FireDragon 13 revamps web browser core, adds XDG Base Directories, and new welcome dialog

Garuda Linux has released FireDragon 13, the latest version of its customized web browser derived from Floorp. This update marks a complete re-implementation, delivering a new code base intended to improve maintainability and user experience.

Building on this foundation, FireDragon 13 introduces support for XDG Base Directories, aligning browser data management with common Linux standards for better integration. Users are greeted by a redesigned welcome dialog that allows for enhanced search engine selection, and provides quick settings for privacy controls. These include options to hide the built-in Firefox password manager, enable ResistFingerprinting for greater privacy, although this may disrupt some sites, and to toggle prefetching to boost loading speed.

Following these updates, DuckDuckGo is now set as the default search engine. In addition, an expanded selection of available search engines is included. Other refinements involve a slight increase in browsing speed compared to earlier versions.

Completing the update, WebGL and Digital Rights Management (DRM) permissions can now be managed at the site level for more granular control. Lastly, the Dark Reader extension is no longer bundled by default, which affects default appearance for some users.