Firefox Extension Guru's Blog

Firefox vs Chrome Versions

The Guru — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:15:18 +0000

I keep hearing many complaints on how Mozilla is moving too fast with the Firefox updates with Rapid Release. I have said time and time again, that nothing has changed, other than the numbering. Mozilla was releasing updates every six weeks even before Rapid Release. Consider this Mozilla Firefox 1.0 was released in November 2004 and version 10.0 was released at the end of January and Google Chrome was first released on September 2008 and just released version 17.0.963.56 a few days ago (complete release history).

The amount of releases are fairly similar, but based on how people interpret the numbering, it looks like there has been more Chrome release than Firefox. Of course, most Chrome users have no idea what version they are running without going into Help > About Google Chrome. The reason for this is Chrome updates itself automatically and silently (unless the user opts out) when the user starts it up each time.

Then there is Internet Exploiter that Microsoft took 5 years to move from version 6 to 7 and still crawling with a new version about every 18 to 24-months. But to be fair, Microsoft includes security and stability updates in the form of a Windows Update while keeping the current version number. Where as Firefox and Chrome bump the version numbers on each update. Just some food for thought.

Windows 8 Logo

The Guru — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:30:40 +0000

As we had posted earlier this week there had been rumors of a new ‘Windows 8′ logo coming. It is now official, Microsoft posted the new logo (as seen below along with the past logos) on Friday afternoon.

So the color has gone from a teal to more of turquoise now (or is that Microsoft Blue?) However, as Tom’s Hardware points out, Microsoft still hasn’t acknowledged that ‘Windows 8′ is going to be the official title, not just the code name.

…Microsoft hasn’t ever confirmed that Windows 8 will be what the next version of Windows will be called, but it’s hard to imagine the company unveiling a new logo featuring the Windows 8 name if it’s not the official title.

Logically speaking now that Microsoft has unveiled this new ‘Windows 8′ logo that the final product is going to be called Windows 8. However, there is nothing logical about Microsoft. I am sure like myself many others are still waiting for Microsoft to make a formal announcement in regards to the ‘Windows 8′ name.

New Firefox UI Coming Later This Year

The Guru — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:30:44 +0000

Below is a sample of what Firefox may look like by the end of the year with Firefox 17 (November 20th, 2012). Some things I have noticed is more streamline look, emphasis on app tabs, the removal of the forward button when you can not go forward. A couple big things is looks like they are dropping the separate search box which I am not too happy about (one thing I dislike about Google Chrome is everything is done from the url bar). Also MIA is the ‘Firefox Button’ introduced back in Firefox 4. I am not sure if Favicons in the address bar are being remove or that is just because the site they are using an example does not appear to have a favicon.

Still, there is an entire row of wasted space at the top (especially now that the Firefox button is MIA). Grant you, I have a couple tweaks in place that ‘fix’ the wasted space in the current Firefox versions. These include the Moveable Firefox Button add-on as well as a userChrome.css tweak to remove the title bar. For more information about these space saving tweaks, please see the Movable Firefox Button post. They could’ve moved the minimize, maximize and close buttons down, but then they would on the same row as the (already narrow) tab bar.

Tom’s Hardware also discusses some other changes planned for Firefox this coming year, including the silent updates (should be part of Firefox 13 on June 5, 2012). There also several ‘under the hood’ improvements planned throughout this year.

Firefox Release Update: February 18th, 2012

The Guru — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:43:44 +0000

Just Released

February 16th

Firefox 10.0.2
Firefox ESR 10.0.2
Firefox 10.0.2 for Android
Firefox 11 Beta 3

Coming Soon

March 13th

Firefox 3.6.27
Firefox ESR 10.0.3
Firefox 11 Final Release
Firefox 11 for Android
Firefox 12 Beta (12.0b1)*
Firefox 13 Aurora (13.0a2)*

Future Releases

April 24th

Firefox 3.6.28 *LAST RELEASE ON 3.6.X BRANCH*
Firefox ESR 10.0.4
Firefox 12 Final Release
Firefox 12 for Android
Firefox 13 Beta (13.0b1)*
Firefox 14 Aurora (14.0a2)*

* As part of the new Rapid Release Schedule,dates listed for Aurora and Beta builds reflect when the code merge is set to begin. The actual release to that particular channel may vary by several days. See the Wiki for more details.

