Download Latest Firefox 17.0, Adds New Social Feature, Click-to-Play Blocklisting, HSTS lists and More

On November 19, 2012, Mozilla has released the latest Firefox 17.0 web browser (stable channel) for all supported platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Android. The most exciting feature is with Firefox 17, Mozilla finally brings social integration, to the stable channel of the web browser.

Other notable features and improvements are overall security of the web browser has been improved, by implementing click-to-play blocklisting and support for the “sandbox” attribute (HTML5) for IFrames. Additional Firefox 17 come with lots of performance improvements, fixes touch on the “new tab” page, fixes problem with the pointer lock not working in web apps or page down scrolling too far on websites with fixed headers.

The new click-to-play blocklisting automatically blocks old vulnerable Java and Adobe Flash plugin versions from running in the browser. The new Social API feature adds options to integrate various social networking services such as Facebook directly into the browser. Using the Social API, you can chat with friends, see notifications and other information directly in the browser.

Firefox 17 also comes with a preloaded HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) list to improves security when you are connecting to websites present on the HSTS list. When HSTS list is used by Firefox, it can decide if a secure connection needs to be established when connecting with a website. When the list is not present, the browser first connects with the host server of the website to decide if it needs a secure connection, which makes it easier for an active network attacker to carry a man in the middle attack and prevent the browser from connecting securely.

The latest Firefox version is no longer compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 or earlier. ESR (extended support release) users can also upgrade to Firefox 17 ESR versions of the web browser.

Latest Firefox 17: Direct Download Links

Windows (English) | Mac (English) | Linux (English) | All system and languages | Download Firefox for Android

Latest Firefox 17 ESR: Direct Download Links

Download Firefox 17 ESR: Windows (English) | Mac (English) | Linux i686 (English) | Linux x86_64 (English)

Mozilla provides Firefox for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in a variety of languages. You can get the latest released version of Firefox here or the latest development version of Firefox here. You should also check out our Firefox section for everything related to Mozilla Firefox.

The official release notes for Firefox 17 are as follows:

• Firefox 16.0.2 security fixes and Firefox 16.0.1 vulnerability is outlined here
• Firefox on Mac OS X now has preliminary VoiceOver support turned on by default
• Initial web app support (Windows/Mac/Linux)
• Acholi and Kazakh localizations added
• Improvements around JavaScript responsiveness through incremental garbage collection
• New Developer Toolbar with buttons for quick access to tools, error count for the Web Console, and a new command line for quick keyboard access
• CSS3 Animations, Transitions, Transforms and Gradients unprefixed in Firefox 16
• Recently opened files list in Scratchpad implemented
• Debugger breakpoints do not catch on page reload (783393)
• No longer supporting MD5 as a hash algorithm in digital signatures (650355)
• Opus support by default (772341)
• Reverse animation direction has been implemented (655920)
• Per tab reporting in about:memory (687724)
• User Agent strings for pre-release Firefox versions now show only major version (728831)
• You can check the full list of fixes on this page.

Known Issues of Firefox 17 are:

• If you try to start Firefox using a locked profile, it will crash
• For some users, scrolling in the main GMail window will be slower than usual
• Windows: The use of Microsoft’s System Restore functionality shortly after updating Firefox may prevent future updates.