Mozilla Firefox 10.0.2, Thunderbird 10.0.2 Released

Mozilla has just released Firefox 10.0.2 to the public, the third release in less than a month’s time (you can read up on Firefox 10 and Firefox 10.0.1 by following the posted links). The previous update fixed several crash related issues that affected a high number of Firefox users.

Firefox 10.0.2 is a security update that is resolving one critical security vulnerability in the browser. The vulnerability could allow attackers to cause a crash and potentially exploit the issue. Affected by the vulnerability are both Firefox 10.0.1 and 10.0.1 ESR, as well as Thunderbird 10.0.1 and 10.0.1 ESR, and SeaMonkey 2.7.1.

The developers have implemented additional changes and improvements into the new Firefox version. Firefox is now supporting Anti-Aliasing for WebGL and accelerated layers via OpenGL ES. The bdi element for bi-direction text isolation with supporting CSS properties has been added in the release as well.

The only other changes are a fix for a rare issue where the browser would not load web pages or close tabs anymore, and a new Set Up Sync menu entry in the Firefox home menu.

Existing Firefox 10.x users should see update notifications in their web browser. A click on Firefox > Help > About Firefox opens a screen where update checks can be performed manually. Here you also see the current version of the web browser.

New users can download the latest stable version of Firefox from the official website. You can open the release notes here to take a look at the changes and known issues. All known issues seem to affect the Firefox mobile browser Fennec for the Android operating system only.

Minor updates like these should not cause any problems for existing Firefox installations.

Thunderbird users can download the latest version of their email client from the Thunderbird website. Existing Thunderbird users should receive update notifications in the client by now. Only the security issue was fixed in the email client.

Firefox 10 Regular And ESR Released

Mozilla has uploaded the stable version of Firefox 10 to its ftp server. The company is currently in the process of distributing the release to all of its world wide mirror servers in preparation for the release later today. The release of the extended support release version marks the beginning of the end for Firefox’s 3.x branch which will be retired from support in April of this year.

The ESR release has been designed for companies, organizations and users who cannot keep up with deploying new Firefox versions every six weeks. Firefox ESR releases will follow the rapid release process, but increase only by a minor version whenever the standard version increases by a major version. Regular Firefox 10 users will be moved to Firefox 11 in six weeks time, while Firefox 10 ESR users will be moved to Firefox 10.1 instead.

The ESR release will be offered separately from the regular version of Firefox. Another important change in Firefox 10 is that add-ons are now automatically set to be compatible if they have also been compatible with Firefox 4. This ends the majority of the add-on compatibility issues that Firefox users experienced whenever a new major version of the browser was released.

The beta changelog lists the features one expects from a six week release cycle with the new hidden forward button the most notable change. Firefox 10 furthermore adds support for CSS3 3D-Transforms, anti-aliasing for WebGL, full screen APIs that can be used to build web apps that run full screen and support for the bdi element for bi-directional text isolation.

Developers can make use of the new CSS Style Inspector and IndexedDB APIs tat match the specifications more closely

The previously announced silent update option has not made it into this version of Firefox. Mozilla aims to release the new feature with Firefox 13, which is expected to launch in the beginning of June.

Firefox users can expect to see update notifications later today. Please check out our Firefox 10 What’s New guide which looked at the changes in the Firefox 10 Aurora version.

Update: Firefox 10 Stable (here) is now available at the official Mozilla website.

Update 2: Firefox 10 ESR download links are now also available. Click here to go the page.

Firefox 11, What’s New, What Has Changed

Mozilla has released new Firefox versions for all channels in the past days. We have seen the release of Firefox 9 stable, shortly followed by the 9.0.1 release fix, Firefox 10 Beta, Firefox 11 Aurora and Firefox 12 Nightly.

Firefox 11 Stable will be released in 3 months. Users running the version of the browser right now might be interested in the changes and new features that Mozilla has implemented into the browser.

Firefox 11 is all about web standards support. Firefox users not interested in web development won’t find new features or changes that impact their daily browsing habits. The feature coming nearest to this is support for SPDY, a transport protocol designed by Google to replace HTTP eventually. The protocol is currently only supported by a handful of web properties and applications. Google Chrome supports it, as do the majority of Google properties.

