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Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.3 Released

Mini-Geek writes "Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.3 has been released. As with previous 1.5.0.x patches, 1.5.0.3 can be downloaded as a small, incremental download. From the article: 'This update fixes a publicly disclosed denial of service weakness. All users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. The bugfixes previously planned for Firefox 1.5.0.3 were shifted to 1.5.0.4, and a quick update was released shortly after the recent to address the publicly reported issue.'"

182 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Just a minor revision by Seriously,+who · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Seriously, who finds this interesting? This is a minor point release to fix a small security hole, not front page news.

    1. Re:Just a minor revision by christopherfinke · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Seriously, who finds this interesting?
      Well, I do. Mostly because I'm an extension developer and I like to make sure that all of my extensions work with the latest version of Firefox, but also because I just find Firefox to be interesting software and news about it is almost never unwelcome on my screen. Slashdot is reserved regarding posting about Firefox compared to Digg, where even articles about speculation about point-releases are promoted to the front page almost immediately.
    2. Re:Just a minor revision by christopherfinke · · Score: 1
      If you have to get here to read about such releasettes, just stop using computers.
      I don't come here to be notified of the release (Digg did that yesterday :-) ); I come here to discuss the release.
    3. Re:Just a minor revision by Kilz · · Score: 5, Informative
      So, that removes security as a reason for using Firefox. Speed never was a reason, and it certainly isn't efficient memory usage. That leaves what, exactly, as a reason for using Firefox over Opera, or even IE7? That it's open source? That's a pretty lousy reason
      IE7? You have to be joking right? Its still in beta and relies a lot on IE6 code. You know the code that recently had 2 giant security flaws exposed, and they along with others have not been patched. Better to stay with Firefox, at least when holes are found they are patched faster than any other browser that I know of.
      --
      I trust Microsoft as far as I could comfortably spit a dead rat
    4. Re:Just a minor revision by Nintendork · · Score: 1
      Sigh. Ever think that it's the unfixed holes that make the difference?

      Many of the unpatched vulnerabilities aren't too serious as they are minor components that could be used in phishing attacks. That's not to say they shouldn't be fixed, but they're a far cry from execution of arbitrary code. Don't forget about the unfound or unreported vulnerabilities out there. Firefox is a relative newcomer to security and blackhat researchers. Fresh meat so to speak. If I were a company or government, I'd avoid it like the plague. However, as a consumer with zero hack factor, this consideration is mostly moot.

    5. Re:Just a minor revision by shokk · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No actually that's still less than Microsoft's IE and Windows patch sets. And Microsoft's patches more often than not involve critical bugs.

      Open source is actually a pretty good reason. It lets people contribute and find these problems, helps them guide the development of the product, and lets them build all sorts of neat add-ons. The whole Opera thing just comes across as snobby and pretentious, just like your post.

      --
      "Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
    6. Re:Just a minor revision by zen-theorist · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Well, I do. Mostly because I'm an extension developer and I like to make sure that all of my extensions work with the latest version of Firefox, but also because I just find Firefox to be interesting software and news about it is almost never unwelcome on my screen. Slashdot is reserved regarding posting about Firefox compared to Digg, where even articles about speculation about point-releases are promoted to the front page almost immediately.
      in that case, why not waste a couple of hours everyday on mozilla.org instead of slashdot.org?
    7. Re:Just a minor revision by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2, Informative

      "So, that removes security as a reason for using Firefox. Speed never was a reason, and it certainly isn't efficient memory usage. That leaves what, exactly, as a reason for using Firefox over Opera, or even IE7? That it's open source? That's a pretty lousy reason."

      People like you who have never really understood what a security nightmare IE still is probably never will - so I won't waste your time on that. But you (probably intentionally) totally ignored proper rendering and standards support. IE7 fixes a few of the glaring issues (e.g. PNG transparency), but it really isn't much of a step forward toward CSS 2 or 3 compliance. If you want to see a simple demonstration of this for yourself, try playing with an object's opacity sometime.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    8. Re:Just a minor revision by thepotoo · · Score: 1

      Um, IE7 as another poster said, isn't really secure. Many people find Opera to be an excellent browser, but it doesn't compare to Firefox for just one reason: Extentions.
      If you're using vanilla Firefox, might as well dump it and go with Opera, but if you've ever tried stuff like adblock, slashdotter, tabmixplus, flashgot, videodownloader, or any of the other awesome extentions, you won't be able to go back to any other browser.

      --
      Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
    9. Re:Just a minor revision by Xugumad · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How about, it follows the standards? You may not care, but my job as a web developer would be hell of a lot easier if all browsers did! Having to write "And if the browser is IE, use this horribly broken method of doing things instead because the IE devs didn't read the spec" code is a real nuisance.

      Also, irrespective of number of flaws, while the number of people using IE stays so high, my chances of browsing a page with a security exploit for my browser is dramatically higher when using IE (I should add here, I don't want to see Firefox, IE, or any other browser having most of the market; I'd love to see the market split into fairly equal slices between at least three different browsers).

    10. Re:Just a minor revision by x0n · · Score: 1

      > IE7? You have to be joking right? Its still in beta and relies a lot on IE6 code

      Beta, yes; a good reason. but "relies a lot on ie6 code?" how do you know this exactly? are you one of the IE devs?

      --

      PGP KeyId: 0x08D63965
    11. Re:Just a minor revision by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I have been working on a webpage lately, and have been having some issues along these lines. I have a lot of experience with the old-style HTML, but very little XHTML/CSS so I've been trying to drag myself into the modern world by revamping the website to use DIVs instead of tables and such.

      One of the things I did was go steal a CSS navbar. Even the example code didn't work right under IE6! Yet, and this is the amusing part, it works in IE7.

      After much mangling, I got it to the point where it almost works (I'm not done, but that's fine for now.) What happens is that some of the lines are not drawn to the proper width in Firefox (Gecko etc) but they now show up properly in IE6. It's kind of hosed in IE5.5 but better than it was in IE6 before I started work. The funny thing is that in IE7, it renders precisely the same way it does under Gecko.

      The short form of all this is that IE7 really DOES follow standards more closely than IE6...

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    12. Re:Just a minor revision by Kelson · · Score: 1

      The short form of all this is that IE7 really DOES follow standards more closely than IE6...

      Oh, yeah! Of course, the issue is twofold*: There are parts of the specs that IE6 implements incorrectly, and there are parts of the specs that IE6 doesn't implement at all. They've fixed some of the bugs, and they've added support for some of the missing chunks. There's still a lot of stuff that hasn't made it into IE7, but I personally can't wait until I can ignore IE6 and just code for IE7/Gecko/Opera/KHTML instead of Gecko/Opera/KHTML with a bunch of kludges for IE6.

      One can hope that, a few years down the road, either IE8 will catch up to the rest on what's implemented, or IE will no longer be relevant. From a web developer's perspective, either outcome will be a win.

      *(There's a third part of the issue, of course, which is that there's no defined spec for error correction, so every browser makes different assumptions when presented with invalid code.)

    13. Re:Just a minor revision by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 1

      Useful extentions (I am in love with NoScript), faster security fixes, a sounder security architecture, and whatever security benefits you get from being a less profitable target. Though every critical bug leaves me thinking harder about switching to Opera.

    14. Re:Just a minor revision by dveditz · · Score: 1

      > It's been less than a month since the last point release,

      A security problem was publicized last week, this week there's a fix for it. That's a problem?

      > which fixed 21 critical security flaws.

      FUD, Mozilla published eight advisories fixed in Firefox 1.5.0.2: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/known-vul nerabilities.html#firefox1.5.0.2

      Most of them were found internally by the Mozilla team which means the numbers can't be compared to proprietary products in any meaningful way.

