Ubuntu Desktop aims to deliver an open source operating system, available to everyone that just works for whatever they need. With Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, we believe we’ve come closer than ever to achieving that goal. However, as always, there are still a number of areas we want to improve to deliver the highest quality user experience. One of those areas is our default browser, Firefox, which transitioned to being distributed as a snap with Ubuntu 21.10.
To understand this decision, I want to focus on the ‘just works’ part of my opening statement. The Firefox snap offers a number of benefits to daily users of Ubuntu as well as a range of other Linux distributions. It improves security, delivers cross-release compatibility and shortens the time for improvements from Mozilla to get into the hands of users.
Currently, that decision has trade-offs when it comes to performance, most notably in Firefox’s first launch after a system reboot. A…
