Tag Archive: Firefox

Mozilla to start auto-updates for Firefox 4

Posted Aug.08, 2010 under Firefox, Mozilla

Following in the footsteps of Google Chrome, Mozilla is planning to make updates for Firefox 4 behind-the-scenes. The feature is “on track” for the latest version of the browser.

Two betas have been released for Firefox 4 in the last 4 weeks with a 3rd update due next week. The ‘silent’ updates will only be available for Windows, said Mozilla. Most of the updates will be downloaded and installed automatically without prompting for user confirmation. This was confirmed by Alex Faaborg, a principle designer on Firefox 4.

“We’ll only be using the major update dialog box for changes like version 4 to 4.5 or 5,” Faaborg said in a late July message on the “mozilla.dev.apps.firefox” forum. “Unfortunately users will still see the updating progress bar on load, but this is an implementation issue as opposed to a [user interface] one; ideally the update could be applied in the background.”

The final decision is still up to the user, you can decide whether you want to accept the auto-updates, or stay with the current setup. This is unlike Google Chrome that gives you no option for the auto updates. Chrome is the big player when it comes to auto-updates, it kicked off in September 2008, and still relies on the then controversial update method.

A May 2009 paper, co-authored by a Google engineer, argued that “any software vendor should seriously consider deploying silent updates, as this benefits both the vendor and the user, especially for widely used attack-exposed applications like Web browsers and browser plug-ins.”

According to “Why Silent Updates Boost Security” (PDF), 97% of Chrome users were running the latest version of the browser within 21 days of the last update’s release. In comparison, 85% of Firefox users were up-to-date in the same time frame, and 53% of Safari users.

Robert Strong the Mozilla engineer who has been writing the behind-the-scenes update service, defended the move toward a Chrome-like service. ”There are people that don’t like being notified of updates,” Strong said, “There is ‘no one size fits all’ behavior for this that will please everyone.”

Adobe is also jumping on the silent update train for it’s Reader and Acrobat software. The company has stated that it will not go fully-automated, saying it will incorporate some kind of user permission service.

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IE usage grows in July, Firefox share declines

Posted Aug.01, 2010 under Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft

Usage of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has continued to grow, albeit slowly, since April, with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome suffering market share falls in July.

Monthly information released today by Net Applications shows Internet Explorer increased in market share by approximately 0.42% in July, with Safari making a gain of 0.24% and Opera 0.18%.

Mozilla’s Firefox web browser suffered the biggest loss, with usage falling 0.9% to hold 22.91% of the US web browser market, while Google’s Chrome browser fell for the first time since September last year, falling a modest 0.88% to 7.16%.

Internet Explorer has continued to make small increases in market share over the past few months, reversing a trend which previously plagued the browser as competitors bit into the market and stole users, resulting in IE’s market share falling from 65.71% in September last year to 59.75% in May this year.

As mentioned above, it seems Google’s exponential growth with Chrome may have come to a halt, with figures showing its market share fell for the first time since the browser was released. And Apple’s Safari web browser, of which version 5 was released during WWDC in June this year, has continued to gain traction, now sitting with a 5.09% share.

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TechSpot: A Compendium of Firefox 4 Beta Tweaks

Posted Jul.15, 2010 under Firefox

With Chrome nipping at Firefox’s ankles, Mozilla knows it has to perform a drastic overhaul – and it is. Firefox 4 is shaping up nicely, adding tons of new features and addressing many complaints about the current version. Despite that fact, many people will find it difficult to embrace some of the upcoming changes.

Fortunately, Mozilla hasn’t deviated from what’s made Firefox the second most used browser in the world: flexibility. We’re going to look at some tweaks you might want to apply if you’re running the current Firefox 4 beta, such as changing the color of the new orange menu button, moving tabs back to the bottom, getting add-ons to work and more.

Truth be told, many of our staffers were becoming Chrome converts or rather they had already moved completely, but this first Firefox 4 beta is looking particularly solid and in a short time Mozilla has been able to win back a few of us. Haven’t downloaded the Firefox 4 Beta yet? You can do so here (Windows/OS X), highly recommended.

Read: A Compendium of Firefox 4 Beta Tweaks

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Browser Roundup: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Opera

Posted Jul.05, 2010 under Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft, Mozilla

Things are heating up in the browser arena lately, and there’s been a lot of news to cover. This segment brings you the latest news about all web browsers.

Internet Explorer: Last week, on HitsLink, a browser tracking web site, it was shown that for the month of June, Internet Explorer began to gain market share — it gained 0.57 percent, which seems small on paper but is a huge increase in users for a browser that has been losing popularity for years. Internet Explorer claimed this share back from Firefox, which dropped from 25 percent share to 24 percent. Apparently the browser is still used by “more than 6 out of 10 people” and IE8 is used by “more than one in four users on the Web”, according to Ars Technica.

Microsoft also launched IE9 platform preview 3 at an event in San Francisco last week – the latest iteration boasts how the browser effectively beats the competition on speed, with videos being shown, as well as a download being offered. The new browser offers Direct X 9 and 10 integration and uses the GPU for acceleration — the browser can render interactive content at a higher frame rate then other browsers, as shown off in the video on Windows Team Blog.

Google Chrome: Chrome has overtaken Safari for third place overall on a weekly basis, making it the number three browser, behind Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, with 28.5 percent market share. Apparently, Google Chrome’s been in third place for a while, but it’s the first time in the U.S. that it’s beaten Apple’s Safari, Engadget reports.

A Google employee also said that Google is currently experimenting with web applications further in Google Chrome, with new builds offering web applications that load in the background with constantly updated data – in web applications such as GMail.

Mozilla Firefox: Mozilla announced today that Firefox has reached over 2 billion add ons downloads, with 60,000 add ons in the extension gallery online, according to Mashable. Mozilla Firefox 4.0 is well underway with a beta expected in the near future after the early “Beta 1″ was released on Mozilla servers last week, and then pulled shortly after – Firefox 4.0 will feature large improvements with a new, faster JavaScript engine, HTML5 support, new themes for Windows/Mac/Linux and more.

Mozilla also submitted its iPhone application – “Firefox home” to Apple for approval recently, and is awaiting the go-ahead from Apple to begin offering its app on the iPhone store. The application simply syncs the user’s history to their phone — the history is synchronized from the Mozilla Sync add on (Formerly Mozilla Weave) on the desktop. When clicked it sends the user to the built in Safari client.

Opera: Version 10.6 has just landed, hot on the heels of 10.5 — it features WebM support (the first browser in final version to support it) and faster JavaScript support. To try it out, head over to the Opera website here.

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