    15. Re:Just a minor revision by seek31337 · · Score: 1

      I installed IE7, then uninstalled it 30 minutes later after a crash as a result of the install. It was, what I like to call, the "Total u$oft Upgrade Experience". To be fair, I have had FrieFox crash once or twice, a few months ago, on a Mac.

      --
      No SIG for you!
    16. Re:Just a minor revision by Fuzzie+Viking · · Score: 1
      --
      I am Ergo the magnificent. Short in power, tall in stature, narrow of vision and wide of purpose.
    17. Re:Just a minor revision by rdoger6424 · · Score: 1

      eww... firefox a few months ago? On a mac? that was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. at least with 1.5 they improved dramatically (no more 100% CPU Usage)

      --
      "Hello 911? I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!"
  2. Ooooo... by heybiff · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can't wait to see what passage we will have from the Book of Mozilla.

    The readings are always so inspiring and applicable to our modern lives.

    Heybiff

    --
    Even the Sun goes down.
    1. Re:Ooooo... by HumanisticJones · · Score: 1

      I wonder what would happen if one were to apply one of those hokey Bible Code programs to the Book of Mozilla?

    2. Re:Ooooo... by christopherfinke · · Score: 1
      I can't wait to see what passage we will have from the Book of Mozilla.
      Maybe I'm missing a joke, but the Book of Mozilla passage doesn't change with every release. I don't think it has changed in the last several releases, but maybe I'm wrong.
    3. Re:Ooooo... by GweeDo · · Score: 1

      And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror.

      from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15


      Straight from 1.5.0.3 :P

    4. Re:Ooooo... by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 1

      Ummm, isn't that the same quote that it's been since, oh, the 0.2 or 0.3 release? Y'know, back when it was called Phoenix.

      --
      This guy's the limit!
    5. Re:Ooooo... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Informative
      The book of Mozilla has changed for each product released. There's a Wikipedia page that gives the history here. An official page containing all the passages to date can be found here. And in case you're too lazy to click, here they are by browser:

      Netscape:
      And the beast shall come forth surrounded by a roiling cloud of vengeance. The house of the unbelievers shall be razed and they shall be scorched to the earth. Their tags shall blink until the end of days.

      from The Book of Mozilla, 12:10


      Mozilla:
      And the beast shall be made legion. Its numbers shall be increased a thousand thousand fold. The din of a million keyboards like unto a great storm shall cover the earth, and the followers of Mammon shall tremble.

      from The Book of Mozilla, 3:31
      (Red Letter Edition)


      Firefox:
      And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror.

      from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15
    6. Re:Ooooo... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Interesting

      P.S. Look at the source code on the Mozilla Page for some interesting comments on each verse.

    7. Re:Ooooo... by outZider · · Score: 1

      It sounds like someone needs a cup of coffee.

      --
      - oZ
      // i am here.
    8. Re:Ooooo... by Frank+T.+Lofaro+Jr. · · Score: 1

      you can tell they have now idea how to emulate anything literary

      That sentence makes no sense. "Now idea"?!

      --
      Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
    9. Re:Ooooo... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Maybe he should hire a real writer next time?

    10. Re:Ooooo... by AnyoneEB · · Score: 1

      Although the comments fail to mention that the "rises up from the ashes" part was there because FireFox was called Phoenix before it was FireBird.

      --
      Centralization breaks the internet.
    11. Re:Ooooo... by shellbeach · · Score: 1

      I doubt it - thunderbird (i.e. "fire and thunder") wasn't a twinkle in its coders' eyes when Phoenix was 0.2, IIRC. Sounds like it was written when the two products were Firebird and Thunderbird.

      Clearly it needs a new reworking to explain how a fox, or rather a red panda, got in there ...

  3. luv incremental updates by scott_evil · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Gotta love the small update size. More software should work this way and instead of giving us everything each time, just give the changes. Well... more windows software needs to do it, other platforms seem to manage it ok.

    1. Re:luv incremental updates by kckman · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't ordinarily consider a 6.1 megabyte update "small", but credit where it is due. It worked.

    2. Re:luv incremental updates by misleb · · Score: 1

      Aren't MS hotfixes usually pretty small? Service packs are big because they contain so many changes. It is difficult to "diff" a binary and it only works if you have a specific version of a binary installed (which most systems don't). And on Linux, you almost always have to download full packages to update. I would say it is linux that has this "problem," not Windows.

      -matthew

      --
      "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
    3. Re:luv incremental updates by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      No doubt I'll get flamed for this, but...

      I hate the fact that the default Firefox update settings FORCE me to install the update once it's been downloaded. I may want to purposely test code on an older version of FF, or I may know that it breaks an extension and not want to install it. Whatsmore, there's actually no setting that lets you actually tell FF to check for updates, but not force you to install them once downloaded. Which is retarded.

      And they're even planning on making this happen invisibly, without even telling you. This SUCKS! Virtually no other product in existance has covert updates like this, or forces them on you.

    4. Re:luv incremental updates by shellbeach · · Score: 1

      Whatsmore, there's actually no setting that lets you actually tell FF to check for updates, but not force you to install them once downloaded. Which is retarded.

      Er ... under Linux (and I assume it's the same under Windows, OSX or any other OS), Firefox alerts me to the fact that a new update is available and gives me options to "Download and install" or "Later", or something like that. Not too sure what you found confusing about "Download and install", but I would have thought the "Later" option was pretty clear ... :)

      Yes, there probably should be a "No! Don't install! I changed my mind!!" option once the update has downloaded. There should also be a check on your extensions before you download the update to advise you as to which ones will be disabled in the new version. But no software's perfect ...

      And they're even planning on making this happen invisibly, without even telling you. This SUCKS! Virtually no other product in existance has covert updates like this, or forces them on you.

      Yeah, that sucks if it's true. Do you have a link to verify this?

    5. Re:luv incremental updates by jez9999 · · Score: 1
      Yes, there probably should be a "No! Don't install! I changed my mind!!" option once the update has downloaded. There should also be a check on your extensions before you download the update to advise you as to which ones will be disabled in the new version. But no software's perfect ...

      This is no bug that's resulted from them forgetting. Bugs that get filed about this are marked WONTFIX because they want to force you to install stuff. It sucks, Firefox is one of the only products that does this.

      Yeah, that sucks if it's true. Do you have a link to verify this?
      Bug #334767
      https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33476 7
      (I remembered that direct links from Slashdot aren't allowed)
    6. Re:luv incremental updates by shellbeach · · Score: 1

      This is no bug that's resulted from them forgetting. Bugs that get filed about this are marked WONTFIX because they want to force you to install stuff. It sucks, Firefox is one of the only products that does this.

      Yeah, the Firefox developers are a bit arrogant sometimes - they believe that there's only one way to do it, and their way is the right way. You can bet that they hate Perl. But then, they are the developers, and it's their prerogative to choose the way their software works ...

      It's poor software design, and it's a shame that they can't see it, but I'll still use Firefox and accept the limitations ... after all, I know from developing software myself that you can't please all the users all the time, and sometimes you just can't be bothered implementing a solution which you know might be technically right, but won't be of any use to you and will take up lots of your precious free time ...

      (I remembered that direct links from Slashdot aren't allowed)

      Links from /. to bugzilla aren't blocked if you don't send the HTTP referer header. Which you shouldn't on general principles anyway - disable it by setting network.http.sendRefererHeader to 0.

      But looking at the bug, the report reads: "If app.update.enabled=true, and if the update will not break any installed extensions or themes (ie: there is no reason for a user to not apply the patch) Firefox should silently download and install the update without interfering with the user's taskflow." (my emphasis). Why would anyone have issue with this? - it specifically states that this situation will occur if and only if nothing is broken.

