“We have been frustrated with our efforts [...]]]> Mozilla is planning to shunt 12 million users, who are still surfing the web on its aged Firefox 3.5 browser, over to a more recent version. “We need a plan to obsolete [sic] Firefox 3.5 as we can’t support it into perpetuity,” said Mozilla.

Besides from that, Mozilla has committed to continuing to support Firefox 3.6, allowing older machines, such as Power PC Macs, to be able to connect to the interwebulator via that version of the browser.

To get the message across to Firefox 3.5 holdouts, Mozilla plans to issue a warning to all such users telling them they are running an out-of-date browser that is no longer supported against the threat of online attacks.

The message will be displayed through Google’s default search page starting tomorrow.

“At the same time we also put a big warning on all Mozilla web properties, pointing them [users] to the new version to download,” it said.

Anyone with automatic updates switched on will have Firefox 3.6.18 pushed out to them on 21 June, the same day Firefox 5 is expected to be released.

Mozilla released Firefox 3.5 in June 2009 six months later than scheduled.

Advantages – Security is often cited as the primary reason for users switching from MSIE to Firefox. Security is of utmost importance for software [...]]]> Most of Firebird’s advantages are MSIE’s disadvantages, and vice-versa. This article will look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of Firefox in relation to MSIE.

Advantages – Security is often cited as the primary reason for users switching from MSIE to Firefox. Security is of utmost importance for software that interacts with remote computers, in an era of high security risk activities such as online banking.

Firefox has fewer security holes and a tighter schedule of disclosing them. The enhanced security in Firefox is due to a multitude of factors the system’s inclusion of more source code reviewers and a better bug reporting system and exclusion of VBScript/ActiveX, often the source of vulnerabilities.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been clamoring for years to try to clamp down on the MSIE security holes. It acquired an anti-spyware product, which it released under the banner of Microsoft AntiSpyware. It also promises its new Windows Vista platform will be more secure. However, Microsoft’s track record to date has done little to boost the confidence of today’s user.

Standards compliance – Firefox has vaulted ahead of MSIE with improved support for standard web protocols, such as its superior stylesheet compatibility. Since MSIE had a leading marketshare, the company had less interest in conforming to web standards, and instead focused on proprietary protocols, with the goal of maintaining their market position. That is, the focus of Microsoft was to try to convert as much of its userbase to writing webpages and web applications that required a proprietary MSIE-approach, so that down the road, users would be less able to move off a Microsoft platform.

As a result, Microsoft neglected for years to improve support for basic open standards. For example, transparent PNG graphics did not work all the way through to MSIE version 6.

Multiple operating system platforms – Firefox is available for users who runs Windows (Windows 98 through to Windows XP), Mac OS X, all the leading versions of Linux, as well as some lesser-used operating systems. In comparison, Microsoft has dropped development for Mac, and other non-Windows systems. Furthermore, Microsoft has ceased new development even on their own versions of Windows, making the new MSIE only available to users who have a license for Windows XP.

Firefox also has a similar user interface among the different operating platforms. For deployments that have a mix of operating platforms (such as Linux for the techs, Macs for the graphic designers, and Windows for the accounts department), moving to Firefox for everyone thus brings technical support costs down.

Time-saving browser innovations Internet communication and interaction is a core component for most modern businesses. Efficient use of web browser time translates to increased profits, so innovations to help workers do their tasks faster are welcomed. Firefox leads MSIE in this regard, with out-of-the-box features such as integrated Google search in the toolbar, placing the find-within-page box at the bottom of the browser window so as not to obscure the text, and so on.

Disadvantages Retraining – Any switch of software incurs a retraining cost. However, a switch from MSIE to Firefox requires only a mild amount of retraining. The switch from MSIE to Firefox is designed to be easy, with proper import of bookmarks and other settings. Browser interfaces are becoming standard, so understanding how to get up and running is not usually a problem. There are some only minor adjustments. For example, “Internet Files” in MSIE is called “Cache” in Firefox. One can use a downloaded MSIE theme so that the Firefox user interface even more closely resembles that of MSIE.

Incomplete migration – In a business with Windows computers, if the switch from MSIE to Firefox is incomplete, it can cost more to offer technical support for both browsers. This argument would only apply to shops whose Windows computers are all Windows XP. Since the new MSIE is only available for Windows XP, if there are different Windows versions (such as Windows NT or 2000), then the technical support team already needs to support different types of MSIE browsers. Another consideration, however, is that even an incomplete switch from MSIE to Firefox could result in less technical support, since the Firefox users would be less likely to need help with fixing their computer after an MSIE-related security breach.

If the stable version of [...]]]> After the release of Firefox 4, Firefox moved to an accelerated, Chrome-like channel system, starting with the bleeding-edge Aurora version of Firefox 5. Today they’ve released the Beta version, which will let you take advantage of its performance increases in a more stable environment.

If the stable version of Firefox moved too slowly for you but Aurora is a bit too bleeding-edge, Mozilla has added a beta version in between the two that you can follow. It’s a little more polished and stable than the Nightly and Aurora channels, but let you test some of those cool new features before they’re released to everyone else. Today marks the release of the Firefox 5 beta, which includes performance and stability improvements as well as a fast channel switcher.

The channel switcher means that you don’t have to re-download Firefox if you want to change your version of Firefox—you can do it right from the About Firefox menu. If you’re running either the Aurora or Beta channel, just go to Help > About and click the “Change” button next to where it tells you what channel you’re running. From there, you can switch to the Aurora, Beta, or Stable channel any time you want. Hit the link to read more about the new version.

The open-source browser is now available for download for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Originally envisioned as [...]]]> Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is the culmination of nearly a year-long quest to build a browser for the next version of the web. And while it’s not perfect, it comes very, very close.

