How to Uninstall Firefox from Ubuntu & Other Linux Completely

If you’ve installed Firefox on your system, you might wonder how to remove it. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to uninstall Firefox in Ubuntu.

How to Uninstall Firefox from Ubuntu and other popular Linux Distros?

Ahhh Yes, Firefox is a great web browser, privacy-focused, fast, and reliable which comes packed with all the Linux distributions.

But let’s face it, the lack of extensions makes it unsuitable for some groups of people, especially after Firefox disabled their popular extension, Chrome Store Foxified, which allowed users to natively add extensions to Firefox from the Google Web Store.

That’s why people tend to opt for other web browsers based on chromium available for Linux, such as Chrome, Chromium, Brave browser, or others.

And if you’re one of those who are using some other web browser and not Firefox and don’t even rarely launch it then you might be wondering how to uninstall Firefox from Linux.

Well, the good part is, that it’s fairly easy to uninstall Firefox from Linux even if it comes pre-installed with the system apps.

Follow these simple steps to be easily able to remove Firefox browser from your Linux Machines. The steps are given for most of the popular Linux distributions out there.

How to uninstall Firefox from Ubuntu based Linux Distros using Software Manager

Almost all GUI Linux distros come with some software managing application installed with them so you can easily customize, remove or add the software you want.

Here are the steps you can follow to uninstall Firefox from your Ubuntu based Linux distro.

1. Hit the Super key(windows key, if you’ve installed Linux on a regular Windows Laptop) and search for, “Software Manager” or “Add or Remove Programs” You’ll get the GUI software manager program that is shipped with the Linux distribution you are using.
2. Launch the GUI software management program.
3. Click on the menu option of the software manager. It’s generally present on the top right side of the software manager.
4. Click on, the “Installed” option, to see all the installed programs on your Linux system.
5. Find the program you want to delete by scrolling down and finding it, as in this case, it’s gonna be Firefox.
6. Now, You’ll see a remove button beside the program name. In case you don’t see it you can click that program to open that program page in the software manager list to get the action buttons to remove Firefox.
7. Click on Remove and proceed with the further instructions.

This is how to Uninstall Firefox from Ubuntu and other Debian Based Linux Distro using the default software store that is installed on your ubuntu or other Linux installations.

Here’s how to uninstall Firefox from Ubuntu or any other Linux distributions based on Debian / Fedora / Arch-based distros using the terminal aka Command-Line.

How to uninstall Firefox from Ubuntu / Linux Mint / other Debian based Distros using Terminal

It’s very easy to remove Firefox Browser from any Debian Based Linux Distributions, like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or any other Distribution that has been build on top of Debian.

You only need to follow a very simple 2 Step Guide given below, and you can easily remove Firefox from your system using the terminal.

Step 1 – Launch the terminal

And type in –

sudo apt purge firefox

And hit enter. The package manager will check some dependencies and show you the programs that would be changed after the operation.

Step 2 – Confirm removal of the package

Now the package manager will ask you for confirmation for the program to be removed from your Linux machine and how much disk space will be cleared.

Type ‘Y‘ and hit enter to confirm the choices.

All done, now just sit back and let the package manager remove Firefox from Ubuntu.

After the process has been completed your screen will quite look like this:

This is the confirmation that Firefox has been uninstalled from your computer. You can go ahead and check it in the application section. It’s Gone.

Now you can close the terminal and enjoy web browsing on your favorite browser, whatever you’ve installed.

Or, you can follow these simple guides to install Google Chrome on your Debian based Distributions.

• How to Install Chrome on Linux Mint
• How to Install Chrome on Ubuntu
• How to Install Chrome on Debian
• How to Install Chrome on Fedora
• How To Install Chrome On Manjaro Or Arch-Based Linux Distro

How to remove Firefox from Manjaro / other Arch-Based Systems using Terminal

Removing Firefox from Arch based systems is also a simple 3 step guide.

Step 1 – Launch the terminal

In your Arch or arch-based distro, open the terminal window and type in –

sudo pacman -R firefox

and hit enter. The package manager will check some dependencies and show you the changes that will be made after the operation.

Step 2 – Affirm to the changes by pressing ‘Y’

Type ‘Y‘ and hit enter to affirm to make changes when the package manager asks for confirmation for the program to be removed from your Linux machine.

Sit back and let the package manager remove Firefox from your Arch Linux.

Step 3 – Run the Database Update

Now just do a database update using –

sudo updatedb

and that’s it. Now Firefox has been removed from your Arch-based Linux Computer.

How to uninstall Firefox from Fedora using Terminal

Follow these simple steps given below to completely remove Firefox from your Fedora machine.

Step 1 – Open Terminal

Launch the terminal and type in –

sudo dnf remove firefox

Step 2 – Affirm to the removal of Firefox Package

Type in ‘Y‘ to affirm to proceed with the changes to be made with your computer after the package manager checks the dependencies and asks for your permission for the changes to take effect.

After the process has been completed, the Fedora package manager has removed the Firefox application from your Computer.

Step 3 – Wipe Settings and Preferences of Firefox

If you want to completely remove the settings and the preferences stored by the browser you can do so by going into .mozilla folder from your home directory.

Now all the settings and preferences of Firefox have been wiped from your Fedora, you can now do a clean reinstall of the browser if there were any issues earlier.

How to uninstall Firefox from Ubuntu and do a clean reinstall

Sometimes there are things messed up that don’t go away even by restoring all the settings to default.

If any such things even happened to your Firefox in Ubuntu or any other Debian-based distro, you can remove the Firefox browser and do a clean reinstall of Firefox in your system to get rid of those problems.

Here’s what you can do to get a fresh reinstall of Firefox in Ubuntu and other Debian -based distros after uninstalling it.

Open the terminal and type –

sudo apt purge firefox

Type ‘Y‘ and proceed with the process of uninstalling Firefox.

Now the application has been removed, now we need to delete to leftover preferences and settings from Firefox earlier.

Delete .mozilla/firefox/ in your home directory.

Delete /etc/firefox/, this is where your preferences and user profiles get stored.

Delete /usr/lib/firefox/

Delete /usr/lib/firefox-addons/

Now to get a clean, fresh reinstall of the Firefox browser go to the terminal and type –

sudo apt install firefox

This will begin a fresh installation of the Firefox browser from the terminal using the apt package manager. Type in – ‘Y‘ to affirm to the changes that will be made while installing the browser.

After the process has been completed, your fresh install of Firefox is ready.

Also, here’s a detailed guide for uninstalling Firefox as if it never existed –

Removing Firefox in Ubuntu with all add-ons like it never existed

Thank You for reading this article. Hope it helps solve your issue, check Geeky Gene for more related content.