Firefox update

The update is something of an unusual move for Microsoft and underscores the seriousness of the zero day flaw. The company rarely issues security fixes for its software outside of its regular monthly patch updates.

Meanwhile Mozilla has released a scheduled update for its open source Firefox web browsers for at least 10 different vulnerabilities. The bugs in the browser could have been "used to run attacker code and install software, requiring no user interaction beyond normal browsing," said Mozilla. It is also reissuing calls for users to upgrade from Firefox 2.0 to Firefox 3.0 as soon as possible and said it is "not planning any further security and stability updates for Firefox 2". This means Mozilla will no longer support the Firefox 2 browser against future online scams and attacks.

Second Firefox 3.1 beta brings significant changes

Usually not much happens to a software product from one point release to the next, much less one beta version to the next. But Mozilla has made quite a few changes with the second beta of Firefox 3.1, released Monday. In the new version are support for video and audio built into Web pages, a built-in service for telling Web sites a user's location if users permit it, private browsing, Web worker support for more powerful Web-based programs, and my favorite feature, the TraceMonkey engine for running the JavaScript programs used to build sophisticated Web sites. TraceMonkey was released before, but now it's switched on by default.

The official announcement has more details for users, and programmers can check the developer site.

The finished 3.1 version, code-named Shiretoko, is expected to arrive in early 2009 after a third beta, Mozilla has said. It arrives during a period of hot activity for browsers. Apple is promoting its Safari browser for Windows as well as Mac OS X. Microsoft, the leader of the market, plans to release Internet Explorer 8 in 2009. And of course the biggest change is the arrival of Google Chrome, an open-source project that, like Safari, uses uses a project called WebKit for interpreting and displaying the basic HTML code used to describe Web pages. (Updated 10:05 p.m. PST to clarify that Chrome, not Firefox, uses WebKit.) Mozilla Chairman Mitchell Baker is unfazed by the competition, though. Largely because of search-ad-related revenue from Google, the organization behind Firefox, the Mozilla Foundation, pulled in $75 million in 2007.

Second Firefox 3.1 beta due 'very shortly'

The second beta version of Firefox 3.1 is "due out very shortly," Mozilla programmer Ben Turner said Thursday. One big change in the 3.1b2 is the addition of "Web workers," a feature that lets the browser process tasks in the background. That feature, part of the still-evolving HTML 5 specification, adds another level of sophistication for programmers writing Web applications and gives multicore computers a better way to use their processors' abilities. "We've been hard at work with folks from Google, Apple, and others to get this new spec nailed down," Turner said of the Web workers work. Google and Apple also build their own browsers, as does market-leading Microsoft and ever-scrappy Opera. With the browser wars back in full force, those organizations are racing to outdo each other on features and performance. He gave one illustration of Web workers in action running a JavaScript program that emulates a decades-old processor design, the 8080. One thread emulates the processor in the background while another handles user interaction such as checking for typing on the keyboard. In a post on the Mozilla Add-ons Blog, Paul Rouget said: "Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 will likely be released the first week of December." He added: "We have added a Beta 3 to our schedule."