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Mozilla has issued a fix for a bug found in an update issued earlier this week.

It is the first time ever Mozilla has released two versions of the open-source browser in the same week. When Mozilla released Firefox 2.0.0.10 Monday, it included a bug in its rendering canvas HTML elements. Canvas elements allow for dynamic, scriptable rendering of bitmap images in HTML.

“The bug affects a specific use case of the Canvas tag, which is not yet in wide use,” said Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Mozilla. “We used our standard process of releasing a beta to tens of thousands of users and had no reports of this issue prior to the full release of 2.0.0.10. Once we became aware of the issue, we worked overtime to address it.”

The new version, Firefox 2.0.0.11 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux for free download.

Click for more on Mozilla Swats Firefox Bug With a Patch »

Among the fixes Mozilla has released is a patch for the well-known flaw in how Firefox handles .jar files

Mozilla has released an update to its Firefox browser, fixing a widely publicized flaw in the open-source software.

The 2.0.0.10 update fixes a handful of memory corruption flaws that crash Firefox and a cross-site request forgery flaw that could give attackers a way to get unauthorized access to certain Web sites.

Click for more on Handful of bugs squashed in Firefox security fix »

Test shows significant improvement over old version

Before I go any further, a few disclaimers and notes.  First off, I’ve carried out this test on a single system running Windows Vista Home Premium on which Firefox had not been previously installed.  The system has 2GB of RAM.  Both Firefox 2.0.0.9 and Firefox 3.0 b 1 were installed fresh using a standard install.  For each test I visited the same web pages and did my best to make the browsing the same on both versions.

OK, with that out of the way, on with the tests.  I simulated three different browsing scenarios:

• Loading a five pages into the browser
• Loading a single page and leaving the browser for 10 minutes
• Loading 12 pages into the browser and wait 5 minutes

Click for more on Memory test - Firefox 2.0.0.9 vs Firefox 3.0 b 1 »

More than three dozen major improvements and more than two million lines of changed program code that promise more features, more security and performance.

A few months later than had been planned, Mozilla released on Monday night the first beta version of an overhauled Firefox, the widely used open-source Web browser.

Firefox 3 beta 1 includes a number of significant features that Mozilla said should improve security, ease of use, rendering of Web pages, and location of previously visited Web pages. And for the new era of rich Internet applications, the browser can run Web-based applications even when the computer is disconnected from a network.

Click for more on Mozilla releases first public beta of Firefox 3.0 »

Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and now CTO at Mozilla, and Microsoft’s Chris Wilson are in sharp disagreement over the next version of JavaScript

Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich, creator of the popular scripting language ECMAScript, better known as JavaScript, and Microsoft’s Chris Wilson, platform architect of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer platform team, are trading heated rhetoric over the proposed next version of the language. Microsoft, whose own version of JavaScript is called JScript, is quibbling with the ECMAScript Edition 4 effort, which is supported by Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser.

Click for more on Mozilla and Microsoft Battle Over JavaScript »

You should never have to choose functionality over security

Mozilla Firefox is a small, fast and very easy to use browser that offers many advantages over other web browsers, such as the ability to block pop-up windows and the tabbed browsing.

The 2.0.0.8 release fixed some 200 issues, but accidentally regressed a few things. Most users won’t see any difference or experience any problems, and those 200 fixes make the 2.0.0.8 update very valuable, but you should never have to choose functionality over security. So here is the 2.0.0.9 update to address them. The specific problems are:

• Bug 400406 - Firefox will ignore the “clear” CSS property when used beneath a box that is using the “float” property. There is a temporary workaround JS/CSS code available for web developers with affected layouts.
• Bug 400467 - Windows Vista users will get “Java not found” or “Java not working” errors when trying to load Java applets after updating. To fix this, users can right-click the Firefox icon and “Run as administrator”, then browse to a page with a Java applet — doing this once will fix the problem and permanently restore Java functionality.
• Bug 396695 - Add-ons are disabled after updating. Users can fix this problem by opening their profile folder and removing three files (extensions.rdf, extensions.ini and extensions.cache)
• Bug 400421 - Removing a single area element from an image map will cause the entire map to disappear. There is no workaround available at this time.
• Bug 400735 - Some Windows users may experience crashes at startup. There is no workaround available at this time.

Mozilla will push another version of Firefox to users as early as next week to fix five bugs it introduced in last Wednesday’s security update.

Mozilla Corp. will rush another version of Firefox to users as early as next week, the company’s user interface designer said Tuesday, to fix five bugs it introduced in last Wednesday’s security update.

According to notes from a weekly Mozilla meeting on Firefox, the regression reports began accumulating over the weekend. Firefox 2.0.0.8 was posted for download late Wednesday, Oct. 17. Three of the five problems were limited to Windows, but two page rendering issues affected all versions of the browser, including those for Mac OS X and Linux.

Click for more on Mozilla Rushes to Release 2.0.0.9 to Fix New Issues »

Mozilla, the group behind the open-source Firefox Web browser, disclosed its 2006 revenue Monday night: $66,840,850.

That’s a 26 percent bump up from the $52.9 million that Mozilla garnered in 2005. And with 2006 expenses slicing off only $19.8 million, Mozilla has a tidy sum left at its disposal, even if it’s no Microsoft.

“The highlight is that Mozilla remains financially healthy: we’re able to hire more people, build more products, help other projects, and bring more possibilities for participation in the Internet to millions of people,” foundation Chairman Mitchell Baker said in a blog posting. The foundation released the results in conjunction with its 2006 tax form.

Click for more on Mozilla’s 2006 revenue: $66.8 million »

Mozilla has released a new patch for Firefox, which will update the browser to version 2.0.0.8

The update, distributed since earlier today via the software’s auto-update feature, patches eight vulnerabilities. Two of them are rated as “critical” and could allow an attacker to run code or install software on a client PC.

The new version brings two new localized versions of Firefox, Georgian and Romanian. Probably most significantly, the browser is now compatible with Apple’s Leopard operating system. However, Mozilla noted that there are several known “issues” in this version. Among others, “some” media plug-ins as well as add-ons containing binary components are not working properly, the organization said.

Mozilla is ramping up efforts to bring Internet and software platforms to cell phones, including a mobile version of Firefox.

Mozilla VP of engineering Mike Schroepfer wrote in his official company blog this week that Mozilla is expanding its mobile presence because the time and place are finally right.

Click for more on Mozilla makes headway in mobile browser market »