Firefox 153 Available With Support For Vulkan Video Decoding, Experimental JPEG-XL - Phoronix

What the report says

Phoronix reports that Mozilla has posted the Firefox 153.0 release binaries, marking the latest monthly update to the cross-platform browser. The release was reported by Phoronix on July 20, 2026. A major point in the update is that Firefox 153 is also the newest Extended Support Release, or ESR, a channel aimed at organizations such as enterprises and schools that prioritize longer-term stability over rapid feature turnover.

According to the report, Firefox 153 adds initial support for Vulkan Video decoding. Phoronix frames this as especially relevant for Linux users because Firefox’s hardware video acceleration work has historically centered on VA-API, which is not officially supported by NVIDIA without relying on the separate NVIDIA-VAAPI project that maps VA-API to NVDEC. The article also notes that some embedded drivers and other environments do not support VA-API, making Vulkan Video potentially useful as a modern cross-vendor and cross-platform acceleration interface.

The release also includes PDF-related improvements, continued work around JPEG-XL support, and HDR video playback on Windows, Phoronix says. JPEG-XL remains experimental in this release and can be enabled through Firefox Labs, rather than being presented as a default browser feature.

For users and IT administrators, the update matters both as a feature release and as a new ESR baseline. The Vulkan Video work may broaden future hardware-accelerated video options, while the ESR designation gives organizations a new stable version track to evaluate. Phoronix says the Firefox 153 binaries are available from Mozilla’s FTP site, with additional details referenced in the beta release notes.