Firefox 15 Released: Silent Updates, Compressed Textures, Add-on Memory Leak Fix

Mozilla released Firefox 15 today, and it brings a number of interesting changes. First, the browser is finally switching to a "silent" update model, like Chrome. (No doubt in answer to endless complaints about their rapid release cycle.) In addition, Mozilla says they have "now plugged the main cause of memory leaks in Firefox add-ons." Add-ons commonly hold extra copies of sites in memory when they don't need to, and the browser now has a mechanism to detect this and reclaim the memory. Another significant improvement is the addition of native support for compressed textures in WebGL, which is a boost for high-res 3D gaming. Here are release notes for the desktop and mobile versions.

Comments

SILENT updates?

[courcoul]

Last thing I need is for an idiot in some far and distant place to think it fun to roll out a new version and trigger an update on all my computers that may render all the corporate apps unusable. No, thank you. FF joins Chrome in the sandboxed "use only if indispensable" bin.

Re:SILENT updates?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, turn it off?

If your managing multiple computers, PLEASE tell me you know how to turn these sorts of features off.

Re:SILENT updates?

[Kethinov]

It's a default, not a mandate. If it doesn't benefit you, like it benefits the vast majority of Firefox users, then turn it off, FFS.

Re:SILENT updates?

[characterZer0]

If you are managing multiple computers, PLEASE tell me the end users do not have write access to the browser executables in the first place.

Re:SILENT updates?

[Cro Magnon]

Until an update breaks something, and you don't even know Chrome is what updated.

Re:SILENT updates?

[Obfuscant]

Chrome has been doing them since, like, forever. I think it's fantastic, personally. I dont want the browser to nag me when it's time to update. Just do it...

You probably also don't have 100 computer semi-literates using Chrome for mission critical applications that will all call you at the same time when those mission critical apps stop working.

Automatic updates are fine for people who don't care if the program stops working for some unexplained reason, or who can either debug the problem themselves or put off finding a solution until they have some free time. Or for people who make a living off of debugging other people's computer problems.

Automatic updates are dangerous for high reliability systems, mission critical applications, or anything that is supposed to run unattended. Anyone who has worked in IT for any length of time will have memories of when some program decided to update itself and made itself fail. (E.g., "Firefox has detected that the following plugins are incompatible with the current version and disabled them:")

Re:SILENT updates?

[webheaded]

If needing a small guide on how to do something makes it "complicated" then you shouldn't be an IT administrator.

Re:SILENT updates?

[LordLimecat]

I take it you never go on the frontlines to deal with the rampant malware problem on the internet.

If this is an issue for you, do your reasearch and turn on the flags to block updates. From the current firefox version:
FirefoxButton-->Options; Advanced, Update; Click "Never Check for updates (not recommended: security risk)", and uncheck "use a background service to install updates".

According to Resource Monitor, this changes a setting in your profile's prefs.js, which if I had to guess would be these two:

user_pref("app.update.auto", false);
user_pref("app.update.enabled", false);

There, 3 minutes of research and I found out how to block this company wide (you can push a prefs.js to the firefox install directory and it becomes globally enforced; Im not taking the time to find out where that is). Push it from GPO, youre all set.

Honestly, the knee-jerk, "I refuse to research the options for myself" reactions from slashdot get old sometimes.

Upgrades wipe out my login cookies!

[jimwelch]

Every time Firefox upgrades, it wipes out my login cookies. It forces me to re-login to my sites. Is there a way to turn this dictator off?

This isn't a bug tracker

[MrEricSir]

Look, I mean you probably found a bug. The thing to do is to either post on the project mailing list or file a bug report.

Posting a comment on Slashdot is unlikely to result in a solution.

Brilliant!!

[rudy_wayne]

the browser is finally switching to a "silent" update model, like Chrome. (No doubt in answer to endless complaints about their rapid release cycle.

So people have been complaining about Firefox's Rapid Release Cycle -- more correctly called Rapid Version Number Inflation -- and so Firefox's solution is to continue doing it and just not tell you about it.

Brilliant.

Re:Memory leaks

[rudy_wayne]

Mozilla says they have "now plugged the main cause of memory leaks in Firefox add-ons."
Er, the same memory leaks they assured us weren't happening or weren't their fault?

I have to give them credit. The Firefox devs have quite a sense of humor.

I remember when they claimed that Firefox's excessive memory usage was a feature not a bug -- i.e., Firefox was caching pages. Which is really great except that it wasn't true.

Re:Flash freezing

[Tough Love]

Did they fix Flash freezing all the time, or is that Adobe's fault?

Adobe fixed it by end-of-lifing Flash. Thanks Adobe.

Re:Old story, or something new?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh hey, look, it works for everyone else, guess we can ignore you then!

Re:The summary missed the real headline feature!

[jensend]

No codec rules the market forever. You might as well have been saying "dude, mp2 rules both audio and video, give it up" fifteen years ago, or "dude, audio is MP3 and video is DIVX and that is that" nine years ago.

The MPEG cartel doesn't believe you either; they've been rushing to get new codecs together (USAC/Extended HE-AAC, H.265).

This time they were beat to the punch. Opus significantly outperforms MP3 and AAC even at their strong points, and MP3 and AAC are very poor for low-bandwidth use and zero use for low-latency communications. USAC is late to the party, high-latency, and doesn't match Opus's quality.

Opus may not totally displace MP3 and AAC for music player use, but it will gain a place there, just as AAC did, and in many of the markets it competes in- especially low-latency Internet audio- there is no well-established competitor.

I Love Firefox

[Zoxed]

At the risk of killing my Slashdot cred: I love Firefox.
I have not noticed any memory leak problems, my 15+ Add-Ons have not broken with FF updates, I do not care what version they call it (major or minor number updates) and I can not remember when it last crashed on me.