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Firefox Updated to 1.0.4

Exstatica writes "Firefox has been updated to 1.0.4 and they have fixed a few critical security holes, all javascript vulnerabilities. The Mozilla Foundation announced these vulnerabilities May 7th. 'There are currently no known active exploits of these vulnerabilities although a proof of concept has been reported." You don't have to upgrade, but it's recommended.'" We've reported on these vulnerabilities previously.

93 of 454 comments (clear)

  1. Update process... by sznupi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    yes, I know the arguments behind it...but it would be relly nice if update didn't involve simply downloading installer (on mine 128kbps it's so so...and on slower?)

    --
    One that hath name thou can not otter
    1. Re:Update process... by iamjoltman · · Score: 5, Informative

      I believe that a patch update system will be implemented starting with Firefox 1.1

    2. Re:Update process... by cyways · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How about just including an Update entry somewhere in the menus? As far as I can tell, there's no menu item or icon that automatically takes you to an update site or checks to see if an update is available. My 1.0.3 version running on Windows didn't display the update icon this morning, so I eventually clicked on the circle icon to go to the Firefox home page. Guess what? No mention of an update there, or any link to the downloads page either.

    3. Re:Update process... by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      So can you tell me what the argument(s) behind it are ?

      I find it very strange that the people I have converted (mostly not too tech-savvy) to using Firefox, still have to make re-installs themselves.

    4. Re:Update process... by barryman_5000 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Reading some of the blogs on planet.mozilla.org states just that. Lots of tiny nifty features are supposedly going to be making it into 1.1 (the back/forward cache should make my 1 sec wait non-existent now!).

    5. Re:Update process... by Rauser · · Score: 2, Informative

      Also, if you notice a small green or red arrow icon in the upper left corner of the window (next to the Firefox homepage icon) you can just click on that arrow to launch the Firefox Update process.

      --
      The white zone is for loading and unloading only. If you need to load or unload go to the white zone. It's a way of life
    6. Re:Update process... by sik0fewl · · Score: 2, Informative

      It wouldn't, but we wouldn't be able to try the *new* update system until we upgrade to 1.1 (with the new update system) and *then* get 1.1.1.

      --
      I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
  2. Quick and serious on security by xiando · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These issues were announced on Monday, and now a security release is available. This shows how professional the Mozilla Foundation has become and how serious they take security issues. Good work! Security problems will inevitably appear from time to time in all kinds of software, how these issues are handled is to me just as important as the software itself. Good job!

    1. Re:Quick and serious on security by portwojc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes excellent work.

      Hopefully the mainstream news sources I saw will report this just as they reported the problem. I'm not holding my breath though.

    2. Re:Quick and serious on security by hkmwbz · · Score: 2, Informative
      "These issues were announced on Monday, and now a security release is available. This shows how professional the Mozilla Foundation has become and how serious they take security issues. Good work!"
      If I am not mistaken, they have been working on this for longer than that. Some moron announced the flaws while Mozilla were busy fixing them, thereby putting users at risk.

      So I don't think they actually fixed it and got a release out in three days.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    3. Re:Quick and serious on security by CaymanIslandCarpedie · · Score: 2, Funny

      We can only dream ;-)

      They don't get advertisers by saying "you are safe". All they are interested in is headlines like "A new insideous threat could be killing all your children today! Tune in tonight to hear all about it."

      --
      "reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
    4. Re:Quick and serious on security by daern · · Score: 2, Insightful

      These issues were announced on Monday, and now a security release is available. This shows how professional the Mozilla Foundation has become and how serious they take security issues. Good work! Security problems will inevitably appear from time to time in all kinds of software, how these issues are handled is to me just as important as the software itself. Good job!

      Yes, yes, very good.

      Coming from a corporate background, however, I should point out that it's not enough that an update should be available quickly, but that the update should have been fully regression tested against all scenarios. If you ask Microsoft, it's this testing that invariably delays the releases of their patches and this is also one of the reasons why they've moved to the "patch Tuesday" model.

      Remember that if you have a potential DOS vulnerability (as an example) that is patched with a dodgy patch that kills the application, you'll have just succeeded in doing what hundreds of script kiddies try and do all day...but all by yourself :-)

      I'm not being an apologist for anyone, but do not underestimate the importance of testing and also the importance of knowing that a patch has been tested to the acceptance of Firefox in the wider corporate community, which has seen only small uptakes of Firefox to date...

