**Firefox 157 Debuts Nova Theme: Mozilla’s Biggest Visual Refresh in Years**
Mozilla has released Firefox 157, introducing the Nova theme as the browser’s new default interface—a change the company describes as its „biggest visual refresh in years.” The Nova theme modernizes Firefox’s core UI elements by making tabs, menus, address bars, pop-overs, sidebar panels, search boxes, and info bars rounder and more colorful, with subtle pastel gradients tinting the window chrome across Windows, macOS, and Linux (the Linux version being opt-in). First revealed in March through internal Mozilla mockups shared by tech blogger Söeren Hentzschel, Nova evolved from concept to implementation rapidly, though the final release tones down some of the more dramatic elements originally planned—notably the „floating islands” effect with gaps around toolbar and tab elements that appeared in earlier Firefox Nightly builds.
Alongside the visual refresh, Firefox 157 reintroduces an official compact mode option that reduces spacing in toolbars, tabs, and menu entries, giving more room to web content—a feature Mozilla says will be useful on smaller screens and in split-screen layouts. An „auto” setting can enable it automatically when appropriate. Users who prefer the previous look can disable Nova by navigating to about:config, searching for browser.nova.enabled, and toggling it to false with a double-click—the change takes effect immediately without requiring a restart.
The update also brings several functional changes. Firefox 157 now displays warnings in Settings and the site info panel when encryption keys are being recorded via an SSLKEYLOGFILE, alerting users that logged keys could be accessed by other apps to read encrypted web traffic. Firefox Suggests, Mozilla’s sponsored content feature, expands to numerous European countries including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden—though users can disable it via Settings > Search. The New Tab page now shows a permanently visible „+” icon for adding custom shortcuts, and a new icon replaces the old „v” shape for the „list all tabs” widget.
Additional changes include the removal of Amazon as a built-in search engine, hardware AV1 decoding support for WebRTC video calls, improved focus behavior for the address and search bars via the Tab key, page-themed alert/confirm/prompt dialogs, support for the CSS overscroll-behavior chain property, and a slate of security vulnerability fixes. Firefox 157 is available for download from Mozilla’s FTP starting Monday, September 28, with in-app updates rolling out Tuesday, September 29 for Windows, macOS, and Linux binary builds. Linux distribution repositories, Flathub, Snap, and other formats will begin packaging the update the same day, and Ubuntu users will receive it automatically through the Snap Store with an on-screen notification when it’s ready to install.
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Forrás: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/09/firefox-157-released-nova-theme.