    7. Re:luv incremental updates by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      But looking at the bug, the report reads: "If app.update.enabled=true, and if the update will not break any installed extensions or themes (ie: there is no reason for a user to not apply the patch)

      How do thy know whether it will break any extensions? They don't know all of them. They mean *major, popular* extensions.... they think. I still want the option to opt out.

      Firefox should silently download and install the update without interfering with the user's taskflow." (my emphasis). Why would anyone have issue with this?

      Because I'm testing code for a website/JavaScript/extension on an older version of FF, perhaps. I still want the option to opt out.

    8. Re:luv incremental updates by shellbeach · · Score: 1

      How do thy know whether it will break any extensions? They don't know all of them. They mean *major, popular* extensions.... they think. I still want the option to opt out.

      Well, no - the extensions / themes themselves specify the versions that they will work with. It's part of their code. It's why some extensions are automatically disabled upon updating Firefox - they've told Firefox that they'll no longer work with that version.

      Because I'm testing code for a website/JavaScript/extension on an older version of FF, perhaps. I still want the option to opt out.

      Fair enough. But in that case, just uncheck the "Check for automatic updates" feature. However, the updates so far have only been security releases, and it's not mattered. I'll be very interested to see what happens when the Firefox 1.6 release happens ... I don't know whether the developers have really thought that one through. After all, some people will want to stay on a 1.5 branch with security updates and I have a feeling that that won't be an option.

      Rather them than me, though, I have to say ... and their response to dissenters would probably be: If you don't like it, don't use it - after all, you haven't paid for it so you've nothing to lose. Remember that Firefox is a massive piece of software with an utterly enormous user base. Hell, it's probably the most widely used piece of end-user OSS ever ... while I don't approve of their methods or attitudes sometimes, you have to give them a bit of slack!

  4. Re:Flaw Found In Firefox 1.5.0.3 by RebelWebmaster · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I think security is a perfectly valid argument if you work from the premise that no software is bug-free. I'm more interested in the response of a company to a security hole than I am about the hole itself. In this case, I think it's pretty obvious that the Mozilla Foundation responds to and fixes security holes much faster than Microsoft does.

  5. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by Skythe · · Score: 2, Funny

    Blah bla blah the world revolves around me and it should therefore conform to my every wish.

  6. uh, yeah by X_Bones · · Score: 1

    A denial of service attack? On a browser?

    I thought that was just called a "crash."

    1. Re:uh, yeah by malsdavis · · Score: 1

      The linked page describes the bug as a crash also. I think its one of those 'the use of your browser service could be disrupted for 10 seconds while Firefox restarts' sort of DOS attacks.

    2. Re:uh, yeah by treeves · · Score: 1

      Mozilla called it a crash. Who knows why /. called it a DOS. Maybe they like that combination of letters, as in MS-DOS.

      --
      ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
  7. Re:It still leaks! by christopherfinke · · Score: 1
    Now that, my friends, is blind zealotry, plain and simple.
    Not if you actually have an understanding of why it "leaks" memory and how you can fix it by changing a setting.
  8. 1.5.0.3? by isaacklinger · · Score: 1, Funny

    Amazing! That's the same combination I have on my luggage!

  9. Incremental patch? by VincenzoRomano · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've not found any technical details about the "incremental update" mechanism.
    One would wonder how can this be accomplished with binary distributions (like DEB and RPM.) DLLs?
    For the sources it means that the original complete source code is already available!
    Maybe it is just a download manager a-la Acrobat Reader (for Windows).

    --
    Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
    For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
    1. Re:Incremental patch? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    2. Re:Incremental patch? by giorgiofr · · Score: 1

      I don't know how it works but it's b0rken. It's the second time already that i've been forced to uninstall FF and reinstall it, because after updating it was stuck in an endless loop and complaining that some resources were locked. Rebooting, removing the extension folder, checking for any open handles leading to firefox did not help. Coupling this with the general slowness and unresponsiveness and crash-prone-ness of FF, I've switched to Opera and I have no regrets. Heck, even a beta (an Opera one, I mean) is better than FF nowadays. What happened to Phoenix?

      --
      Global warming is a cube.
    3. Re:Incremental patch? by mlefevre · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because the downloaded file contains the differences between the binaries, and the updater leaves the rest of the binary file as it was.

      See http://wiki.mozilla.org/Software_Update:MAR and http://www.daemonology.net/bsdiff/ for more.

    4. Re:Incremental patch? by bunratty · · Score: 1

      Well, it sounds like your install of Firefox got b0rked, at least. The Firefox Standard Diagnostic should fix most of your problems.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    5. Re:Incremental patch? by VincenzoRomano · · Score: 1

      So, finally, "incremental downloads" should actually be binary patches, as seen long long ago with Quartedeck's QEMM-386.
      Under opensource environment this is really hard to do because of the large number of choices users have to build their own binaries.
      How is the binary patcher supposed to identify the correct place in my binary to insert the patch?
      Or is The MF willing to provide their own binary distribution?
      I fear that the "incremental download" feature is doomed to die soon!

      --
      Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
      For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
    6. Re:Incremental patch? by giorgiofr · · Score: 1

      Right, it should, however it doesn't. Actually... their last suggestion is to wipe FF and reinstall it (duh) and even then, a fresh installation of FF with a grand total of 3-4 extensions fails to update.
      The system has just booted. No firefox process has been started. The first thing to come up is the update dialog. THIS is the only thing that can have an open handle on firefox and therefore the updating mechanism must be locking itself. It would help if it lasted for more than half a second or left a log somewhere so I could check at least what the particular file that needs to be unlocked is.

      --
      Global warming is a cube.
    7. Re:Incremental patch? by hawaiian717 · · Score: 1

      On Windows and Mac, most users are likely using the binaries provided by Mozilla, and so the binary diff should work fine. Linux I imagine less are, since many distributions might provide slightly different builds for their environment. In these cases, the distribution should provide an updated version through their normal update channels.

      --
      End of Line.
    8. Re:Incremental patch? by frdmfghtr · · Score: 1
      Right, it should, however it doesn't. Actually... their last suggestion is to wipe FF and reinstall it (duh) and even then, a fresh installation of FF with a grand total of 3-4 extensions fails to update.


      Try without any extensions, maybe one of them is causing trouble.

      I have four extensions and the auto update worked fine:
      Adblock Plus 0.7
      NoScript 1.1.4
      FasterFox 1.0.3
      Slashdotter 1.5
      --
      Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
    9. Re:Incremental patch? by bunratty · · Score: 1

      Did you try creating a new profile and not installing any extensions?

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    10. Re:Incremental patch? by DarkAvZ · · Score: 1

      Yup, that's correct. In gentoo, for instance, "check for updates in firefox" is greyed out.

      Regarding how can they tell each version appart, I've noticed firefox provides a lot of info in the about box...

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    11. Re:Incremental patch? by dpilot · · Score: 1

      1.5.0.3 just finished compiling, thank you. Gentoo user, obviously.

      But as others in this subthread have also said, binary patching is practically useless for Linux. Even if most non-Gentoo users don't compile their own packages, the binaries are usually built by the distribution, not simply accepted from Mozilla.

      So as a f'rinstance, /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox contains firefox-bin, 10 .so's, and a whole raft of other components. WIBNI the build process itself could be incremental, kind of like 'make' has been for years. Then I wouldn't have to build/replace the whole blamed thing, but maybe just a few pieces.

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    12. Re:Incremental patch? by giorgiofr · · Score: 1

      Yes, I did. I don't usually give up troubleshooting easily :D Anyway it's been "fixed" by reinstalling and disabling updates (meh) because my "final" switch to Opera was not so final after all. But thanks for the suggestion!