    5. Re:Quick and serious on security by Hungry+Student · · Score: 5, Informative

      I would've shared your cynicism had I not just logged onto the BBC news website and seen their Latest News ticker show the words "The makers of Firefox say the two flaws in the open source browser have been fixed.", linking to this story of theirs, posted at 17:01BST, 16:01GMT.

      A good, accurate followup to their original "Critical flaws found in Firefox" story

  3. Already upgraded by Walkiry · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Posting from 1.0.4 right now. Funny thing, after I upgraded and restarted the browser, I still had the "updates available" little red arrow on the top right corner of the browser. After checking for upgrades (and finding none), it's disappeared. Bug? Leftover registry entry or config file from 1.0.3?

    --
    ---- Take the Space Quiz!
    1. Re:Already upgraded by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not related to your syxtem, but if someone is on linux and using debian for example, they disable the update functionality for the browser for the browser itself and allow it for the extensions only. This is to ensure that firefox gets updated by the package manager, in the example's case: apt-get.

      It has reportedly sometimes the bad effect that the red update arrow stays red forever.

      --
      It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
      Be yourself no matter what they say
    2. Re:Already upgraded by kbrosnan · · Score: 3, Informative

      There is a flag variable in about:config 'app.update.updatesAvailable' that gets set to true. The notification would have gone away on its own in about a day when Firefox checked for updates.

      --
      These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based upon the order I joined. -Homer Simpson
  4. Dude at work by PlancksCnst · · Score: 5, Funny

    This guy at work noticed I was using firefox (he's an IE user), and said, slyly, "You know, there's a couple of really bad security holes." Good think FF fixes their holes faster than MS.

    1. Re:Dude at work by OwlWhacker · · Score: 5, Funny

      This guy at work noticed I was using firefox (he's an IE user), and said, slyly, "You know, there's a couple of really bad security holes."

      That's like somebody seeing you kissing and saying "You can get diseases from that", yet they themselves are in a sexual relationship with somebody who is highly promiscuous with junkies.

  5. Vulnerabilities everywhere. by CABAN · · Score: 4, Funny

    Next time I try to help a friend out I'm not suggesting firefox. I'm suggesting Netscape! Wwwait.

  6. hmmm... by prophetmike · · Score: 3, Informative

    Firefox 1.0.4 was posted sometime between 11 and 11:30PM last night EST. I got it about 11:40 :D (Yes, geek alert) That aside, with all of these newfound vulnerabilities popping up so often, could Firefox become (later down the line) the new Internet Explorer? May seem highly unlikely now.. but as the New York Lottery says... "Hey, you never know."

    1. Re:hmmm... by CaymanIslandCarpedie · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No. The real issue with IE wasn't the security that were found (this will ALWAYS be the case with ANY software), it was thier lax attitude about fixing the issues.

      FireFox right out of the box proved to be a pretty solid browser (they had the chance to learn lessons from those browsers that came before). And when an issue does come up the take it seriously and try to fix it promptly.

      I'd not only argue FireFox will never be IE (of a year or two ago), but I'd also bet IE (of today) will never be IE (of a year or two ago). XP SP2 had a lot of fixes and MS$ has been much more both pro-active and reactive about security (thanks to the kick in the pants from FireFox).

      Please put down your torches and pitch-forks ;-) I'm not saying IE is as good as FF, just saying MS$ has responded to the challenge and are doing better so I don't think any browser will be as lax as MS$ has been in the past.

      That is however one of the issues with MS$. They have soooo much going on, there are times when a product (IE) will be such a low priority these things can happen. Over the last few years MS$ has been working on high-priority tasks like (new VS.NET, new SQL Server, XP SP2, and Longhorn) just to name a few. With those big core company projects happening, IE kind of fell through the cracks since they felt un-touchable in the browser market. Luckily, FireFox came around and woke them up. If you use IE or not, for the good of everyone it is good to see they have woken up a bit and lets hope it never happens again!

      --
      "reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
    2. Re:hmmm... by EggyToast · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Nothing is more apparent as proof of Microsoft's "good enough" system than the fact that IE was stuck on version 6 with absolutely no sign of an update... until FireFox came out and started making waves. Now the IE7 news is all "Gates had to reform the IE development group..."

      Wait... IE is a major Windows app. Why was there no dedicated development group working on it as a matter of course?

      Oh yeah. MS stops important development on applications once they have no competition...

  7. Mozilla Suite updated as well by iamjoltman · · Score: 5, Informative

    It should be noted that the Mozilla Suite has also relased an update, 1.7.8.

    1. Re:Mozilla Suite updated as well by chrae · · Score: 4, Funny

      It seems that the Mozilla Suite has lost a lot of it's sex appeal. Firefox gets all the attention and Mozilla is the fat friend you gotta be nice to.

