How To Install Older Version Of Firefox On Linux Mint 21

Are you looking for a way to install older version of Firefox on Linux Mint 21? Read through this tutorial, and we will show you just how to do it.

Web browsers are essential software for us in this era. While it’s always the better choice to use up-to-date software versions, development doesn’t always go well. Sometimes, a new software piece may have bugs or security issues. Or maybe it’s not suitable for the OS version you’re using.

If you’re having a problem using the latest version of Firefox on your Linux Mint 21 device, one of the ways to resolve it is by installing an older version. Let’s see how you can do that.

How To Install Older Version Of Firefox On Linux Mint 21

To make things easier, this guide is separated into a few short parts. Let’s go over the steps to uninstall the new version and install the old version of Firefox.

Check the Current Firefox Version

Before doing anything else, you must know which Firefox version you’re currently running. You can do this straight from your Terminal.

Open your Terminal and run this command:

$ firefox --version

Output:

As you can see, we have version 108.0.1 running. 

Another way to check the version is through the browser itself. Open Firefox from the menu.

Tap the hamburger menu icon on the top right corner.

Press ‘Help’.

Then press ‘About Firefox’.

Doing that will bring up a menu that contains helpful information about your Firefox browser and its current version. Here, you can see that it matches the version number we got in the Terminal.

Download an Older Version of Firefox

To install an older version of Firefox, you first need to download the .tar file. If you directly search for Firefox versions on their official site, you won’t find them. That’s because all the Firefox versions are kept on this FTP server.

Visit the link above and download your desired version. For this tutorial, we will download the 107.0 version, which is one version earlier.

Scroll down until you find the correct version. They are all sorted out.

One easy way to find it is to search for it using “Ctrl + F”. Once found, click on the link. In the next window, you need to choose the correct OS. Since we’re downloading for Linux, we chose the Linux option.

After choosing the OS, you now need to choose a language. Choose your preferred language. In this case, we will choose ‘en-US’.

Lastly, choose the right .tar file by clicking on it.

After that, the download should start. And depending on your internet speed, it should take only a few minutes to finish.

Once the download is done, you need to extract the file. Open your Terminal and navigate to where your downloaded file is located. By default, you should find it in the ‘Downloads’ folder. Go to that directory and check if the download was successful. After doing so, run these commands:

$ cd Downloads/
$ ls

Output:

To extract the file, run this command:

$ sudo tar xvfvj firefox-107.0.tar.bz2 -C /opt/

Output:

Wait for it to complete. Once done, proceed to the next step.

Completely Uninstall the Latest Version

You can move the current installed Firefox to a different directory which is one way to remove it. To do that, we need to see where Firefox is installed. You will find where Firefox is installed by running this command:

$ type firefox

Output:

It’s in the /usr/bin/ directory. Go to that directory with this command:

$ cd /usr/bin/

Now move Firefox to a different directory by running this command:

$ sudo mv firefox firefox-latest

Output:

Install the Older Version

Now we can install the older version that you downloaded earlier. There’s not much to do. We don’t have to do any installation. The extracted file is already ready to use as your web browser. All we need to do is create a symbolic link so that it’s easier to access it.

Create a symbolic link by running this command:

$ sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

Output:

Now change the file permission to make it executable. To do that, run this command:

$ sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/firefox

Output:

After that, check the version of Firefox with this command:

$ firefox --version

Output:

You can double-check the version number by opening the browser, as we showed you earlier. The result should be the same. Open the browser with this command:

$ firefox

When you’re done double-checking, confirm the version.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the version is 107.0, which means we were able to downgrade Firefox successfully.

Should You Use an Older Version of Firefox?

While you may quickly decide to start using an older version for the most minor reasons, we don’t recommend downgrading Firefox at all. Here’s why:

• Older versions are prone to security issues more than the latest version
• Downgrading doesn’t always solve the issues you’re facing in the current version
• You may miss out on some features in the latest version which aren’t present in the older version
• Mozilla may stop support for older versions at any time

Alternative to Downgrading

So what can you do instead? Here are our suggestions:

• Learn to adapt to new technology. Get used to the newest features and take advantage of them rather than shutting them away.
• Use the Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) version. It comes with the latest security patches and bug fixes minus the latest features if that’s the reason for your switch.
• Ask questions on the support forum. Perhaps there’s already a solution to the problem you’re facing. Maybe someone else had the same problem as you and got a solution in the forums. Search for the solution.
• Report bugs and other issues. This helps the developers fix them quickly so you can enjoy a seamless experience.
• Check if there is an update available. Instead of downgrading, update the browser if possible.
• Use a different browser. If the latest version of Firefox isn’t cutting it for you, use other browsers such as Google Chrome, Brave, Microsoft Edge, or Opera.

Final Thoughts

Here, we demonstrated how to install older versions of Firefox on Linux Mint 21. We also discussed why you should consider not downgrading your Firefox browser and the alternative actions you can take. And that’s it for this tutorial. If you have any questions, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

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