      --
      Global warming is a cube.
    13. Re:Incremental patch? by Kelson · · Score: 1

      As others have pointed out, Mozilla does provide their own binary distributions of Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux. The vast majority of Firefox users are probably on Windows, which means incremental binary patches are a godsend in terms of time, bandwidth, and getting the masses to install security fixes.

      With Linux, it depends entirely on whether you're using the Mozilla binary or your Linux distro's binary. If you want to run beta versions of Firefox, or if you want to keep current beyond what your distro provides (Mandriva 2006 still only has Firefox 1.0.x), Mozilla's binary is the simplest way to do it. Under those circumstances, you can't use your distro's package management system, but you can close the browser, log in as root, and run it once to get the update. (Or you can download the full package, log in as root, and install again. It's a matter of preference.)

  10. Encouragement! by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Funny
    All users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.

    Shouldn't we just take this for granted by now? You never really see a vendor come out with a new version of something that some users are discouraged from upgrading to.

    "Here everyone, have some bug fixes and optimizations... but not that one guy, or you people over there, or that lady with the sideburns.."

    1. Re:Encouragement! by christopherfinke · · Score: 1
      All users are encouraged to upgrade to this version.
      Shouldn't we just take this for granted by now?
      Well, if the upgrade only added a feature that is useful to a very small segment of the user base, all users wouldn't be encouraged to upgrade, only those needing/wanting the new feature.
    2. Re:Encouragement! by rakjr · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not 100% correct. Micro$oft frequently has patches which state, 'only use this patch if you are suffering from the following computing affliction.' Ok, not that exactly, but it is just a variation on, 'if it is not broken, do not minor patch it.'

      --
      In a place beyond time and space, in a land far better than this, look for me there...
    3. Re:Encouragement! by bostonrobot · · Score: 1

      Also, Apple actually discouraged use of the 7.02 player in Windows for users of web-embedded Quicktime files because there was a strange problem preventing the plugin from working. But your point is still funny, though pointless :)

    4. Re:Encouragement! by PoconoPCDoctor · · Score: 1
      Not 100% correct. Micro$oft frequently has patches which state, 'only use this patch if you are suffering from the following computing affliction.' Ok, not that exactly, but it is just a variation on, 'if it is not broken, do not minor patch it.'

      Are talking about MS Hot Fixes? These are never distributed through any update service. They are only obtainable after speaking to an MS rep -(I did this just recently), who basically confirms that you do understand that the hot fixes are not regression-tested, should never be used in a production environment, etc., and then e-mails you a link to download the patch - which can only be extracted after you enter a password.

      --
      "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair" - George Washington
    5. Re:Encouragement! by pommiekiwifruit · · Score: 1

      These days there are several programs where the newer releases take away features, and add DRM for example. So if the new version is slower and less functional, users might not want to "upgrade" to it.

  11. Can someone fix the damn javascript console by hsmith · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The javascript console bug has an annoying ass problem of spewing out tons of debug information for CSS errors, which no one cares about because you have to do so many hacks to get styles to look right in all browsers. Console2 was to fix this, but it hasn't been worked on in forever and isn't compatable with 1.5.X. 100 CSS errors every time you load a page gets annoying when you are searching for a few JS errors

    1. Re:Can someone fix the damn javascript console by cyclomedia · · Score: 1

      er, i'm on firefox 1.5.0.3 now and use console2 about 100 times a day. hang on ... yup still works.

      --
      If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
    2. Re:Can someone fix the damn javascript console by stony3k · · Score: 1

      Ummm.. just select "Errors" to be displayed instead of "All". That will filter out all the unnecessary warnings.

      --
      Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. - Mahatma Gandhi
    3. Re:Can someone fix the damn javascript console by tobinibot · · Score: 2, Informative

      You should be using Firebug https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1843/. More information here http://www.joehewitt.com/software/firebug/. And coming soon in the next version, a Javascript debugger. I'm been using it, and it works great.

    4. Re:Can someone fix the damn javascript console by Xugumad · · Score: 1

      I care, BTW.

      I wish they'd put it in a different window, and call it CSS console, but I care anyway!

    5. Re:Can someone fix the damn javascript console by hsmith · · Score: 1

      i had to edit the app.extension property in the config file! thanks for kicking me in the ass

  12. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 2, Funny

    What are you on about, the world DOES revolve around me!

    Now, about that stupid ass update message, every other program manages to check for updates when starting up and doesn't bug me halfway through working so why can't firefox?

    I want to keep uptodate, but I'm very tempted to disable it totally and not bother checking.

    (apart from antivirus, but then again thats a background process anyway)

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  13. Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by caluml · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A question, which is off topic, but not entirely:
    Does anyone else have the problem that occurs sometimes when everything you type into the browser, every single character goes into the form, but it also pops up the "search" functionality and puts the character in there. It also loses focus, so you have to reclick back into the form field, and type the next character.
    I have no idea what causes it, but I have to close my browser, and restart it.
    If you don't know what I'm talking about you don't have it.

    1. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      Yes. When I click on html files on my desktop I can't use PGUP/PGDN to scroll, if I open a new tab [say maps.google] I can't type without it going in the find field.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    2. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by caluml · · Score: 1

      I never click on files on my Desktop, but the other behaviour sounds right. Do you know what the cause is, or the solution, or if it's in the FF bugs DB?

    3. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by cs96and · · Score: 4, Informative

      Go to Options->Advanced->General and deselect "Begin finding when you begin typing"

    4. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by BeardsmoreA · · Score: 1

      By similar annoyance with firefox has been ' (apostrophe) causing almost the same behaviour. Only worse, because it doesn't get into the actual form at all. That said, I'm typing this in FF, and it's working fine, so maybe it's been fixed (was only ever intermittent anyway). Saw it mostly in gmail.

    5. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by 360fusion · · Score: 1

      Are you using a laptop? Because I find that this is most often the case when it happens to me (which, is very rare since I avoid using the touchpad at all times).

      What I do to avoid it is a) making sure I turn the touchpad off when I do a lot of typing (I usually tab through fields unless the person who coded them made them in a weird order). and b) turn the palm detection threshold up on the touchpad (this is only on more recent synaptics touchpads though I think)

      HTH.

    6. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      Solution is to use IE. /me ducks ...

      I have no idea, I haven't filed a bug report because frankly I don't really care (that and bugzilla bothers me).

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    7. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by ndg123 · · Score: 1

      yes, i have that exact problem. very annoying. bring up a search engine and start typing in the form, only to find its being typed into the find box at the bottom of the screen.

    8. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by calculadoru · · Score: 1

      hear hear same problem here. and no, I do not want to disable search while typing, I just want to be able to type in a form box and not have the search box pop up, so I have to restart the browser. glad to hear other people are having to go through this as well, I thought I was the only one. well, not glad...

      --
      The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. -- G.B. Shaw
    9. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by De+Lemming · · Score: 1

      Go to Options->Advanced->General and deselect "Begin finding when you begin typing"

      Even with this option turned on, it shouldn't do this when a text field on the page has the focus. And normally it doesn't, but from time to time Firefox start behaving this way. The only option at that point is restarting the browser. That's the bug the GP was talking about.

    10. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by bbzzdd · · Score: 1

      I get it all the time. I have been using "Find as you type" since pre-1.0 and it's only started happening with 1.5.0.2. I brought it up at mozillaZine and nobody seemed to care.

      Has anyone sumbitted and official bug report on it?

    11. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by sfgiants320 · · Score: 1

      OK, I have a slightly different problem. When I'm typing into the location (address) bar (let's say I just want to type "google.com"), then things such as google.com/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&r ls=GGGL,GGGL:2005-09,GGGL:en&q=telegraph appear at the bottom of the address bar (past links I've visited within that website) and it doesn't wait for me to enter what I want first, so I have to hit the Delete key after typing my URL (google.com) so it doesn't go to some other link I've gone to within my website. I know it's confusing, but if you know what I'm talking about, can somebody please help me? Thanks.