    2. Re:Mozilla Suite updated as well by mat+catastrophe · · Score: 4, Funny

      But, you know, the fat friend will still love you after the sexy one leaves you for another.

      --
      sig not found
    3. Re:Mozilla Suite updated as well by mzwaterski · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sorry about that man...your sexy ex-girlfriend was great last night!

    4. Re:Mozilla Suite updated as well by ricotest · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Only on Slashdot would this ridiculously inappropriate metaphor be rated Insightful.

    5. Re:Mozilla Suite updated as well by Dolda2000 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not very strange, is it?

    6. Re:Mozilla Suite updated as well by novakreo · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not very strange, is it?

      Are you serious?!
      It looks like she has flames shooting out her ass and hair growing in all the wrong places.
      And the toenails are more than a little creepy.

      --
      O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
  8. Mirrors by bunburyist · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mozilla.org will probably get hammered!! Here's a google cache of the Firefox Mirror List

    And while you're at it don't forget those extensions:

    FoxyTunes: http:www.iosart.com/foxytunes/firefox/

    AdBlock: http://adblock.mozdev.org/

    Or you can just go get more at: update.mozilla.org

    Happy Browsing!

  9. Locales by bjprice · · Score: 2, Informative

    Unfortunately there's no British English version of 1.0.4 yet.

    It'll appear in the list of locales here when it's ready, but it looks like we limeys are stuck with 1.0.3 (or speaking American English) until then.

    --
    v4sw6HPU$hw5ln6pr5$ck4ma8u7LMO$w2m6l7DL$i2e3t4MWb9AHKMRTen5a29s0r1p-5.88/-8.36g5CST
    1. Re:Locales by InsideTheAsylum · · Score: 5, Funny

      You know, you don't have to wait for Firefoux to come out, you can just use the regular old Firefox..

    2. Re:Locales by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      What exactly is different? I didn't see any obvious spelling differences on my American English version of Firefox. It's not like our version says "Open Location Beeyotch!" instead of "Open Location".

    3. Re:Locales by dagnabit · · Score: 2, Funny

      Isn't the British version named Foyerfox?

    4. Re:Locales by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 2, Funny

      I went into the options screen, and I had lost the settings for my "Fonts and Colours".

      All that was left was "Fonts & Colors" (whatever they are).

      In reality, I never once noticed I had the english version until I just went and checked.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
  10. Impressive by PenguinBoyDave · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While I don't care for the update process, I am exceedingly impressed that Mozilla makes fixes so quickly, and doesn't try to hide them (like another browser company has done in the past). Professionalism...very nice to see this from Mozilla. Kudos!

    --
    I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
    1. Re:Impressive by spells · · Score: 2, Funny

      probably because I have been such a fan of Mozilla

      Wow, a /. user acknowleging a bias. How rare and refreshing - now please leave and don't return because I can't keep cleaning the coffee I spewed all over my monitor when I read your post ;)
  11. exe crashes explorer when viewed accross SMB share by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I copy the exe installer into a folder on a windows share, explorer crashes when I access the folder from certain clients. Same happened with 1.0.2 but not with 1.0.3

    I wildly guess it's a race condition or something arising from reading the embedded icon resourse as that doesn't show? No I don't really have a clue what causes it.

    All machines are fully patched W2K, thank buddha for memory sticks!

  12. c'mon! Let's break some FF extensions! by denis-The-menace · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why can't we have extensions that don't die just because they changed the release number?

    Extension authors can't keep up.
    Mozilla Update is slow to update itself.
    and Users like me are left looking to google for help.
    Silly me thought Mozilla Update there to centralized things.

    --
    Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
    1. Re:c'mon! Let's break some FF extensions! by LnxAddct · · Score: 3, Informative

      about:config
      extensions.disabledObsolete = false
      Regards,
      Steve

    2. Re:c'mon! Let's break some FF extensions! by DarkAvZ · · Score: 2, Informative
      Here's why (right from the release notes):
      When you upgrade to a new version of Firefox all of your Extensions and Themes will be disabled until Firefox determines that either a) they are compatible with the new release or b) there are newer versions available that are compatible. This is because Firefox changes from release to release and as such the ways in which some extensions integrate changes, meaning there can be problems when running an older extension with a newer version of Firefox. If you find that your favorite Extension or Theme has not been updated to be compatible with this release of Firefox, write the author and encourage them to update it.
      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
  13. Re:Many Eyes ? by ssj_195 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    They do, to an extent (but this does not magically prevent a product from *being released* without bugs), and yes it does, just like all software. It's worth noting that most (all?) of these bugs have been found precisely by these eyes that are looking over the code.

