Firefox Developer Edition is a specialized version of the Firefox browser designed specifically for web developers. It includes a comprehensive set of developer tools and features like CSS Grid debugging, WebIDE, advanced JavaScript tools, and support for the latest web technologies. It also comes with a dark theme to reduce eye strain during long coding sessions. By using Firefox Developer Edition, you also gain access to tools and platform features at least 12 weeks before they reach the main Firefox release channel. The developer edition of Firefox is available for most operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and MAC OS. And the latest edition includes real-time HTML/CSS editing, built-in debugging, performance analysis, cross-browser testing and more. In this post, we go through the steps to install Firefox Developer Edition on Ubuntu, Debian, and Linux.
Quick Links
What is Firefox Developer Edition?
The Firefox Developer Edition is Mozilla’s browser made for developers. Unlike the regular Firefox, it includes:
- Latest experimental web platform features.
- Developer tools for debugging, inspecting, and analyzing code.
- Dark developer-focused theme by default.
- Tools like CSS Grid inspector, Flexbox debugger, and font editor.
- Access to pre-release Firefox features.
Whether you’re building websites or debugging apps, this browser offers enhanced tools and customization options for power users.
Install Firefox Developer Edition on Linux
Before installing Firefox Developer Edition, make sure:
- You’re running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or later (other versions will work similarly).
- You have sudo/root privileges on your system.
- Your system is up-to-date.
In addition, remove or isolate the default Firefox if you want to avoid conflicts.
- Ubuntu uses: sudo apt remove firefox
- Debian users: sudo apt-get remove firefox-esr
- Arch Linux users: sudo pacman -R firefox
- Fedora Users: sudo dnf remove firefox
- OpenSUSE users: sudo zypper remove firefox
Install Firefox Developer Edition Using Terminal
This method is most common and works across all Linux distros. It installs Firefox Developer Edition in your home directory.
Step 01: Download Firefox Developer Edition
First, download Firefox Developer Edition at this link.
Step 02: Extract the archive
Launch a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T, or by browsing for it and navigate to the folder where the .tar.xz file is located (e.g., Downloads):
cd ~/Downloads
Here you can run dir to confirm the downloaded file is there.
Then extract the file (replace filename if different):
sudo tar -xf firefox-142.0b7.tar.xz -C /opt/
This will extract the Firefox folder to /opt/firefox.
Note: The file name firefox-142.0b7.tar.xz used in the command sudo tar -xf firefox-142.0b7.tar.xz -C /opt/ corresponds to Firefox Developer Edition version 142.0b7, which was the latest at the time of writing.
If you’re downloading a newer version in the future, make sure to replace the filename in the command with the correct one you downloaded. You can check the actual filename by navigating to your downloads folder and running ls in the terminal.
Step 03: Rename the extracted folder (optional but cleaner)
Check the folder name first using ls /opt
If the folder is named something like firefox, you can leave it. Otherwise, you can rename it to firefox-developer using
sudo mv /opt/firefox /opt/firefox-developer
Step 04: Create a symbolic link to launch it from anywhere
Firefox Developer Edition’s files are in place in the /opt directory on your Linux PC. Still, you won’t be able to launch the browser app or use any of its functions, as the binary isn’t in the right place.
To set the binary in the right place, you must make a symlink from the /opt/firefox/ folder to the /usr/local/bin/ folder using the ln command.
sudo ln -s /opt/firefox-developer-edition/firefox /usr/local/bin/firefox-developer-edition
Now you can type firefox-developer in terminal or search it to launch it.
Step 05: Create a desktop shortcut
After putting the Firefox binary in the /usr/local/bin, you’ll need to set up a new desktop shortcut by using the nano command.
nano ~/.local/share/applications/firefox-developer.desktop
With the desktop shortcut open in Nano, paste the code below inside of the editor.
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Firefox Developer Edition
GenericName=Web Browser
Exec=/opt/firefox-developer/firefox %u
Icon=/opt/firefox-developer/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png
Type=Application
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=firefox
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;
Save the edit with Ctrl + O and exit with Ctrl + X. Then update the permissions of the file with chmod.
chmod +x ~/.local/share/applications/firefox-developer.desktop
Now it should appear in your application menu as Firefox Developer Edition.
Make it the Default Browser (Optional)
xdg-settings set default-web-browser firefox-developer.desktop
So you’ve installed Firefox Developer Edition cleanly in /opt, linked it to the system, and created a desktop launcher.
How to Update the Firefox Developer Edition
Firefox Developer Edition includes a built-in update system, just like the regular version. When a new version is available:
- You’ll get an update prompt inside the browser.
- Firefox will automatically download and install the latest version the next time you restart it.
- Make sure the user who runs Firefox has write permission to /opt/firefox-developer.
Well If the browser can’t update due to permissions, run: sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /opt/firefox-developer
This gives your user ownership of the installation folder so Firefox can update itself.
Manual Update (If Auto-Update Fails)
Also, you can manually update Firefox Developer Edition by following the steps below.
First, delete the old version using sudo rm -rf /opt/firefox-developer
Next, download the latest .tar.xz from: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer
Extract it again using:
sudo tar -xf firefox-XXX.tar.xz -C /opt/
sudo mv /opt/firefox /opt/firefox-developer
That’s all, your desktop shortcut and symlink will continue to work — no need to recreate them.
FAQs
Q1. Can I run Firefox Developer Edition alongside regular Firefox?
Yes, both can run side-by-side. They use different user profiles.
Q2. Is Firefox Developer Edition stable?
Yes, it’s stable for daily use, though it includes newer features that may change often.
Q3. Does it auto-update like the regular Firefox?
Not in the manual method. Use Flatpak or re-download periodically to stay updated.
Q4. Can I install Firefox Dev Edition on other Linux distros?
Yes. The tarball method works on any Linux distribution, including Fedora, Arch, Mint, etc.