    12. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by john83 · · Score: 1

      The up arrow will clear that.

      --
      Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
    13. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by Vlastyn · · Score: 1

      No, that is not what he was talking about. This is something that happens when that option is disabled. I have had it happen as well.

    14. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by caluml · · Score: 1
      # uname -a
      Linux torro 2.6.15-vs2.1.0.4-gentoo #2 PREEMPT Fri Feb 17 15:46:02 GMT 2006 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
      Nope. Don't think IE will run here. Least we know it's a cross platform bug though.
    15. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by harryk · · Score: 3, Informative

      thats an incorrect solution, as both functions should work. I've had this same problem when using Sprint PCS's website, pretty routinely. I think this is a page loading issue, as it doesn't recognize that the text is in form, as opposed to search strings.

      But yes, I've had the problems too.

      harryk

      --
      think before you write, it'll save me moderator points.
    16. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by caluml · · Score: 1

      Hurrah! We can be 64 bit buddies now. Let's get a VPN up between them, so they can talk.

    17. Re:Weird Firefox behaviour when typing by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes I just got this problem after updating. It happens when I type an apostrophe or a slash into a form field, or even when I paste one. I also cannot use the up and down arrow keys in form fields now. The box for begin finding when you begin typing is turned OFF, so that is not the problem.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  14. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by Blahbooboo3 · · Score: 1

    And people wonder why open source projects have such a hard time getting real momentum and acceptance with end users?

  15. Re:Nice.... by voice_of_all_reason · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You're far too trusting. Letting random strangers automagically execute code on your machine?

  16. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by malsdavis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But isn't the ability of the end-user to customise the software to their exact preference/need one of the biggest advantages of Open Source?

  17. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by Blahbooboo3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes! However, it's the attitude of "figure it out moron" from some people that is the problem with open source projects.

  18. Re:Makes a change by gone9teen · · Score: 1

    Yup, I got the update notification while sitting here at work and installed the new version and soon as I restarted Firefox there was a story posted on Slashdot about the update.

  19. auto-updates make security easier by MikeFM · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's definately a role model that other software venders could learn from. For friends and family that I used to have to babysit their browser updates now all I have to do is let Firefox do it's thing. Seems to work well in Thunderbird too. It really does make it a lot easier for non-technical people to keep up-to-date and truth be told it makes it easier for a geek boy like me too.

    The only other Windows program I have that seems to work as well is Azureus which is also opensource.

    --
    At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
    1. Re:auto-updates make security easier by Gnavpot · · Score: 1

      It's definately a role model that other software venders could learn from.

      You think that other software vendors should learn from "Force our users to login with administrative priviledges if they want any automatic updates or even NOTIFICATIONS"?

      I can understand why a non-priviledged user is unable to perform an automatic update during his Firefox session. But I cannot understand why he doesn't receive a notification which urges him to login with an administrative account and update Firefox.

      Disclaimer: There may be notifications when running Firefox as a non-priviledged user, but in that case they are very subtle. I am a little behind and still running 1.5.0.1. During all the time 1.5.0.2 was out, I have not noticed any update notifications.

  20. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by bunratty · · Score: 3, Informative
    I was happily reading a webpage when this popped up. I want it to only check for updates during a new tab or window, NOT when I'm just sitting there browsing or typing or watching something.
    Bug 323041 - Software update dialog steals focus
    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  21. firefix update by ajdowntown · · Score: 1

    Haha! It gave me the restart notice as I was reading this article. Gotta love automatic updates...

  22. Re:Nice.... by bunratty · · Score: 1
    You're far too trusting. Letting random strangers automagically execute code on your machine?
    Can you explain how you consider the Mozilla Corporation a "random stranger"?
    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  23. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

    You are saying its an advantage to have to fork the entire firefox project, reproduce the source tree, make the change, compile it, then STILL have to watch for firefox to be updated since now my new project will be updating from my repository not theirs (I've forked it remember...), then check nothings broken when remerging the tree, fix any changes, recompile and update.

    All that because I don't like to be disturbed whilst I work?

    The old update mechanism they used to use (the blue update throbber) worked PERFECTLY for me, I knew where it was and when I saw it I handled it, just like the petrol light in my car.

    All this crap has made up my mind anyway, I'm disabling the updates :)

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  24. Terminology matters by LordActon · · Score: 1

    I get a note periodically from my friendly local security admonisher suggesting I deinstall Firefox unless I have a "business need" to run it. Otherwise, please upgrade because "security vulnerabilities" have been found. Funny, he never suggests the same for IE, which I guess is very secure by comparison.

    Labelling something that can crash the browser as a "DOS attack" misleads the uninformed and the unknowing, who all to often populate the IT departments where so many of us work. They in turn impose unnecessary work on the rest of us. And you're stressing them out, which isn't very nice.

    Besides, misleading is misleading. I read the /. description and wondered how my browser could be hijacked to participate in a DOS attack. Only by following the link (um, thanks) did I learn the bark was worse than the bite.

    1. Re:Terminology matters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It might have more to do with the natrual assumption Windows admins make about versions. With the Windows systems he knows that its upgraded to the latest version through either Automatic updates or through an intranet update. With multiple browsers with a different upgrade system he can not know for certain if your firefox is fully upgraded or is like most windows users computers and 50 versions out of date(there is a hell of a lot of issues caused by people who could have just upgraded their computer). Plus too with just one browser if something happens or shows up out in the wild he can react accordingly. with firefox plue IE he has to track twice the issues and figure out how they affect things.

      Its more about managability, imagine the administrative headache you would have if you had users using netscape(and yes I have seen this, only way I managed to get that user off of it was by sabotaging her computer so I had to "replace" it, couldn't get her offa it otherwise), firefox, IE, Opera and having them all running under redhat, debian, windows 98, windows 2000, windows xp, mac 9, mac X, etc...

      It would quickly become a disaster. Personally if I had a consistent system throught I would slap you down hard for using something outside of the guidelines. Although I've been trying to convince the people here to dump IE and Office so I could go to Opera/Firefox and OpenOffice so I would be slapping everybody else for using IE. Trying but failing...

    2. Re:Terminology matters by linvir · · Score: 1
      Ha, that was the first laugh of the day, thanks!

      If he bothers you again, somehow get him to visit this site. Last time I tested it in IE, it BSODed the computer. Now that's what I call a DOS!

    3. Re:Terminology matters by Zantetsuken · · Score: 1

      part of it could also be that the company it security are control freaks and uses spyware to track employees - they're just pissed cuz firefox and opera are actually secure (actually secure or just compared to ie) and that their spyware trackers and keyloggers cant tell em exactly what firefox (or opera) is doing

  25. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by SilentGhost · · Score: 1

    so, if i'm restarting ff once a week, when i'm supposed to get to know about an update?

  26. Re:It still leaks! by bunratty · · Score: 1
    Not if you actually have an understanding of why it "leaks" memory and how you can fix it by changing a setting.
    There are hundreds of memory leaks in Firefox. You can't fix them by "changing a setting".

    Besides, what most people are reporting as "memory leaks" in Firefox are generally due to normal memory usage (which is about what other browsers, such as IE and Opera, use), caching, memory fragmentation, memory leaks in extensions and plugins, and blaming any random problems on memory leaks. Yes, Firefox can leak away lots of memory, but it usually takes many days to eat up enough to be noticeable. This problem should be mostly fixed in Firefox 3.

    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  27. Re:It still leaks! by bunratty · · Score: 1
    Could it be that Firefox is crashing (a problem) and you're blaming it on memory leaks (nothing to do with the problem you're experiencing)?