    Oh, and hats off to the Firefox devs for the scorching turnover on this flaw. When Firefox 1.1 comes out (with its more diff-style updated) the process will be even more streamlined and painless.

  14. Language Not Available!! by HomeworkJunkie · · Score: 2, Funny

    Damn. Can't upgrade to 1.0.4 since the English (British) version is not available yet :( Can't be installing the American version ;)

    --
    "Why take life seriously, you're not coming out of it alive anyway."
    1. Re:Language Not Available!! by un1xl0ser · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why don't you upgrade your language from British English to American English?

      That would solve both problems.

      --
      v4sw6PU$hw6ln6pr4F$ck 4/6$ma3+6u7LNS$w2m4l7U$i2e4+7en6a2X h
  15. Re:Wheres my arrow? by michrech · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't know this as fact, but I think it is all in what time your browser checks for updates. I can't tell for sure, but I think it is set to do a random check (mayhapps it even checks every so many days and yours is still not showing an update as others are because you installed so many days after they did)...

    I dunno..

    ---
    telnet://sinep.gotdns.com -- Telegard BBS -- Enjoy!

    --
    bork bork bork!
  16. Re:Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just because the problem was only announced on security sites a week ago, does not mean it had not existed for years in the Mozilla codebase, plain for all to see. Microsoft on the other hand quietly releases fixes, then discloses what they fix. Practice has taught them one thing about vunerabilities, and that is that the sooner you release the fix the sooner the wolves will start chasing down the stragglers. In cases where a flaw is announced before a patch is out, the lag time for Microsoft isn't too shabby.

    Until Firefox has an upgrade mechanism that doesn't feel like extracting teeth, the Microsoft approach, regrettably is going to win out.

    -Steve

  17. Good, but I wish there was remote updating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As a system admin for our company, every new Firefox release means that I will have to go around to 150 workstations and manually reinstall the browser again to keep it up to date. I wish there was some sort of way to remotely update the browser on all machines or a way to patch vulnerabilities without a full reinstall.

    1. Re:Good, but I wish there was remote updating by LnxAddct · · Score: 5, Informative

      As a system admin for your company, you should use a msi package, but if for some reason you can't, firefox's installer can be fully scripted by simply passing it some args and turning on the quiet switch(or invisible or something switch, you'll have to look it up).
      Regards,
      Steve

    2. Re:Good, but I wish there was remote updating by Jugalator · · Score: 2, Informative

      I suppose there must be something like that for Windows.

      Yeah, and Firefox is released in this package format already -- MSI.

      I'm pretty sure they have at least networking support enough to solve his problems of updating 100+ individual installs. :-o

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  18. Re:Great by Skye16 · · Score: 2

    What does it matter if they fix it and we don't have it? I don't care whether it's fixed for them, I want it fixed for me.

  19. Middle click new tab on Mac by Feng · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does middle clicking on a link open a new tab for OS X yet? The last I heard you had to patch FF to enable this feature. Middle clicking works fine on Safari, it's one feature I really miss when using FF on OS X.

    --


    --- if y cn rd ths y cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgmmng!
    1. Re:Middle click new tab on Mac by DrWhizBang · · Score: 4, Funny

      Aren't all clicks with a Mac middle-clicks?

      --
      Schrodinger's cat is either dead or really pissed off...
    2. Re:Middle click new tab on Mac by kbrosnan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Middle click won't ever work on a 1.0.x release. You will need to wait until the 1.1 release. It was fix on the trunk by bug 151249.

      bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=151249

      --
      These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based upon the order I joined. -Homer Simpson
  20. Amazingly fast response by jbarr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My wife pointed out an article on Google News (that I had already seen earlier) showing that Firefox had some security vulnerabilities. She winced because I had just converter her to Firefox. I told her not to worry. I said, "Mark my words, there will be a security fix within a week." Well, today the fix was released and she was impressed. Not only has the Firefox development team improved the product, but they have made my wife happy! Life is good!

    --
    My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
  21. It's in the details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can check for updates from Tools>Options>Advanced>Software Updates. If you use some themes, e.g. Littlefox, there is a button next to the Firefox home page 'circle' that you can click to check for updates.

    As for your observation regarding the red flag, I believe The Mozilla Foundation had disabled that feature on the website because of one of the critical flaws now fixed.

    -clueless

    (I need to create a login here, or did I do it previously?)

