If you see “(32-bit)” and you are running Firefox 56.0 or older, updating to the latest Firefox version should automatically upgrade you to 64-bit.

Check your Firefox version (in the “About Firefox” window) and look for “(32-bit)” or “(64-bit)” after the version number: If you’re running 64-bit Windows ( here’s how to check), your Firefox may already be 64-bit. Linux and macOS users, fret not, you already enjoy a Firefox that’s optimized for 64-bit. Also, with the jump from 32 to 64 bits, a security feature called Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) works better to protect you from attackers. Here’s the key thing to know: 64-bit applications can access more memory and are less likely to crash than 32-bit applications. What’s the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit?

How much less? In our tests so far, 64-bit Firefox reduced crashes by 39% on machines with 4GB of RAM or more. That means you get a more secure version of Firefox, one that also crashes a whole lot less. Since Sun requires users to accept their license agreement prior to installing the jre it may prevent the jre64 package installation from completing successfully if you haven't already accepted their agreement.Users on 64-bit Windows who download Firefox can get our 64-bit version by default. Important: Make sure to install the sun-java6-bin package prior to installing the new jre package. However I have posted the instructions below on how to create your own deb packge which makes for an incredibly easy installation of the 64-bit java plugin. Unfortunately due to Sun's software license I can't redistribute the jre so making the deb package available for download isn't possible.

While this is not necessarily a cumbersome task it is certainly an inconvenience so I eventually ended up creating a deb package to automate this task. This means that you have to manually download, extract, and install the 64-bit plugin yourself if you want to be able to view java applets in 64-bit versions of Firefox. As many of you have probably discovered the jre available from the Ubuntu repository does not contain a 64-bit java plugin for 64-bit browsers.

How to enable java in firefox 64 bit