    Install the Quality Feedback Agent and turn it on when Firefox crashes. That will give Firefox developers the information they need to fix the crashes. Try Firefox 1.5.0.4 when it comes out. It should be far more stable than earlier 1.5 versions.

    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  28. Re:Glad by ZombieRoboNinja · · Score: 4, Funny

    Aww, and the teeming masses were just hanging on your every word, hoping to jump ship to whatever secret and superior browsing software the great Joebert uses...

  29. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

    Thank you.
    I had tried looking, but my bugzilla foo wasn't working.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  30. Re:What's their freakin' logo? by shokk · · Score: 1

    Watch out. You're going to see a Seamonkey and a Thunderbird in other places on that site. I know it's hard identifying different products by their individual logos. Car shopping must be a world shattering nightmare for you.

    --
    "Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
  31. Re:Flaw Found In Firefox 1.5.0.3 by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I think characterising firefox as "riddled with bugs" and asserting that people aren't too keen to recommend it as secure vs IE7 is very misinformed.

    Neither of those statements are true, assuming that by "people" you mean a significant proportion of the people aware of Firefox and what it offers. Unless something drastic has happened while my back was turned I am pretty sure that almost no-one who uses firefox would consider it less secure than Internet Explorer.

    As for being "riddled" with bugs, even if it were determined that Firefox had as many or more identified bugs of a comparable or worse severity than Internet Explorer, that still wouldn't change that fact that safe browsing is a lot more reliant on sensible behaviour than browser stability. The lack of ActiveX in Firefox is the real saviour as far as drive-by spyware installations are concerned. And for the slightly savvier user, Javascript whitelisting via the NoScript extension eliminates cross-site scripting exploits, without crippling necessary or useful functionality on trusted sites.

    --
    (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
  32. Re:Makes a change by Gonarat · · Score: 1

    My work computer was updated yesterday morning, and I updated my home computer last night. Thunderbird also updated itself last night.

    --
    Beware of Sleestak
  33. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by Billosaur · · Score: 1
    Blah bla blah the world revolves around me and it should therefore conform to my every wish.

    Far be it from me to rain on anyone's parade, but it's a valid point. It's nice to be able to auto-update software, but that process should remain as unobtrusive as possible. Let Firefox download the fix, keep it ready, and do an install next time I run the browser from scratch. Where's the harm in it?

    --
    GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
  34. Re:Long Live Seamonkey by wysiwia · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You can be sure SeaMonkey won't be dropped, the community takes care. For some users (mostly power users) SeaMonkey is much more useful, just look at the cookie manager or the preferences. Besides the SM/Mail has advantages over Thunderbird, I first had to write an extension (Folder selection) to make TB sort of usable for me. Sure enough it's good to be able to choose.

    O. Wyss

    --
    See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
  35. Re:Nice.... by init100 · · Score: 1

    Can you explain how you consider the Mozilla Corporation a "random stranger"?

    I would want to know if he also consider Microsoft Corporation a "random stranger". :)

  36. Blimey by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why is my parent post a troll?

    --
    (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
    1. Re:Blimey by William_Lee · · Score: 3, Funny
      Why is my parent post a troll?

      C'mon, this is Slashdot... Isn't it obvious?! Your parent is modded as troll because some of the moderators can't seem to differentiate between the ORIGINAL posting which was a troll, and your response which wasn't.

      Just another day in da /. hood

    2. Re:Blimey by RebelWebmaster · · Score: 1

      For the same reason mine was modded Flamebait I suppose :-)

  37. Re:Glad by Joebert · · Score: 1

    I'm flattered you think so highly of me.

    I'd love to explain the mechanics of how grains of sand comprise a desert, however I think I've said enough allready.

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  38. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by mlefevre · · Score: 1

    That's being changed. See Ben Goodger's document about Firefox 2.0 and also bug 334767 in bugzilla.mozilla.org.

  39. Re:It still leaks! by ameline · · Score: 1

    I've changed that setting and it STILL leaks hundreds of megabytes. Until it bogs my machine down to the point of unusability and crashes. Hows THAT for "denial of service"?

    --
    Ian Ameline
  40. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by wysiwia · · Score: 1

    Yet exactly Firefox is the counter sample since it's the most successful OpenSource application (market share above 10%). But you are right, usability is the worst problem OpenSource projects face these days (see the first top inhibitor for Linux desktop adoption in http://www.osdl.org/dtl/DTL_Survey_Report_Nov2005. pdf). Unfortunately very few understands this and probably several years have to pass until appropriate measure steps are taken.

    O. Wyss

    --
    See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
  41. Possibly o/t but ... GSpace ... by A+Pressbutton · · Score: 1

    This extension has changed my life - it is as common to have a computer connected to the intenet as it is to have USB ports enabled - and you cannot lose a GSpace.
    Providing an extensible framework is genuinely useful and I expect to see more of the same - never mind point releases.

  42. Re:Glad by darkmonkeh · · Score: 1

    ...Opera? :D

  43. Re:Glad by Joebert · · Score: 1

    Damn, you got me. =)


    (I should get into marketing, who do you know that can get others to advertise for them ? =P )

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  44. Re:It still leaks! by Runefox · · Score: 1

    I still don't understand what this memory leak business is all about. The highest Firefox on my XP machine goes is to about 50MB of RAM, even with ten or more tabs on different sites with downloads going and FastBack enabled; totally acceptable. In Linux, it's more like 100MB at most. I don't understand where everyone gets this Firefox taking up a gig of memory and all that stuff. Firefox never leaks any memory for me; It's apparently been documented, yeah, but it doesn't affect me, any computer I've installed it on, or anyone else I've installed it for, so, Firefox continues to be my browser of choice.

    --
    Screw the rules, I have green hair!
  45. Nothing to luv here by porneL · · Score: 1

    I ran "Check for updates" in 1.5.0.1/win and it has chosen to download 6.1MB (even if .1->.3 is not available, FF could have downloaded incremental .2 version first...)

    1. Re:Nothing to luv here by shellbeach · · Score: 1

      I ran "Check for updates" in 1.5.0.1/win and it has chosen to download 6.1MB (even if .1->.3 is not available, FF could have downloaded incremental .2 version first...)

      Have you reported it as a bug?

  46. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by Runefox · · Score: 1

    Because then someone would complain that it's automatically downloading updates and they never got any notification.

    --
    Screw the rules, I have green hair!
  47. Portable Firefox 1.5.0.3 Released by CritterNYC · · Score: 4, Informative
    For the portable folks, I updated Portable Firefox 1.5.0.3 to the new release as well:
    http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/browsers/por table_firefox

    Also added in a few new features in the recent releases:
    • Split Apps/Data directories for easy backups
    • Local homepages (for users of TiddlyWiki, etc)
    • Self-extracting packages (easy install, only 4.8MB download)
    • Few bug fixes
  48. Bug fixes will be release 1.0.3.0.1 by sasdrtx · · Score: 1

    Can someone explain why there's now four levels of release numbers (e.g. 1.5.0.3), when there were only three before 1.5 (e.g. 1.0.6)?

    And what happened to 1.1 through 1.4?

    Is there something about release numbering make all software developers retarded?

    I admit, this is a lame topic.

    --
    Most people don't even think inside the box.
    1. Re:Bug fixes will be release 1.0.3.0.1 by dn15 · · Score: 1

      I believe this is roughly how it works.... A.B.C.D A: The major version. B: The minor version. C: Bug fixes that change stuff (API's, I guess) for extension developers. D: Bug fixes that should *not* break extensions.