    1. Re:It's in the details by grommit · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And what does that "Check for Updates" do? That's right, it downloads the full installer to your desktop and executes it which is exactly the same as downloading it manually from mozilla.org except with a couple less mouse clicks. It still has to run the entire installer asking you if you want to re-create icons on the desktop/toolbar/start menu, do a quick/custom install and a few other things.

    2. Re:It's in the details by grommit · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, I'm sure in your mind the world revolves around you but here in the real world, some people actually consider the situation of a person other than themselves from time to time.

      You have broadband. Lots of people still don't. For instance, every time Firefox releases a new version, I have to burn it to a cd for a friend of my wife's at work so they don't have to sit around for an hour at home waiting for it to download.

    3. Re:It's in the details by Curtman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      some people actually consider the situation of a person other than themselves from time to time.

      The Buddha says there is no you and there is no me, only "us". ;)

    4. Re:It's in the details by Dasch · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't care how much stuff it's downloading and executing

      Then why aren't you using IE? ;)

    5. Re:It's in the details by daikokatana · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I have broadband. If it's just one click, I don't care how much stuff it's downloading and executing.

      Apart from the fact that there are still a lot of people on dial-up, I think it can be considered bad practice to download stuff you already have (like 90% of the program you are trying to update or patch).

      I have broadband as well, but I'd rather save the extra bandwidth and used megabytes (yes, my connection has a limit) for something else.

      By the way - suppose this was an Oracle database where the installer would be several gigabytes, would you still download it again?

      --
      http://jcsnippets.atspace.com/ - a collection of Java & C# snippets
  22. 'all javascript vulnerabilities'? by DaHat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That sounds awful ominous and near impossible... perhaps instead the line should be 'all known javascript vulnerabilities'?

  23. How to trigger the update by MikkoApo · · Score: 2, Informative
    Menu > Tools > Options > Advanced > Software Update > Click Check Now

    Not very easily accessible, but at least its there :)

  24. Re:One of the reasons i use Firefox. by 3terrabyte · · Score: 4, Interesting
    True. True.
    I switched to Firefox because I was sick of using IE. Ever since I've switched, AdAware has found ZERO spyware/malware incidents!

    To IE's meager defense, I'm sure there might have been a setting somewhere that might have tightened up the holes, but switching to Firefox has been easier. Plus, I'm addicted to the tabbed browing.

    --

    Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?

  25. Bleeding edge by imipak · · Score: 5, Informative

    Although I've been an enthusiastic mozilla/firefox user & supporter since the late 90s (yes I was browsing with a 'naked' gecko control, HA! :P) I was surprised to find I'd lost track of development to the extent that I didn't realise the trunk builds have a much more up-to-date gecko engine. The gecko in the 1.0.x series (inc. 1.0.4) are a year old! Those users who prefer livin' on the edge might prefer to get a faster, smaller, much less memory-leaky build from: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nigh tly/latest-trunk/

  26. In related news... by amichalo · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...FireFox downloads double to 100 Million!

    --
    I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
  27. Yes, but ... by thinkfat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... as soon as the first proof of concept evolves into a worm, they will experience what it means to be deployed on millions of internet-connected pc's of clueless users.

    Rule #1: doesn't matter how fast you output a security update, if it's not being installed.

    Unfortunately it's not enough for an update to _exist_.

    1. Re:Yes, but ... by jbarr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And therin lies the double-edged sword. Just about everyone on /. complains about Microsoft's auto-update feature saying that it's intrusive, and they don't want some company to have control of what is installed on their PC's. Yet, in order to ensure security, an auto-update feature really becomes necessary. Of course, Microsoft and the Mozilla Foundation as companies are viewed with very different levels of "trusts." Unfortunatly, not everyone will be satisfied.

      Personally, instead of displaying the tiny unobtrusive update indicator as it currently does, I would love see Firefox do something like change the window color to red and display a system message dialog stating the problem with a link to the update. Maybe a good compromise?

      --
      My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
    2. Re:Yes, but ... by tyler_larson · · Score: 2, Interesting
      ... as soon as the first proof of concept evolves into a worm...

      Point taken, but let's bear in mind that this POC can't evolve into a worm. It can't even evolve into an exploit now that the only site on the default whitelist no longer exists.

      That's why they didn't put out a stop-gap fix release at the beginning of the week--the threat had passed completely.

      Firefox developers got lucky this time--they could remove the threat with a simple server-side modification. With most vulnerabilities of this severity, that's not an option.

      --
      "With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea...."
      RFC 1925
    3. Re:Yes, but ... by Curtman · · Score: 2

      Unfortunately it's not enough for an update to _exist_.

