How to setup Firefox Developer Edition on Ubuntu

Do you want to install and use Firefox Developer Edition on your Ubuntu and don’t know how to go about it?! If your answer is yes, then this article is for you. Am sure you’ve seen some documentations out there but in this one we will add Firefox Developer Edition to our Unity launcher. You’re welcome! 😉

Please follow the steps below…

Step 1
Download the firefox*.tar.bz2 file from Mozilla’s website.

Step 2
Open Terminal.

Step 3
Navigate to the folder where the file is saved.

Step 4
Copy firefox*.tar.bz2 file to the /opt folder.

sudo cp -rp firefox*.tar.bz2 /opt

Step 5
Delete the downloaded firefox*.tar.bz2 file.

sudo rm -rf firefox*.tar.bz2

Step 6
Navigate to the /opt directory.

cd ~
cd /opt

Step 7
Un-tar the firefox*.tar.bz2 file in opt folder.

sudo tar xjf firefox*.tar.bz2

Step 8
Delete the firefox*.tar.bz2 file in opt folder.

sudo rm -rf firefox*.tar.bz2

Step 9
Change ownership of the folder containing Firefox Developer Edition /opt/firefox

sudo chown -R $USER /opt/firefox

Step 10
Create the Firefox Developer Edition's shortcut

nano ~/.local/share/applications/firefox_dev.desktop

The content of this file is,

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Firefox Developer 
GenericName=Firefox Developer Edition
Exec=/opt/firefox/firefox %u
Terminal=false
Icon=/opt/firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png
Type=Application
Categories=Application;Network;X-Developer;
Comment=Firefox Developer Edition Web Browser.
StartupWMClass=Firefox Developer Edition

Step 10
Mark the launcher as trusted and make it executable.

chmod +x ~/.local/share/applications/firefox_dev.desktop

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I hope this article has helped you to set-up your new Firefox Developer Edition.

Thank you

Comments

[Mark Cockram]

firefox*.tar.bz2 is now firefox*.tar.xz.

Thanks works like a charm!

[Nabil Shaikh]

Thanks so much, worked like a charm. Recently booted my system to POP!OS so I was pretty happy to learn this worked right off the bat

[Amirmoh Divani]

Someone said you can just delete the fierfox.bz2 file in /opt directory but idk

[Amirmoh Divani]

Thanks it worked for me on Ubuntu 22!
Just one question does it update automatically as well?

[Khemendra-Bhardwaj]

Thanks a lot, Very helpful post

[Lakshmanshankar C]

amazing blog everything works just like that. steps are clear and sweet

[dhinesh20022806]

Thank you so much, what if in future how can i update the firefox developer edition.

[Shayan]

thanks bro Harrsh

[Lucas Almeida]

Thanks a lot bro, this helped me.

[Aman Khys P N]

thanks a lot mate... really helped me out.