Flash Update — Check Your Plugins

The Guru — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:42:31 +0000

Adobe released an update to Flash on February 15th to address an exploit that affected Internet Exploiter users. Even if you don’t use IE, you should still update your Flash plugins. Also this would a good time to check on the ‘health’ of your other Firefox plugins. You can do this from within Firefox by going to Tools > Add-ons and then clicking the link Check to see if your plugins are up to date. This will open the Mozilla plugin checker site in a new tab where a quick scan will tell you which plugins needs to be updated.

Firefox 10.0.2 Released

The Guru — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:07:56 +0000

Mozilla released a security update to all versions of Firefox 10 on February 16, 2012. The Firefox 10.0.2 security release addresses a bug in the lipng reference library which could cause an integer overflow or truncation. This in turn could be exploited and could result in execution of arbitrary code on a victim’s system when viewing a specially crafted PNG image in an affected browser. More info here.

Users can update via Help > About Firefox or manually update and install from getfirefox.com

Changes to Firefox ‘Updates’ Coming

The Guru — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:30:20 +0000

Big changes are coming to the way Firefox updates. With these improvements users are going to be able to start running the updated version and the update process is going to be a lot smoother for Windows Vista and 7 users. Changes include how the updates are downloaded and installed as well being able to apply updates without Windows Vista and 7 users having to continually giving the application ‘permission’ to update (UAC prompts). More technical details can be found on Laurence Mandel’s Blog.

New ‘Windows’ Logo For Windows 8?

The Guru — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:30:09 +0000

Found this over on Tom’s Hardware and it has me wondering. First off, keep in mind nothing has been officially released by Microsoft, but rumors are that they are going to give the Windows Logo a makeover for the upcoming Windows 8.

Now a couple things that this new (and again unofficial) design have be wondering about. First off, I had heard a while back that Microsoft was saying that ‘Windows 8′ was just a code name and the official version may be called something else. Keep in mind Windows 3.1 which was released 20-years ago this March was the last version of Windows to use a “version number” up until Windows 7 release in 2009. After Windows 3.1, they moved to adding the release year after the Windows name which they did with 95, 98 and 2000. During that time they also used two letters, XP (2001), CE (1996), ME (2000), NT (1993 as Windows NT 3.1) after the Windows brand. This lead to Windows Cement…I mean Vista in 2007. After Vista, Microsoft moved back to using version numbers with Windows 7 in 2009. Also the Windows logo is a bit well, square. It looks like a window instead of the flag logo they have been using since Windows 3.0 was released in 1990. It is rumored that is to match the look of the new Metro interface. Still it is a rather plan looking logo at that, but again this is totally unofficial so we could expect something completely different when Windows 8 (if that is what the actual release name) is released later this year.

There is currently no waiting for add-on reviews…

The Guru — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:04:40 +0000

For the first time in years (may be ever) the folks at AMO are caught up on add-on reviews. How long this will last, who knows? Though they are expecting for the next few days for reviews to be completed within in a few minutes (during normal ‘business hours’) of submission. They are encouraging developers to take this opportunity to make sure their add-ons have been reviewed.

Mozilla Add-ons Blog

Firefox for Metro Planned

The Guru — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:58:55 +0000

Interesting post over on Tom’s Hardware about Mozilla’s plan to create a special Firefox to support the upcoming Windows 8 (or whatever Microsoft ends up calling it) Metro Interface. For those not quite familiar with the planned Metro, interface it is going to very similar to the Windows 7 Phones. Mozilla plans on making a special version of Firefox that will support tablets and other touch devices running Windows 8 Metro. More details on the project “in progress” are listed on the Mozilla wiki.