      True. But it's also not enough for a bug to exist either. It has to be _exploitable_.

    4. Re:Yes, but ... by srleffler · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Unfortunately, many users didn't go find Firefox once. They had someone more technically oriented install it for them.

      The fact that Firefox security updates don't automatically install unless you notice and click on that red arrow in the upper right corner pretty much guarantees that a large fraction of copies will remain unpatched. When I've visited people for whom I installed Firefox 1.0 when it came out, I've noticed that none of them have noticed the red update icon or updated Firefox on their own.

      If users have to go and get updates, many machines will remain vulnerable to security holes.

    5. Re:Yes, but ... by Ogive17 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I downloaded firefox as soon as it was "officially" released.

      Now I consider my knowledge of computers and software as advanced, but I'm definately not an expert. I found the interface to be less friendly than IE and trying to change options was a chore. Also, until 3 days ago, I didn't know how to automatically update Firefox until I saw someone mention clicking the red arrow on the top right portion of the window. Now, I had gone to mozilla.org and downloaded the latest versions on my own, but this was a hassle. And if "I" didn't know about the auto-update, my grandmother, parents, sister, brother, and a few friends I've turned to Firefox are not going to know either.

      Sometimes reading through /. posts, I am reminded of bleeding heart liberals or bible thumping conservatives with how people treat OSS to M$. People are annoyingly blinded by their dis-like for the other side that they cannot see the whole picture. Sure Firefox is great, but it's not perfect and IE still has some advantages.

      --
      "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
  28. Re:Will someone please... by Baramin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You're obviousile eager to update your firefox rapidly, I suppose because of the security fixes of that new version.

    But you're willing to download it from any source as you're requesting a torrent, which can contain a "modified" version ?

    I fail to see the logic... I'd advise you to wait till you can download it from the main mirrors.

    --
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  29. Firefox speed..... by SammysIsland · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Back in the day when I first downloaded FireFox, one of my favorite parts of using it was how fast it would load up the first window when opened. It was almost instantaneous.

    The more I use it, the longer this actions takes. It doesn't matter if I clear cache and cookies, un-install plugins, or just plain uninstall and reinstall the browser.

    Is it simply the newer versions that cause it to load so slowly? My roommate has the same problem. Is anyone else experiencing this and is there an answer?

    Responses greatly appreciated. Thanks.

    1. Re:Firefox speed..... by gothzilla · · Score: 2, Informative

      memory usage:
      Firefox - 38meg
      avengine - 22meg (antivirus)
      IExplore - 11 meg
      outlook - 9meg
      winword (with doc loaded) - 3.8 meg
      excel (with sheet loaded) - 2.8 meg
      IE + Outlook + Word + Excel Firefox

      This is obviously some strange usage of the word "tiny" that I was previously unaware of.
      (Mandatory hitchhikers referance)

      I run O&O defrag as well and it constantly keeps my drive defragged in the background. Even with a fragged up swapfile, 512 meg of ram keeps that from being an issue.

      When speaking of features, nothing beats firefox. When speaking of stability and mem usage, it's not worth the hype.

      0.9 whooped major butt. I had NO problems.
      1.0 crashed and the mem usage became as issue
      from there it's just gotten worse.

      So basically I can use 0.9 and love it to death but be subject to security issues just like IE or I can keep it upgraded and secure and put up with crashes and lockups. How does that make this a superior product?

    2. Re:Firefox speed..... by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Firefox - 38meg
      avengine - 22meg (antivirus)
      IExplore - 11 meg


      When speaking of stability and mem usage, it's not worth the hype.

      Ummm... right. Now count the memory usage of all the DLLs IE requires which are loaded into memory as part of Windows (after all, it is embedded). That 11MB does not include that. Once you factor that in, I'd wager it is much closer to the Firefox footprint.

      1.0 crashed and the mem usage became as issue

      And as for stability... I can't tell you the last time an official release of Firefox crashed on me. I find that most people with crashing issues have done something fucked up to their system.

      Just my opinion.

      --
      Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
    3. Re:Firefox speed..... by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I loaded it up and went to Fark. It...well, it didn't crash, but it hung and I had to end the process.

      1. What version of Firefox?
      2. Any Firefox extensions installed?
      3. Did you start with a clean profile, or import an old one?
      4. Did you install Firefox into a clean directory, or was it into an existing directory?
      5. Are you running any network security software?
      6. Is your company using a firewall/filtering device on the network?