  49. Re:Glad by PoconoPCDoctor · · Score: 1

    If I may add to the discussion of the great and all-poweful joebert, and I hope I'm not digressing or veeering into the netherworld of off-topicness, but after taking a quick peek at the vision of joebert at his or hers extremely well-thought out web site at

    http://www.joebertvision.net (do take a peek, now, if you don't mind)

    I'd like to state, IMHO, that NOT ONE PERSON IN THE WORLD HAS THE PATIENCE FOR ANY WEB SITE THAT IS UNDER CONTRUCTION!

    I feel much better now, thank you.

    --
    "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair" - George Washington
  50. Re:Flaw Found In Firefox 1.5.0.3 by Dis*abstraction · · Score: 1

    Wow. Looks like the moderators can't stand hearing that their precious Firefox might, just might not be perfect. Unbelievable.

  51. Re:Glad by Joebert · · Score: 1

    Where does it say "under construction" ?
    I'll have to make sure to take that off of there.

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  52. Re:unicode symbols fail to display FF1.5.0.3 for M by hobo+sapiens · · Score: 1

    In related news...the blink tag AND the marquee tags stopped working!

    Oh NOES~!! My webpage stoped moving is my fruntoage borked 2?!?!

    Seriously, though, if you are using those characters check the char set and DTD your site is using. It may be that you've had that set to the wrong thing all along and Fx just didn't care but now they've fixed that. Try using the char set iso-8859-2. I use that with a strict xhtml dtd and the few unicode chars I use on my site display properly.

    --
    blah blah blah
  53. Re:Extensions by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1
    If the extension is actually still good for the new version, but has a specific version limit that prevents it from installing, the install file for that extension can be text-edited to work. I've used this with statusbar clock.

    If all that's available is a .jar file for the extension, I've read that it can be decompressed with unzip, edited, and recompressed; and then it will work.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  54. Re:It still leaks! by Dis*abstraction · · Score: 1

    Others have already addressed the fact that your settings change does nothing to stop Firefox's bloat, but you miss the larger point: why should I have to tell it not to be a hog? Especially when alternative browsers are lean and mean out of the box?

    Even Jon Hicks, the talented graphic designer who designed Firefox's logo and icon, switched to Safari a while back after getting fed up with Firefox's sluggish performance, not to mention its wretched user interface and terrible rendering. He now maintains this site for extensions to Safari. When will you make the switch? Or is mediocrity "good enough" for you?

  55. Re:1.5.0.x crashing by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 1

    Please fix the crashing!

    On what webpages? What does one have to do to reproduce the crash?

  56. Re:Nice.... by voice_of_all_reason · · Score: 1

    That would be undouted, wholehearted yes. By all means, keep an eye out for updates that will patch vulnerabilities. But research them (both from the company's page and out on the interwebs) before installing. This may save you from the following problems:

    1) Loss of necessary function in existing program (intentional or not)
    2) Conflicts involving said program and others on your system
    3) The (though currently unlikely) introduction of a vulnerability whereby a virus can spoof the auto-update routine.

  57. One question about firefox by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 1

    Sometimes when I open a JPG file or an html with lot of jpegs (or one BIG jpg), the browsing gets very slow, and everytime i move the mouse around, it jitters and kinda freezes.

    Has it happened to anyone of you guys?

    1. Re:One question about firefox by sabedoria · · Score: 1

      yes!! very annoying. I thought it was my mouse!

    2. Re:One question about firefox by octaene · · Score: 1

      This happens to me all the time on my Ubuntu box, but not on Windows...

  58. Re:unicode symbols fail to display FF1.5.0.3 for M by Dis*abstraction · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since you're on a Mac, why are you using Firefox when you could be using Safari instead? Honest question.

    People accustomed to PC-world mediocrity may find Firefox satisfactory for their tastes, but Firefox pales in comparison to the legions of Cocoa-native Mac browsers. Even Jon Hicks, the talented graphic designer who designed Firefox's logo and icon, switched to Safari a while back after getting fed up with Firefox's sluggish performance, not to mention its wretched user interface and terrible rendering. He now maintains this site for extensions to Safari. Hope this helps.

  59. Re:Extensions by Mant · · Score: 1

    I use an extension called Mrtech Install that lets you overide other extensions version limits. Very handy as spellbound doesn't work otherwitse on the newer point releases.

  60. Re:Flaw Found In Firefox 1.5.0.3 by dpilot · · Score: 1

    Interesting responses to your post, between the (-1: Flamebait) and the post.

    Also interesting in light of the amount (none) of vitriol and inflammatory language in your post.

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  61. Re:Can not upgrade from Firefox v0.7 by BZ · · Score: 1

    > The EMACS key bindings on a textarea are gone.

    That's a system-level preference for all GTK2 apps. Change your GTK2 preferences accordingly if you want Emacs keybindings.

  62. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by Frank+T.+Lofaro+Jr. · · Score: 1

    (Of course, I do agree that anyone who offers "figure it out yourself moron" is hurting the cause more than helping. Fortunately I haven't run into too many of those.)

    That was common in the comp.os.linux.* newsgroups a few years back. I don't know if it is any better now.

    --
    Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
  63. Mostly On Topic: Updating Multiple Win2k/XP Boxes by kwalker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is sorta off topic, but relavant because of the new update.

    Where I work, I've been pushing hard to get the company to use Firefox instead of IE. I've got most people using it every day. However these are normal office workers, they don't click on the update icon (They don't even wonder about it), and I find that they're running an older version. Does anyone know of a way to add the update to a login script, so it is silently installed when they login? I've googled around, and maybe I'm not using the right search phrases, but I'm not finding anything useful. I'm even willing to download a whole new .exe file for 1.5.0.3 if I can figure out a way to have that auto-installed on the 35 machines here.

    --
    ... And so it comes to this.
  64. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by RDMsoft · · Score: 1

    Just what I was going to say. However, if anyone wants to turn this on for themselves, they can set the pref "app.update.silent" to true.

  65. Not That Minor of a Revision - CAUTION by Asphalt · · Score: 1
    FWIW, when I installed the newest 1.5.0.3 this morning, it removed ALL of my extensions (except for DOM inspector) and reset all of my settings to default ... including my cookie exeptions.

    I'm not too terribly happy at the moment, but life isn't pefect.

    I would urge caution to possibly NOT update to this release as the extention scrubbing fix will probably be released within a few days.

    1. Re:Not That Minor of a Revision - CAUTION by Asphalt · · Score: 1
      I have installed 1.5.0.3 on multiple sytems with no problems. All extensions working fine and settings stayed the same. Perhaps you have anither problem that coinicdentally showed abot the time you performed your update.

      It's entirely possible that you are correct. I updated it via the "Automatic Update" on 5 machines in our network before stopping the process. All of the machines have lost all of the extensions except for some reason ... "DOM Inspector".

      I didn't do any tweaking whatsoever except press "upgrade" and then let Firefox restart itself. So it *shouldn't* have been any kind of operator error (unless I really just stink at pressing dialog buttons).

      Since most of the same software is running on said machines, this could indeed be some sort of isolated conflict to our configs.

      As always in these situations, your mileage WILL vary.

      It may or may not happen to a particular user, but if you have taken alot of time to tweak things specifically to your liking, you may want to consider a quick backup before the upgrade.

      Then again, this really applies to any upgrade ...

  66. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by Kelson · · Score: 1

    many throw up a dialog that steals focus.

    I think the worst must be the Norton dialogs that pop up even when you have a full-screen game running, stealing focus and dropping you back to the desktop so that it can tell you that it just updated its virus definitions.

    I *think* I've disabled all the notifications for things that it's going to do automatically anyway, but we'll see...

  67. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by heinousjay · · Score: 1

    No, the big attraction is that it's free. Kinda like how people spew bullshit about rights and artists and blah blah blah then pirate music and movies, providing no compensation for the people who worked on them.

