Posts Tagged ‘Mozilla’

Mozilla has released Firefox 3.6.7, fixing several security and stability issues.

A total of 14 security vulnerabilities have been patched, 4 of which are rated as moderate, 2 high, and 8 are of critical severity. A full list of changes can be read in the release notes.

Current Firefox 3.6.x users will receive the update  in the coming days,  while new users can download Firefox from the Firefox website.

Mozilla have released Firefox 4 Beta 1 to the public, after final beta 1 builds started to appear last week.

Firefox 4 has many changes over 3.6, and is based on Gecko 2.0 rendering engine. New in Firefox 4 include:

  • Tabs on top for Windows by default  (Mac and Linux changes coming later)
  • Menu bar replaced by Firefox button for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users
  • New add-ons manager
  • CSS transitions
  • Native HD HTML5 WebM video support

A full list of changes can be found in the release notes. Firefox users can download Firefox 4 Beta 1 from the Firefox Beta website.

Mozilla has just passed a massive milestone, with its two billionth Firefox add-on being downloaded from its Add-ons for Firefox website.

“When we reached 1 billion Firefox Add-on downloads in November 2008, we thought it would take us less than 3 years to get to the next billion, and with your help, we’ve gotten to 2 billion in half that time! With more than 150 million add-ons in use every day, we know that the next billion add-on downloads will be here before we know it” wrote Julie Shin Choi, on behalf of the Firefox Add-ons Team.

Mozilla’s implementation of add-ons for Firefox is by far the best solution, giving add-on developers much more control and freedom compared to add-ons and extensions available for Chrome and Opera. This implementation is the key to why Firefox has so many users today.

Any Firefox users who are not using add-ons are really missing out, with add-ons available for just about everything you can think of, from download management, to social and communication, and even to web development.

Firefox add-ons are free, and are checked by Mozilla before they are released to the public. You can start browsing for add-ons on the Add-ons for Firefox website.

Tags: , , Categories: Firefox Comments Off on Firefox passes 2 billion add-on downloads

Build 1 of Firefox 4 Beta 1 has just appeared on the Mozilla FTP server, with build 2 expected today also.

No change log has yet been released, and Mozilla will not announce the release until a final Beta release is ready. There are currently two bugs blocking build 2, which are expected to be fixed shortly. Currently the release is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, with native 64-bit builds for Mac and Linux users.

Would-be-testers are warned that while more stable than the alpha releases, this build still has a lot of work to be done before it is ready to be used by the masses. As a result, some of your plugins may not work with this release.

More information on Firefox Beta 1’s release can be seen on the MozillaWiki. Firefox 4 Beta 1 Build 1 can be downloaded from the Mozilla FTP server.

Early builds of Firefox 4 are starting to show the browser new interface.

Part of the revamp includes moving tabs above the address bar by default, which isn’t something everyone is happy about. Thankfully, this can be changed easily by the user.

“This is a preference that users can change by right clicking on any of their toolbars.  Moving the default tab position is obviously a significant and to some extent controversial change to the Firefox UI, which is why we made the video above to help explain our rationale” explains Alex Faaborg, User Experience Design at Mozilla.

Firefox 4 Beta’s are expected in the next few weeks, with a final release before the end of 2010.

Tags: , , , , Categories: Firefox Comments Off on Firefox 4 tabs on top

Just days after the release of Firefox 3.6.4, Mozilla have pushed out Firefox 3.6.6. The update fixes 1 bug, but why Mozilla skipped version 3.6.5 is unknown.

“Firefox 3.6.6 modifies the crash protection feature to increase the amount of time that plugins are allowed to be non-responsive before being terminated” said the Firefox 3.6.6 release notes.

Existing Firefox 3.6.4 users will receive the update in the coming days, or it can be downloaded manually from the Firefox website. The update is available for Windows, Mac and Linux users.

Mozilla has finally released Firefox 3.6.4, after weeks of testing. The new release includes the highly talked about out-of-process plugin support.

The move, aimed at increasing browser stability, moves Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime and Microsoft Silverlight plugins into their own process. If one of these plugins crashes, the browser will no longer crash along with it. Instead users will be given the option to reload the plugin and its content.

Currently, out-of-process plugin support is only available for Windows and Linux, with Mac versions expected in the near future. Support for other plugins is said to be on its way in future Firefox releases.

This release also fixes several security issues, 4 of which are rated as critical. A full list of changes for this release can be read in the release notes.

Existing Firefox 3.6.x users will receive the update in the coming days, or it can be downloaded directly from the Firefox website.

Firefox 4 nightly releases now include built-in support for WebM video, based on Google’s open VP8 codec.

WebM support is included in Windows, Mac, and Linux Firefox nightly builds. Previously, WebM had been made available by special builds that were announced with the release of the WebM format.

Firefox Programmer Chirs Pearce has posted details on his blog for users wanting to build the browser themselves.

Eager testers can download Firefox 4 Alpha from the Firefox nightlies. Firefox 4 final is expected before the end of the year.

Mozilla has renamed its Weave add-on to Firefox Sync. The plugin allows users to synchronise their password, bookmarks, history and tabs across multiple devices.

“We are excited to announce that the “Weave Sync” project from Mozilla Labs has officially graduated and is now being incorporated into the Firefox roadmap. “Weave Sync” is now named “Firefox Sync” and the service will become a feature of Firefox in an upcoming major release” announced Mozilla’s Ragavan Srinivasan.

The add-on for Firefox has already had over 1.4 million downloads, and is proving to be hugely popular. A similar feature is available in both Google Chrome and Opera.

Currently available in more than 15 languages, the Firefox Sync add-on can be downloaded from the Mozilla Add-ons website.

Native 64-bit builds of Firefox 4 Alpha for Windows are now appearing in the Firefox Nightly builds, and are expected to be released simultaneously when Firefox 4 ships.

Mac and Linux users have had 64-bit builds since early April, but there is still limited plug-in support, with most plug-ins falling back to 32-bit.

“This is still just a very very very early experimental build” noted Mozilla’s John O’Duinn. This means the browser may not behave as expected, and testers are advised to proceed with caution.

Eager testers can download 64-bit versions form the Firefox Nightly repository.

Tags: , , , , , Categories: Firefox Comments Off on Native 64-bit Firefox 4 builds