If you are referring to your Linux version, it is your distro which is doing that. Is there a way of managing updates there? You could consider using the Mozilla version.

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/#product-desktop-release https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux

Thanks, I did not consider that. Yes, I'm using GNU/Linux Mint with automatic updates. But I still wonder, why is an open session of Firefox forced to restart? I don't know of any other app that does that. If you launch a new process, OK, the new version is used. This behavior is very strange to me. Blacklisting Firefox from updates is not a great idea.

Yep, definitely a distro issue. That force restart is not good which is why I run multiple versions of Firefox and Waterfox.

I currently moved to Chromium since I was tired from this behavior for several years. Restart never occurs in a convenient time.

Reported in the Linux Mint Github.

Linux Mint packagers say it's the behavior from Firefox: https://github.com/linuxmint/linuxmint/issues/577

So this is a Firefox issue.

Try to install Firefox directly from the mozilla website. It shouldn't behave like that.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

It will not happen because Firefox will not be updated by the package manager, like all other packages in the system (thousands).

But the forced restart is imposed by Firefox. Thunderbird is updated the same way but does not impose restart. After i close and then reopen then the new version is used.

Many programs use caching and several other software designs but they don't impose restarts so this seems like a developer/architect decision.

Linux Mint packagers say it's the behavior from Firefox: https://github.com/linuxmint/linuxmint/issues/577 So this is a Firefox issue.

That was a good read. If it's a Firefox issue it would happen in both Distro version and Mozilla version. I would say open a Bug and see what light the Devs can shed on the update process for Distro versions. It's similar to apps on Android. If there's an update for an app that's already open, it will be closed by the update process. Did you update your system while running the Distro version of Firefox? I just recently experienced the force restart from my Distro version of Firefox because I updated the system while using the Distro version, but I always verify the updates before installing. I saw that one of the updates was Firefox, but let it run anyway. That's the only reason I saw the forced restart. I also run Nightly and that's updated every day and I cannot recall every seeing a force restart. I start the update download process and then I restart when ready. see screenshot

In a GNU/Linux distribution it's usual to treat all applications the same: so Firefox is treated like Thunderbird, LibreOffice, emacs, vim, bash or Linux (kernel). There are no special apps that should require special treatment, unless they are not packaged by the distro and that requires the user additional work.

Yes, even the kernel (Linux) of the operating system is updated without any disruption to user's work. He just reboots when he is ready to do so.

Not the case of Firefox, so it is updated with all other apps. Possible while being used. But all the other thousands of apps behave similarly: continue working until new processes are launched. Firefox behaves differently: it monitors files on disk and when it detects an update it forces a restart. I think that's designed behavior. You have to specifically add code for your application to work like that, it's not something "by default".

So it's an option of developers, not sure what the benefit is. I'm completely open to understand, I just don't see it because all the dozens of times this happened to me, it was always disrupting of my user experience.

If you are using Windows and would like to restart your Firefox browser, press down the Alt key while simultaneously pressing the F4 key