The protocol offers several benefits over standard HTTP. Connections will always run on SSL (no eavesdropping), servers should see reduced load and high latency users should see improved page loading times.

The preference is off by default. Users who want to enable the feature need to enter about:config into the Firefox address bar and filter for the term network.http.spdy.enabled in the preferences window. A double-click on the preference sets it to true which means that it is enabled.

A new battery API has been introduced in Firefox 11, which can provide web developers with information about the device’s battery status among other things.

Web developers do also benefit from new web development tools added to Firefox 11. This includes free-form style sheet editing and 3d views of web page structures.

More information about those tools are available here.

A list of all new features of Firefox 11 at the time of writing is available on Mozilla Hacks. Firefox users who have just been switched to Firefox 10 Beta or Firefox 9 Stable can use the posted links to find out what’s new in their version of the browser.

Update: Mozilla aims to integrate add-on syncing into Firefox 11 as well. (thanks Kshitij)

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Mozilla Rushes To Release Firefox 9.0.1

The latest stable version of the Firefox browser has been released yesterday by Mozilla. We have reviewed Firefox 9 a day before the official release to inform users about the changes, and to provide everyone with links to download the version a day early.

A new version of Firefox appeared on the official Mozilla ftp server today, only a day after the release of Firefox 9. News about the release of Firefox 9.0.1 are scarce at the moment.

The only indicator is a critical bug listing on Bugzilla that was likely the cause for the rushed new version. Bug 712490, Tracking bug for build and release of Firefox 9.0.1, does not reveal additional information about the nature of the bug. The only information to gather from the bug listing is that it affects all Firefox platforms and versions.

Bugzilla lists one additional bug with a normal severity rating which makes it very unlikely that it has been the cause for the rushed release. The bug is preventing custom app updates on Linux versions of the Firefox web browser.

Firefox 9.0.1 is currently being distributed to Mozilla ftp servers and the distribution network. It is likely that Firefox 8, Firefox 8.0.1 and Firefox 9.0 users will receive update notifications in the next 24 hours.

The Mozilla website is currently listing Firefox 9.0 as the latest web browser version on the Get Firefox download page. Release notes and bug fix pages for Firefox 9.0.1 have just been created. They are however currently displaying a copy of the Firefox 9.0 release notes and bug fixes.

It is likely that the information will get updated in the next hours. Firefox users who are experiencing issues in the browser may want to go ahead and download version 9.0.1 early to see if the new release resolves the issues.

Everyone else is probably better off waiting for the official release announcement which hopefully will provide additional information on the issue. (Thanks Midnight for the tip)

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Firefox 9 Final Available, Get It Before Anyone Else

December 20th is the official Firefox 9 final release date. The browser has been uploaded to Mozilla’s ftp server prior to release. It is currently distributed to Mozilla’s first and third party distribution network to ensure a fast and uninterrupted distribution to Firefox 8 users.

I have covered all Firefox 9 changes back when the Aurora version of the browser was released. Aurora versions on the other hand are not always what final users can expect from the browser.

The biggest new feature that Mozilla introduces in Firefox 9 is Type Inference which improves JavaScript performance significantly by using inferred type information. Mozilla noted that the new feature can speed up the browser’s JavaScript performance by up to 30%. Users will usually see less than that percentage though in their day activities.

The developers furthermore have added support for font-stretch, improved support for text-overflow and improved overall standards support for HTML5, MathML and CSS.

Mac OS X Lion users benefit from the new two finger swipe navigation and improved theme integration.

The release notes list several stability enhancements and bug fixes that have made their way into the browser (check the complete list of changes for details, linked on the release notes page).

Most Firefox users can probably wait the day until the browser is officially released by Mozilla. Users can then update Firefox with the browsers automatic update feature, or by downloading the new version from the official website.

Firefox users who experience issues with the current stable version, for instance crashes, may want to install the new version as soon as possible to resolve the issues.

Those users can download Firefox 9.0 Final from third party websites such as Softpedia. Please note that Softpedia only hosts the English version of the browser.

Have you tried Firefox 9 yet? If so, what’s your impression of the new version?