      And that is just preliminary questions regarding software/networking. Other things to check include motherboard firmware updates, memory tests, etc. Often programs will use the same areas of memory and you'll run into strange problems due to bad memory modules.

      The problem is not just some firefox stability issue, since I use it all the time and it is rock solid. This implies something is different about your system that is causing the instability, or it could be a bug rendering whatever page you were on that it hung on, but if this is a continual crashing problem, I am guessing the former.

      As for the memory, not five minutes ago I just had nothing open but the download window. Out of curiosity, I checked the mem usage on firefox.exe, to find that it was 69MB physical/81MB VM. That's just way, way too much, especially since it's just downloading one file.

      My primary response to this is, memory is cheap and abundant nowadays. However, it likely wasn't using 69MB of memory just to download a file. Presumably you had been browsing quite a bit before hand, and things are cached in memory.

      Like it or not, browsers are huge, complex programs that allow you to browse huge, complex data mines, and they require many resources. Just because IE hides its usage well doesn't mean anything.

      --
      Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
  30. news? by Errtu76 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Disclaimer: I like firefox. I use firefox.

    Why is this news? Does this mean that every time firefox decides to update, it should be front page news? Can't you (slashdot) create a seperate field where the latest versions of popular products are announced? Like:

    product | version | last update
    firefox | 1.0.4 | today

    1. Re:news? by Omega697 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's news because of all the media hype that the latest security holes had gotten. Plain and simple. It's only fair that if the media is going to shout "looky looky, it's got bugs too," that we get to shout "yeah, but watch how fast we fix them."

    2. Re:news? by globalar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Most of the time, Firefox updates are not very important. However, the exploits which 1.04 fix were highly publicized.

      I saw many IT magazines, mostly targeted at management, with significant space (even a few covers) devoted to the exploit. It is an example of the Firefox (and Mozilla) team's committment that a patch came out so quickly. This is very important, as it shows open source products can compete in the very tough browser market.

      The progress of Firefox is now being watched by many - opponents and supporters alike. Firfox is under the spotlight and responding the serious issues - especially security, which has plagued IE - is crucial for the browser's future success. This is more about PR and brand recognition than security.

  31. Re:IE still #1 a-ok by Bert64 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Renders sites better? Actually IE renders sites very badly, the fact that some sites depend on ie's buggy rendering is disturbing enough. Firefox will render any site closer to what the site's html/xml code is specifying.
    IE doesnt support xhtml atall, and only manages to render an approximation of it when you set the mime type to incorrectly identify it as html.
    Also, you are more vulnerable to cross site scripting attacks when using ie.. mozilla will correctly url-encode requests, while ie will not.. therefore when the server returns the data, it will be url-encoded and mozilla won't accept any malicious html tags.. Also mozilla actually supports HTTP (ie doesnt, heres why) and uses the mime-type to work out how it should render a file.. ie on the other hand ignores it (the HTTP rfc 2616 states that any tool supporting http will use the mime type if one is present) so if an error is returned as text/plain and contains html tags, ie will render the html tags (leading to possible malicious code or cross site scripting etc) whereas mozilla will render it as plain text like it should.

    --
    http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
  32. TROJAN IN LINK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    It deleted my hard drive! I opened my computar case and it was gone! Very mysterious!

  33. Re:IE still #1 a-ok by Ath · · Score: 4, Funny
    All this "IE is the Sux04rz" talk makes it very apparent that the people getting infected either have no clue about how to configure a secure computer, or have no scruples on what they click "OK" to.

    Boy, I cannot agree with you more. If you have half a clue, then IE is easy to make secure. I just went into Tools - Internet Options and set the Security policy to Restricted Sites, turned on popup blocking (after I obviously installed SP2), set my Privacy level to High (because everyone except an idiot knows this is how to disable Cookies), and then installed all the hot fixes from MS. If you are too lazy to maintain your software properly then you shouldn't even have a computer. Just get a Mac or something.

    It's like all those people who complain about safety problems in cars. My Pinto is safer than almost every car out there. All that with almost zero risk of theft. I strapped some padding onto the rear bumper and put some steel reinforcement plating around the gas tank. There is almost no risk to myself or my passengers of a ruptured fuel tank, all because I took the time to fix an inherent problem in the design of the ... wait .... err ... I gotta go.

  34. Re:IE still #1 a-ok by WARM3CH · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, generally I agree with you. However, when it comes to correctly rendering UTF-8 pages, specially with Arabic characters, firefox has some very well known bugs that have not been fixed now for ages. The most annyoing one is a bug in rendering arabic decimal number: It shows all numbers like 1.4 as 4.1! Of course, IE renders such pages perfectly.

