Today, Firefox turns 5, exactly 5 years since the release of Firefox 1.0.
Firefox has come a long way in this time, currently at version 3.5, with over 330 million users world wide. Available in over 70 languages, and with over 7,000 add-ons for the browser, Firefox is arguably any users browser of choice.
With Firefox 3.6 on it’s way, the browser still has plenty of life left in it.
You too can get involved by helping celebrate Firefox’s 5th Birthday.
Mozilla has pushed out a new Firefox 3.5 updating, taking the browser to 3.5.5.
The update is only minor, and fixes several stability issues. A full list of changes can be found in the release notes.
The update will be pushed out to existing Firefox 3.5 users, or can be downloaded from the Firefox website.
Google has pushed out a new version of Chrome 3, taking it to version 3.0.195.32. The release fixes 5 stability issues, and plugs 2 security vulnerabilities.
The first security issue which was rated as medium where user were not warned for some file types that could execute JavaScript. The second security issue was rated as high and could have caused a memory corruption in the Gears plugin.
The update will be pushed out to existing Chrome users, or can be downloaded from the Google Chrome website.
The developers of Google Chrome have moved a branch of Chrome 4 to the Beta channel, meaning that the browser is stable enough now for a larger testing audience.
Chrome 4.0.223.16 beta is available only for Windows at this stage, but includes bookmark sync. Extension support is however disabled at this time (though is still available in the dev channel releases).
You can download the latest beta version from Google.
Below is a video from Google demonstrating bookmark sync.
Browser market share stats are out for October 2009 thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.
As usual, Internet Explorer was down for the month, dropping from 65.71% to 64.64%, while Opera had a surprise loss, albeit only small, from 2.19% to 2.17%.
Firefox had a small gain, jumping from 23.75% to 24.07%. Safari was also up 4.24% to 4.42%.
Google Chrome share was the biggest winner for October, jumping from 3.17% to 3.58%.
Opera’s drop off is likely from users who were testing Opera 10 and have gone back to their original browser. The jump for Safari suggests strong sales for Apple Mac’s, confirming the bumper year the Cupertino based company has been having.
Mozilla have announced the release of Firefox 3.6 Beta 1. The new release includes a slew of new changes:
Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 can be downloaded from the Firefox beta website.
The final Firefox 3.6 is expected late November or early December.