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Firefox 8.0.1 Officially Available, What You Need To Know

You may remember that I published a news article on November 16 about the release of Firefox 8.0.1. The release was available on Mozilla ftp servers and on third party sites like Softpedia, but not officially announced by Mozilla on the Firefox website. While that has not been a big problem in the past, with a few rare exceptions, it has been a issue this time.

The Firefox release was pulled from the Mozilla server and things went quite for a few days. Today, Mozilla has released Firefox 8.0.1 to the public.

What does that mean for users who have downloaded the previous version that was pulled? These users need to download Firefox 8.0.1 for their computer manually from Mozilla again and install it over the current version.

Firefox 8.0.1 fixes two issues. First a Mac OS X crash that can occur when a Java applet is loaded in the browser with Java JRE 6.29 installed, and second a startup crash on Windows that is caused by versions older than 7.6.2 of the popular RoboForm extension.

Firefox users who are not on a Mac with that particular version of Java or on Windows with one of the affected RoboForm extensions do not need to update the browser right away. While it certainly does no harm, it won’t give them any benefit either (other than the reassurance that they are running the latest version of the browser).

Firefox users interested in the Firefox 8.0.1 release notes find them on this page. The internal updater should have picked up the new version by now. Users who already have version 8.0.1 installed should visit the download Firefox page to download the new release version manually for their language and operating system.

Update: Some users have reported that the new update is installed on systems where the pulled Firefox update has been installed. It appears that it may not be necessary to download the new version manually after all.

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Mozilla Releases Firefox 8.0.1

Mozilla is about to release an update for the latest stable version of Firefox. Firefox 8.0.1 will be released less than two weeks after the release of Firefox 8, the latest stable version of the popular Internet browser.

A fast release like this usually indicates a serious problem that needs to be addressed right away. Most issues that require an immediate response are security related in nature. This time though it seems to be a popular add-on that is causing stability issues for Firefox 8 users.

An extension block request has been posted at Bugzilla. The request to hard block the popular Roboform extension has been added on November 2. According to information posted there Firefox 8 users are experiencing the majority of crashes while users of other Firefox versions are also experiencing crashes but to a lesser extent.

Add-ons that are blocked can usually be added to a blocklist remotely. This did not work in the case of the Roboform add-on as it was hooking dlls into Firefox which needed to be blocked by adding code to the browser.

The changelog has not been posted yet, it will later be available on this page. It is not clear if additional patches have made it into Firefox 8.0.1.

For now, we can only assume that the Roboform patch is the only code change in the new version of the web browser. This means that Firefox users who do not work with Roboform do not need to update their version of the browser to the latest version right away.

The Mozilla homepage is currently listing Firefox 8 as the latest version. Third party websites like Softpedia are already hosting the new version on their servers.

I’ll update the news as soon as the update is available at Mozilla.

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Firefox 10, What’s New?

After having some initial troubles getting my add-ons to work under Firefox 10 Aurora I had time to look at the changes and new features of this release. Firefox 10 will be the next but one stable release of the web browser which means that stable channel users will have to wait about 12 weeks before they can upgrade their browser to this version.

The official release notes do not paint a pretty picture, new features are scarce. This becomes obvious when you look at the first new feature listed on the release notes page: The forward button is now hidden by default and becomes available only after the user has navigated back. This new change is only available for Windows users currently.

Other changes include anti-aliasing for WebGL, new CSS Style Inspector which can be helpful for web developers, integration of the new full screen API to build full screen web applications and support for CSS3 3D-Transforms.

That’s not a lot and nothing to get to excited about. Sören Hentzschel discovered additional under the hood changes in the new browser version. The Customize option that allows Firefox users to drag and drop interface elements to another location is now highlighting screen elements that cannot be moved around.

Other changes include improvements in cursor key scrolling , a better Firefox Sync installation workflow and the ability to display statistics about HTML5 videos via right-click > Show Statistics.

The Firefox development team plans to integrate additional features into the release. Softpedia has published a list that includes a new tab page, better suggestions in the Firefox address bar, the ability to import settings and data from Google Chrome and silent updates which basically updates the web browser without user interaction, much like Google Chrome does.

Have you had the chance to play around with Firefox 10? If so, what is your impression of the web browser and your opinion on the new features introduced in the version?

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© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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