  35. Re:IE still #1 a-ok by EggyToast · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Imagine a company making a CD-Burning program that spit out a coaster 50% of the time and garbled data, resulting in 20% corrupt files of the "good" 50% discs.

    Of course, there were settings you could change that would fix that. They were in Advanced>Settings>Options>Burning>Defaults>Input. You just had to uncheck "Always burn with error correction (may cause some discs to burn slower)" which simply fixed the garbled data, and "Always burn with high-precision laser" (so you don't get coasters). Checking those 2 boxes results in the application working perfectly every time.

    Would anyone use that? No! People would laugh it off and comment on just how stupid it is. Why IE gets a free pass for almost the same transgressions is beyond me. Oh, wait, no it isn't -- it's because people started using it years ago and are afraid of changing to something better because it's "different." "I've already got those boxes checked."

  36. Update conflicting with my firewall? by uther28 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have norton internet security installed on my computer and when I installed the new update for firefox I can no longer access the internet with firefox (using IE right now, something which I would like to stop as soon as possible). When I disable norton's firewall firefox works. Anyone have this problem as well and maybe know how to fix it?

  37. Doing the .exe shuffle by carambola5 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I can't run the executable "firefox.exe" at work because it "has been disabled by the administrator." Solution? Rename to firefox2.exe.

    The only pain comes when firefox is updated... it leaves the firefox2.exe executable from the previous installation, and adds the new firefox.exe to the install folder. It then becomes a dumb little task to update all the icons and shortcuts scattered about my system.

    Wish there was some way to specify, during install, the resulting executable name. Of course, I have to be one of the maybe twenty people in the world who needs this, so maybe it's not worth the miniscule bloat.

    --
    IWARS.
    People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
    1. Re:Doing the .exe shuffle by suwain_2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The real question is... Why has your administrator disabled firefox?

      --
      ________________________________________________
      suwain_2 :: quality slashdot p
  38. Meanwhile Microsoft's Patch Yesterday by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 2, Informative


    leaves several vulnerabilities at LEAST as serious as the Firefox ones open UNTIL NEXT MONTH!

    Who said something about "time to patch" favoring MS?

    Firefox: vulnerabilities announced Monday.
    Patched by Thursday morning.

    Microsoft: vulnerabilities announced months ago.
    Patched - "Next month - maybe".

    --
    Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
  39. Additionally interresting informations by masklinn · · Score: 3, Informative

    It should be noted that 1.0.4 also features a JS bugfix which hastes said JS execution by around 20%.

    May sound like it suck... if you don't know that the whole XUL thing (basically everything in firefox but the Gecko engine itself: interface, extensions, userscripts, ...) is pure Javascript.

    --
    "The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
  40. Re:IE still #1 a-ok by masklinn · · Score: 2, Interesting
    renders sites better than Firefox
    I *really* hope you were joking when you wrote that down, because it's one of the most beautiful pieces of bullshit i've read today...
    Please do pay a visit to the CSS Zen Garden and compare IE renderings to FF renderings.
    the Special Effects Designs are the most interresting ones in terms of IE sucking badly, BTW...
    --
    "The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
  41. Mozilla. k Thanks by baadger · · Score: 2

    If Slashdot wasn't so eager to sniff Firefox's hind leg this post would, and should, have mentioned Mozilla 1.7.8 as being released too.

  42. Re:Not the concept but the implementation by mbaciarello · · Score: 2, Informative

    As I am not a regular Mac OSX user, I am curious on how that platform handles updates.

    Your wish is my command...

    OS X 10.3 has a panel in System Preferences where you can choose how often to check for updates (defaults to weekly on a fresh install, IIRC.) It also has the option to automatically download "important" updates in the background - this usually corresponds to security-related fixes and point-point releases. There's also a "Check now" button, and the Apple (system) menu has a direct link to this preference panel.

    Feedback is in the form of a window which pops up when updates are available, with a listing of all available updates also telling you whether a patch is going to force you to reboot. You use checkboxes to select downloads. You also get a brief description of what the fix does (that's usually pretty much useless, though.) I don't know if the automatic download feature gives feedback to the user as I don't use it.

    Most, if not all applications from Apple are included in this "Software Update" utility. I'm not aware of any other vendor delivering updates through this route.

  43. Technically oriented? by Propaganda13 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah, it's real hard to click next.

    I think a lot of people are like me. They installed Firefox and maybe an extension or two. I didn't read anything, and didn't notice the arrow until the last /. article. I know the basics of a web browser, and look through the menu for the options, other than that I didn't care to investigate further.