I have been an active supporter of the Firefox browser since I installed version 0.9 on my laptop last July 2004. A few months after my exposure to Firefox, version 1.0 was released November 2004. Since then, the free browser has taken away a sizeable chunk of the market share currently at 19.6%. In addition, Firefox has been downloaded 109 million times.
One of the advantages of having the Firefox browser is the comfort of knowing the Firefox development team can quickly squash bugs and patch security holes within days after the security advisory is issued. One thing is for sure, the Firefox team is committed to the pursuit of providing the world a better browser.
Currently, I’m using Firefox 1.5 RC3. One of the nice features of this release is the automated software updates. What this means is no more big downloads everytime a new version of Firefox comes out. It also means no more uninstalling the old and installing the new version and no more reinstalling of extensions. Any subsequent upgrades are going to be only half a megabyte in size.
Today, I’ve experienced the first automated update of Firefox 1.5 from RC2 to RC3. The update was fast, seamless and behind the scenes needing only a restart for the upgrade to take effect. I didn’t even know the browser was updating to the latest version of software until a popup told me to re-start the browser. Now, that’s an upgrade service.
Firefox 1.5 will be officially released later this year. No date yet. RC3 is as close to the real thing minus the bugs found now until the final release. Give it a try. It’s worth it.