    I mean, look around this site. What do you think the percentage of people that can actually program is? 25% tops, I say. People are just cheap. That's the big attraction of open source.

    --
    Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
  68. Re:Glad by se7en11 · · Score: 1

    I happen to use that site every day to check what the date is....

  69. Re:Can not upgrade from Firefox v0.7 by bobs666 · · Score: 1
    Some Moderators suck !

    Yes, ok, I got good answers this time around. But I don't see why asking questions here should get dumped into the bit-bucket(level 0).

    So should I report this as abuse?
    what do you think?

    And a BIG Thank-You to the nice people that helped me.
    I should have ended my last post with aTdHvAaNnKcSe.

  70. Beware, sir, My patience is wearing thin... by PoconoPCDoctor · · Score: 1

    I want a fully functional flash/php/pearl/java/css knock my socks off site in 24 hours or bad things will happen to you - especially if you eat at McDonalds!

    Keep the date thingie - that works for me.

    --
    "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair" - George Washington
    1. Re:Beware, sir, My patience is wearing thin... by Joebert · · Score: 1

      Look.
      I simply brought up the idea that browsers (pretty much anything really) are only good until they're known of by many people.
      Someone poked fun at me, I returned the favor.

      Now my original post which was marked "Intresting" is trollified because of somthing out of context.


      I guess I'll have to remember not to stick up for myself whenever I decide to post at Slashdot.

      --
      Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  71. Re:unicode symbols fail to display FF1.5.0.3 for M by bunratty · · Score: 1
    Since you're on a Mac, why are you using Firefox when you could be using Safari instead? Honest question.
    Why not Camino, another browser made specifically for the Mac OS?
    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  72. Denial of Service my ass by brunes69 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    There is no such thing as a "denial of service" attack in a web browser. At worst it causes a crash, and potentially makes you lose unsaved data on some web forms.

    If we're calling anything that locks your browser a DOS now, then how come this bug, which is over 3 years old and seems dead simple to fix, is not? I can make a browser DOS on any web page I want:

    <script>
    while(true) alert('Boom!');
    </script>

    Such a piece of code does not trigger the "script is taking a long time" message because it fires alerts. And the alerts are content-modal so you can't do *anything* to close the browser or tab causing the alerts. You have to kill it off.

    No different from the "denial of service" bug mentioned in this posting.

    1. Re:Denial of Service my ass by jesser · · Score: 1

      The Slashdot article is incorrect in describing this bug as a denial of service. It's a use of a dangling pointer in a way that we believe can cause arbitrary code execution.

      --
      The shareholder is always right.
    2. Re:Denial of Service my ass by tepples · · Score: 1

      There is no such thing as a "denial of service" attack in a web browser. At worst it causes a crash, and potentially makes you lose unsaved data on some web forms.

      A crash is a denial of service for those seconds that it takes for the machine to unload core, reload Firefox, and reload Session Saver.

      how come this bug, which is over 3 years old and seems dead simple to fix, is not?

      Not officially called a denial of service? I don't know. Not fixed? Because your company hasn't yet hired a programmer to do so.

  73. Re:Mostly On Topic: Updating Multiple Win2k/XP Box by karrde · · Score: 1
  74. Oddness by Chanc_Gorkon · · Score: 1

    I noticed some odd behavior after this update. Some pages had missing images. Clearing my cache fixed it. Not sure if it's the browser or a actual problem with the web sites. I only noticed a problem AFTER the update installed in the background AND went to the page. After restarting, I cleared cache and it's updated. One thing I wish would happen is that Linux distros would give us the choice of updating via the Firefox way or the Linux way (apt, yum or whatever).

    --

    Gorkman

  75. Re:Mostly On Topic: Updating Multiple Win2k/XP Box by bogie · · Score: 1
    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
  76. Re:Yet again I was interrupted while I work by seek31337 · · Score: 1

    What's your bugzilla bug number for this change?

    --
    No SIG for you!
  77. Bug ID #320465 by drinkypoo · · Score: 1
    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Bug ID #320465 by caluml · · Score: 1

      That looks like it. "Normal" severity? Damn ultra annoying severity, more like.

  78. Re:Updating Multiple Win2k/XP Box by dreamer-of-rules · · Score: 1

    Maybe I'm doing this the hard way, but I have a perl script crawl our (40) systems to get file stats for firefox.exe (via \\system\c$). It compares the version (or size+date) of each system's firefox.exe to stats I get from an updated system.

    I send out an email to everyone telling them how to do the update (with recycled instructions). After a reasonable amount of time, I rerun the script and start bugging the stragglers.

    I sometimes get complaints, but I remind them that the alternatives are either 1) I go around and kick them off the systems to do the updates, or 2) I force them to log off at night (which they don't like because they lose all of their settings and command histories). They prefer to do the updates on their own terms.

    I find this is easily modified to monitor Real, Quicktime, Adobe and such which have interactive updates.

    --
    Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.
  79. Re:Updating Multiple Win2k/XP Box by kwalker · · Score: 1

    I could do that, but they get really ornery when I interrupt their work. It would be better to have the login script do it (As soon as I can find out how to do that). Thanks to all who replied.

    --
    ... And so it comes to this.
  80. Baiting both PC users AND firefox users by oSand · · Score: 1

    nice...

  81. Re:1.5.0.x crashing by multipartmixed · · Score: 1

    Just leave it running until the system runs out of memory.

    Seriously, if I forget to reboot my box every night, by mid-afternoon the next day, my browser is sucking back nearly a gig of RAM.

    This is with almost no extensions (AdBlock +, Compact Menu) and very little (if any) flash usage.

    I mostly look at PNGs (not those kinds) and read GMail.

    Drives me friggin' nuts.

    --

    Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
  82. Two words: System Requirements. by tepples · · Score: 1

    You never really see a vendor come out with a new version of something that some users are discouraged from upgrading to.

    Often new versions of a product have increased system requirements compared to the old version. This is part of why many companies maintain the current and previous version of a product, because many people would rather switch to a competitor than buy new hardware outside the normal replacement cycle.

  83. Isnt this new? by earthstar · · Score: 1
    The first thing i notice after the update is that,firefox needs to be given permission to conect to 207.126.111.225 through my firewall.Only then doesnt it resolve any domian name.

    While I got suspicious if that ip was a spyware on my comp,well its mozila's site - virtual-fxfeeds.mozilla.org = [ 207.126.111.225 ]

    http://samspade.org/t/whois?a=virtual-fxfeeds.mozi lla.org;server=auto

    1. Re:Isnt this new? by Slashcrap · · Score: 1

      The first thing i notice after the update is that,firefox needs to be given permission to conect to 207.126.111.225 through my firewall.Only then doesnt it resolve any domian name.

      While I got suspicious if that ip was a spyware on my comp,well its mozila's site - virtual-fxfeeds.mozilla.org = [ 207.126.111.225 ]


      To save yourself a bit of time in future, simply execute the below command :

      ping -a 207.126.111.225

      And then don't bother posting to Slashdot about it afterwards, because I can assure you that nobody fucking cares about your detective work.

  84. Re:Glad by Slashcrap · · Score: 1

    I'm flattered you think so highly of me.

    Actually, I believe he was using sarcasm to indicate that you are a tedious cocksucker with opinions that nobody cares about.

    Is that any clearer?

  85. No love here also by grolschie · · Score: 1

    1.5.0.1 -> 1.5.0.3 is 6.1MB also.

  86. Re:unicode symbols fail to display FF1.5.0.3 for M by Dis*abstraction · · Score: 1

    Because Camino still suffers from Gecko's shitty text rendering and non-native widgets in pages.

  87. Re:1.5.0.x crashing by MarkByers · · Score: 1

    Do you still get the problem if you remove the extensions?

    --
    I'll probably be modded down for this...