Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Mozilla Firefox 7 Released, Includes Security Updates


In keeping with the rapid release schedule, Mozilla released Firefox 7 today.

As expected when a version update is released, you may find that many of your favorite add-ons are not compatible with the new release.  Use Add-on Compatibility Reporter to test and report on your favorite add-ons in version 7.

The Release Notes listed the following new features in version 7,  At this point the indicated security updates are not listed in the Security Advisories.  There is, however, a very lengthy list of Bug Fixes for version 7.

What's New

  • Drastically improved memory handling for certain use cases
  • Added a new rendering backend to speed up Canvas operations on Windows systems
  • Bookmark and password changes now sync almost instantly when using Firefox Sync
  • The 'http://' URL prefix is now hidden by default
  • Added support for text-overflow: ellipsis
  • Added support for the Web Timing specification
  • Enhanced support for MathML
  • The WebSocket protocol has been updated from version 7 to version 8
  • Added an opt-in system for users to send performance data back to Mozilla to improve future versions of Firefox
  • Fixed several stability issues
  • Fixed several security issues

The upgrade to Firefox 7 will be offered through the browser update mechanism.  However, as the upgrade includes critical security updates, it is recommended that the update be applied as soon as possible.  To get the update now, select Help, About Firefox, Check for Updates.

References




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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've tried on several occasions to upgrade from FF3 (which works great for me !) to other versions (like 5 and 6, not 4). But each time the upgrade was complete -- which I did without removing the previous version (3) -- I was unable to open FF. Clicking on the quick launch icon or the desktop icon did nothing. Even after a restart. ??? So, I always went back to v3. I suppose I'll stay here until it really becomes a dinosaur, then upgrade. ;-)

Corrine said...

Personally, I preferred the format of Firefox 3. However, due to the security updates, I upgraded.

You may find that you will need to export your bookmarks as a backup and uninstall Firefox 3.