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Like Google's Chrome, Mozilla To Silently Update Firefox 4
CWmike writes "Taking a page from rival Google's playbook, Mozilla plans to introduce silent, behind-the-scenes security updating to Firefox 4. The feature, which has gotten little attention from Mozilla, is currently 'on track' for Firefox 4, slated to ship before the end of the year. Firefox 4's silent update will only be offered on Windows, Mozilla has said. Most updates will be downloaded and installed automatically without asking the user or requiring a confirmation. 'We'll only be using the major update dialog box for changes like [version] 4 to 4.5 or 5," said Alex Faaborg, a principal designer on Firefox, in the 'mozilla.dev.apps.firefox' forum. 'Unfortunately users will still see the updating progress bar on load, but this is an implementation issue as opposed to a [user interface] one; ideally the update could be applied in the background.' Unlike Google, Mozilla will let users change the default silent service to the more traditional mode, where the browser asks permission before downloading and installing any update."
to be honest, I'm not so worried about this - its only a browser, and I install all those security updates anyway. What I'm not so keen on is the "silent, in the background, don't bother the user" implementation. I'd like to know that it is doing it, pop a little UI element on the status bar that says "updating latest version now" and then gets on with it, and then puts a little version marker somewhere so I know its been done.
Be polite to your users, be open in your communication, inform us. (and a link to the things that were fixed if you click the version number would be a nice to have)
I like that a lot of what makes Firefox different from Chrome is due to the "we'll let users decide how they want it" approach instead of just telling them how it's going to be done.
Mozilla is stealing our freedoms with communist security updates!
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I get more complaints from family and friends about "slow computers" than anything else, and usually these are all about silent background updates in the end. It's damned near impossible to explain to someone that's not computer literate what and update is, how it's affecting their computer, why it's necessary that the update gets installed, etc. They don't even know what Firefox is ("You mean my Internet?") much less any of the other things. Even my wife struggles to comprehend why there's always an update running; she tends to think I'm lying or dismissing her concerns. Every single application running on her computer does silent background updates:
Windows
Office
AntiVirus/Firewall Software
Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Reader
Sun JRE
Nero
Skype
etc.
Even tiny little apps from the vendor do this... Volume control, display control, trackpad control, blah, blah...
Another background process running automatic updates each and every icon in the tray and for each and every folder and application in the Start menu, as well as for browser plugins, third party configuration tools/extensions, drivers, etc.
At the very least they should try to display a notification somewhere on the screen saying "Updating XYZ, may slow your computer..." each time they do this, rather than silently saturating an internet connection (as 10 different updaters are in competition with one another), a CPU, and/or a hard drive's activity.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
This is problematic on slow links where every byte is precious (dial-up)
This is problmeatic on expensive links where every byte costs money (satellite, cellular)
This is problematic in managed environments where the end user does not have write-permission to the filesystem containing the software
I hope it can be disabled.
I don't mind if the browser asks. It looks like they are going to default to silent updates unless you change the setting. They only way I can see this as a bad idea for the non-techinical user is in the case where Mozilla screws up and a patch hoses up the browser or operating system itself (and don't act like that can't happen because it has for other software, even if it wasn't Mozilla that did it, it could still happen.)
FTA (bolding mine):
Firefox 4's silent update will only be offered on Windows, Mozilla has said.
Most updates, including all security updates, will be downloaded and installed automatically without asking the user or requiring a confirmation, said Alex Faaborg, a principal designer on Firefox. ...
Unlike Google, Mozilla will let users change the default silent service to the more traditional mode, where the browser asks permission before downloading and installing any update.
There is a potential security issue too: what if someone manages to hack Mozilla's DNS to point to a malicious site pretending that there is an update (which introduces malware)? I hope they are planning on properly signing and verifying updates to deal with this possibility.
Unlike many others, Mozilla already does sign it's updates.
At the risk of being /. assassinated, I have to say that I agree with this. Particularly because it is possible to disable such a feature.
Non-techie people don't get a thing about browsers, updating, security, etc. The medium-techie usually want to be all updated, so will update to even RCs and Betas if they find them out. Techie guys, us, do whatever they want, but I believe that they want to be in control and know what's going on -- thus, they'll disable such feature.
But especially for the non-techies, this is a way of getting free security upgrades. The upgrades will probably be carefully chosen so that there are no compatibility issues -- and if there are, non-techie to medium-techie users won't care that much.
All in all, it is good for people who don't care, and enables us who care to keep things the way we want it.
Have you heard about SoylentNews?
I wonder how this will get around UAC, a substantially annoying feature of Windows Vista/7. Will they be installing firefox to the user's home directory? Will it be sand-boxed from the OS? I admit I haven't done much looking into the pre-release so I apologize for any ignorance I might be showing.
Maybe a user doesn't like the new 4.0 look and wants to stay at 3.5? Give the user a box and ask. Do not change this behavior!
Congratulations for not even reading the summary: They will only do silent updates for
minor versions, i.e. security and stability updates.
The question will be kept for major updates, like 3.x to 4.
I'd love to be able to actually deploy and maintain Firefox in the large enterprise that I work in. Users want it. Unfortunately, users don't have admin rights, and Mozilla makes applying updates and configuring the browser from a central location difficult and has a history of not thinking about and actively shooting down any proposals which would potentially benefit system administrators trying to support Firefox.
I don't get why they don't get it.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
How stupid! Show the user the dialog box, and put a checkmark on it which says (approx) "Don't notify me of these updates anymore, just do them."
J'aime mieux les méchants que les imbéciles, parce qu'ils se reposent. -- Alexandre Dumas
Who exactly is running their web browser with the privileges required to install an update?
Virtually everyone.