The open-source browser is now available for download for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Originally envisioned as a quick follow-up to 2008’s release of Firefox 3.0, Mozilla ended up packing in quite a few extra features into its flagship browser and spent months making sure that Firefox 3.5 was the fastest, most powerful Firefox yet.

Firefox 3.5 brings with it entirely new and much faster rendering engines for both static web pages and the JavaScript code that powers today’s complex web-based applications. There are new privacy features, new capabilities for playing video and audio files and improved search tools. There are also a handful of other new features that should prove useful for both Firefox devotees and newcomers alike.

We’ve been using the latest betas and release candidates for the last few months. No matter what kind of web surfer you are, we recommend you download Firefox 3.5 as soon as you can. Here’s why.

A New Browser for a New Web

Much has changed in the year since Firefox 3 first hit the scene. Most significantly, Google Chrome arrived in September 2008, bringing with it support for many of the web’s latest technologies. Things like offline data access, geo-awareness and native video and audio playback were previously only glamor features — now that Google is highlighting the importance of those features, they’re must-haves. Chrome also came out of the gate showing off some extreme speed, and it spurred some friendly competition among browser makers to boost their speed of their apps. The latest versions of Safari and Opera showed large speed gains as a result.

Another reason browsers are getting faster is because websites are growing more complex. It’s not only social networks and media sharing sites that are responsible, but also productivity applications like e-mail, calendars and other office apps. These web destinations are behaving like full-blown applications, and they’re require more powerful, more nimble browsers.

Microsoft, which still commands the lion’s share of the browser market (see chart below), released a new version of Internet Explorer earlier this year. IE8 upped the ante when it comes to privacy, safety and usability features that are easy enough for consumers to grasp. It also got a speed boost.

So, Firefox, not even a year old, has a lot of catching up to do. Version 3.5 fills in the gaps admirably.

Speed

Firefox 3.5 has plenty of new features that make it worth the upgrade, but the real reason we love it so much is the massive speed gain. Mozilla claims that Firefox 3.5 is twice as fast as its predecessor. While we haven’t been able to back up these claims reliably in our tests, and Chrome and Safari are still marginally faster than Firefox, you’ll definitely notice a big speed boost on JavaScript-heavy sites like Gmail.

The faster performance is the result of the brand new TraceMonkey JavaScript Engine. According to Mozilla VP of Engineering Mike Shaver, the new tools in TraceMonkey allow JavaScript code to render on par with native code. That means the improved speed won’t just be in web apps. TraceMonkey will also improve add-on performance as well, since extensions and other Firefox tools are written in JavaScript.

Firefox 3.5 isn’t all about JavaScript, though. There have been plenty of changes in the latest version Gecko, the rendering engine that drives Firefox. These enhancements speed up page load times and enable Firefox 3.5 to take advantage of the latest code being used to build the next generation of web applications.

HTML 5

Though it won’t be finalized for at least another year, the specification for HTML 5 — the next revision of the markup language used to build websites — is already being implemented by the latest browsers. This new version of Firefox brings Mozilla’s browser up to speed with most recent releases by supporting many of the capabilities afforded by HTML 5.

The HTML 5 support in Firefox 3.5 allows for video and audio embeds without the need for the Flash plug-in. Right now, most video and audio playback on the web requires Adobe’s Flash Player. Even though it’s a free download, Mozilla thinks it’s too limiting to require a plug-in to watch videos and listen to songs, so it built those capabilities right into the browser. Now, website publishers can place a video into a web page just as they would a photograph or any other graphic, and it will play smoothly in Firefox 3.5 — no plug-in required.

Microsoft has been excitedly promoting it’s Windows Phone 7 Series since [...]]]> Mozilla has decided to stop all development of Firefox on Microsoft Windows Mobile. Although the browser was nearing completion on Windows CE 6, the organization has determined that Windows Phone 7 is not a viable platform for future versions of Firefox.

Microsoft has been excitedly promoting it’s Windows Phone 7 Series since it was announced in February. The company believes it has created the hardware and software to compete with Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, Palm’s Pre and other modern smartphones.

Phones will not be released until later this year, but it appears Microsoft will be following a similar marketing model to Apple’s App Store. Applications can only be developed using the Silverlight or XNA Game Studio runtime environments. Unfortunately for Mozilla, third-party developers will not have direct access to the phone’s hardware.

Stuart Parmenter, Mozilla’s director of Mobile Engineering posted the following comment on his blog:

While we think Windows Phone 7 looks interesting and has the potential to do well in the market, Microsoft has unfortunately decided to close off development to native applications. Because of this, we won’t be able to provide Firefox for Windows Phone 7 at this time. Given that Microsoft is staking their future in mobile on Windows Mobile 7 (not 6.5) and because we don’t know if or when Microsoft will release a native development kit, we are putting our Windows Mobile development on hold.

There’s a slim possibility Mozilla could become an application partner and gain full access to the platform, but this seems unlikely given that Microsoft will want to push the Internet Explorer browser and brand.

So where does this leave Mozilla’s Fennec project? It’s undoubtedly a great browser but it’s only available on Nokia’s top-end N900 and N810 smartphones. An Android version is in the early stages of development, but the organization will have no presence on iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian, or Microsoft devices. It’s an ambitious project so it’s a shame so few people can actually use the application.

If Mozilla want to be in the mobile browser market, I’d suggest they follow Opera’s lead and create a simpler browser which can be installed on a wide range of popular devices. More advanced applications can be developed when the market is ready for them.

Is Mozilla right to abandon Windows Mobile development? Is this the beginning of the end for the Fennec project?