Want to go back and use older versions of Firefox or downgrade to something you love? This brief tutorial will show you how to install your favorite past versions in Ubuntu 12.04. From Firefox 2.0 through 12.0 can easily be installed and used in Ubuntu. To show you how this works, I’m going to be installing Firefox version 3.6 in the current version of Ubuntu which has Firefox 11.0 installed by default.

I personally love version 3.6 of Firefox and this is going to take me back in time.

Objectives:

  • Learn how to install older versions of Firefox in Ubuntu
  • Enjoy!

To get started, go and download a version of Firefox from here of here.

 

When prompted, choose the save the file. By default it should be saved in your Downloads folder.

 

firefox_previous_version_precise

 

After saving, press Ctrl – Alt – T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the commands below to extract the downloaded file.

tar xvf ~/Downloads/firefox-3.6.28.tar.bz2

 

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After extracting the file, move it to the /opt/ folder by running the commands below.

sudo mv firefox/ /opt/firefox3

 

firefox_previous_version_precise_2

 

Then backup your current Firefox executable by running the commands below.

sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox-old

 

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Finally, run the command below to create a symbolic link to the older Firefox executable.

sudo ln -s /opt/firefox3/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

 

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All your icons and launchers shouldn’t change. They should a work with the previous version just fine. Go and launch Firefox and test it.

 

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That’s it!

 

To go back to your current version of Firefox, first remove the current executable of the previous version.

sudo rm /usr/bin/firefox

 

Then run the commands below to restore your current version.

sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox-old /usr/bin/firefox

 

Enjoy!