Firefox 3.6 Update To 7.0

Firefox users who are still running a 3.6 version of the web browser should prepare themselves for receiving an advertised update on Thursday. Users will receive a prompt with the option to update the browser from their version to the very latest. Mozilla is quick to note that this has “no bearing on support levels”, which means that Firefox 3.6 will continue to receive updates after the update prompt has been launched.

I know a few guys who are still running a Firefox 3.6 version and they will be glad to hear that the update prompt is opt-in. Users can decline and stay on their Firefox 3.6 version, at least for now (Mozilla says decline and I’m not sure how this goes along with the update being opt-in, but we will see).

Mozilla expects to move regular Firefox users to the new version. Christian Legnitto notes that the update’s main intention is to make users aware of the new version of Firefox to give them an option to update their web browser to the new version.

Based on previous advertised update offers we expect to see a significant percentage of users installing the new version. We are, of course, watching the data closely to see what happens and to make sure there are no unexpected issues.

Considering that Mozilla already prompted Firefox 3.6 users to update when Firefox 4 and Firefox 5 were released, I’d say it is questionable if many will take the opportunity this time to move to the newest version of the web browser.

The time of Firefox 3.6 is regardless of that slowly coming to an end. With the new suggested Extended Support Releases of Firefox comes the end of support for the Firefox 3.6 branch. It is not clear yet if Mozilla will make Firefox 8 or Firefox 9 the first ESR release but when that happens it is game over for Firefox 3.6.

Are you still running Firefox 3.6? If so, what is your main motivation to stay with the browser and avoid the new Firefox updates?

Update: Mozilla has postponed the advertised update notification. According to Christian Legnitto the update has been postponed to make sure the “server capacity is sufficient for release”. No word yet on the new date for the update.

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: extended support release, Firefox, firefox 3.6, firefox 7, firefox news

Mozilla Rushes Out Firefox 7.0.1 Update

If you follow this tech blog closely you know already that the latest release of Firefox, which would be Firefox 7.0, contained a bug that hid away some or even all add-ons of a user who updated a version of the browser to the latest stable iteration. Mozilla after noticing the problem stopped the distribution of automatic updates to users running the stable version of the browser on their computer.

The company was quick enough to provide a temporary solution for the bug that brought back all the add-ons for affected users. We covered the issue and workaround here in detail.

Firefox 7.01, the update that fixed the hidden add-on issue is now available for all users. It can be downloaded from the official website or via the web browser’s internal updating. To do that one would have to click on Firefox > Help > About Firefox to trigger the check for a new version of the Internet browser (assuming that the one button Firefox menu is the preferred layout).

This new Firefox release fixes only this single issue. Some users have questioned why Mozilla did not catch the bug in the Nightly or Aurora phase of development. While it is probably to easy to link the bug to the rapid release cycle, one has to consider the fact that the accelerated release process could have something to do with it.

Taking into consideration that this is the first major bug, and that the last two releases did not contain serious bugs that required an emergency patch, it is to early to tell if the rapid release process had any influence here.

Tech interested users and websites like mine will however look closely at the coming releases to see if history repeats itself, so to speak. I give Mozilla the benefit of the doubt and assume that a bug like this could have been missed before the rapid release cycle as well.

Please let me know what you make of it.

Update: Mozilla Thunderbird, the email client, has also been updated to version 7.0.1.

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: Firefox, firefox 7, firefox bug, firefox-update, mozilla

Fix For Hidden Add-Ons After Updating To Firefox 7

If you have updated your version of Firefox to version 7 you may have experienced a bug that some users experience. According to Mozilla, some users who have updated to the latest version of Firefox have noticed that all their add-ons have disappeared from the web browser.

Mozilla notes on a newly created support page over at the official website:

There is an issue with Firefox 7 that may have caused some or all of your add-ons to be hidden.

Mozilla furthermore notes that the company is working on an update that will fix the issue and restore all hidden add-ons so that they can be managed again in the browser.

An add-on has been released in the meantime that fixes the issue for affected systems. The Add-on Recovery Tool – Firefox 7 is available at the Mozilla add-on repository.

All affected users need to do is to click the Add to Firefox button on the add-on page to install the add-on. This triggers the usual prompt to install or cancel the add-on installation.

This triggers a Restart Firefox prompt. To restore the add-ons click the Restart button. You can alternatively click on Later to restart the browser at a later time. It is however suggested to restart right away to see if the add-on fixed the disappearing add-on issue.

It is very likely that Mozilla will post an update in the coming days to resolve the issue for all affected users and future users of the browser version.

Mozilla notes that users should not confuse the this bug with add-ons that have been disabled after updating the browser. Disabled add-ons should still be visible in the browser, while add-ons affected by the bug are not visible at all there.

Have you updated recently to Firefox 7? If so, did you experience the issue described here?

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: Firefox, firefox 7, firefox add-ons, firefox-update

Mozilla Firefox 7 Released

With the rapid release cycle and all, we are seeing more releases of the Firefox browser than before. Mozilla just pushed Firefox 7 to the official ftp server to prepare for today’s release of the browser. Firefox 7 is actually the first version of the rapid release cycle that is showing big improvements over previous versions.

You may remember that both Firefox 5 and 6 did not ship with big new features or improvements. Well, this changes with the release of Firefox 7. When you look at the new features you will notice one sticking out: Mozilla managed to improve memory usage of the Firefox web browser drastically (that’s the organization’s word). What does it mean in detail? A blog post by Nicholas Nethercoate over at Mozilla has the answers:

Firefox 7 uses less memory than Firefox 6 (and 5 and 4): often 20% to 30% less, and sometimes as much as 50% less. In particular, Firefox 7′s memory usage will stay steady if you leave it running overnight, and it will free up more memory when you close many tabs.

Up to 50% less memory usage is a big number. Probably even more important than that is that the browser won’t feel like eating up all the RAM over time anymore, which is definitely a good thing, considering that the browser has a reputation for being memory inefficient.

The changelog lists addition features, including a new rendering backend that speeds up Canvas operations on Windows, support for text-overflow: ellipsis and the Web Timing specification and faster bookmark and password changes syncing when using Firefox Sync.

Firefox 7 is currently not available on the official homepage. It is likely that the developers are still preparing for the new release. Some mirror servers are already listing Firefox 7 for all supported operating systems and languages, while others do not. Expect a release announcement in the next 24 hours.

Firefox stable users will receive update notifications shortly in the browser to update automatically to the new version.

Beta, Aurora and Nightly users will also be pushed to a new version in the coming days. Check out Future Firefox Features, What I’m Looking Forward To for some pointers as to what you can expect in those versions.

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: Firefox, firefox 7, firefox release, mozilla-firefox, web browser