can view running processes with ps aux | grep firefox (Linux/macOS).

Extensions & Add-ons

• Managed via about:addons and installed from Mozilla Add-ons.
• 1Password — Password manager
• uBlock Origin — Ad blocker
• Tree Style Tab — Tab management
• Wappalyzer - Identifies technologies used on websites

Useful Links

• user.js — Firefox configuration hardening
• Mozilla Developer Network: Firefox
• Firefox Release Notes
• about:config — Advanced configuration
• about:performance — View resource usage by tabs and extensions