It is not clear yet why the new version has been pushed out , the release notes have not been posted yet and the new version ins only available via Mozilla’s ftp server and worldwide mirror servers.

Bugzilla lists a total of 23 bugs and issues that have been resolved in Firefox 3.6.15. One of the issues listed has received the highest severity rating blocker which could indicate that it is responsible for the update.

The release has fixed six critical issues as well which all but one seem to resolve crashes in the browser. The release does not appear to be security related, at least not on first glance over the issues that have been fixed according to Bugzilla.

It is likely that Mozilla will make an official release announcement later today. We will update this news post once the release notes have been published on the Mozilla Firefox website. The page they will be posted on is this one.

Bugzilla lists a total of 56 bug fixes of which 13 have a severity rating of critical. Among the critical fixes are memory leaks, crashes and security issues.

The download link at the official release notes page links already to the newest version of the browser. Existing Thunderbird 3.1.x users should receive update notifications in the email client shortly. Those who do not want to wait can download the new version and install it manually instead.

Mozilla has furthermore released a Firefox update that is currently being distributed to release servers worldwide. Firefox 3.6.14 is the latest stable release of the web browser. The update fixes several security and stability issues according to the beta release notes page.

Bugzilla lists 40 bugs and issues that have been fixed in the latest update, of which seven have received a critical rating. Several of the issues that have been fixed in Thunderbird have been fixed in Firefox as well, including a memory leak and crashes.

Firefox 3.6.14 and 3.5.17 are not officially available for download yet. Users can download the releases from software portals like Softpedia. It is likely that the browsers will pick up the new version in the coming 24 hours.

The beta release notes list the major issues that have been fixed:

Firefox 3.6.13 fixes the following issues found in previous versions of Firefox 3.6:

Fixed several security issues.
Fixed several stability issues.

Bugzilla goes into more detail by listing all bugs that have been fixed in Firefox 3.6.13. A total of 67 bugs have been fixed in the update including 21 critical and one blocker bug. Interested users can visit Bugzilla to access the list. Firefox users who do not want to wait can try some of the official community mirror servers to download the release immediately.

The new versions of the browser are currently distributed to the release servers. It usually takes a couple of hours before the releases are pushed to the users who will receive an update notification once the new version becomes officially available.

The new version numbers are Firefox 3.6.12 and Firefox 3.5.15. We have uploaded the English versions to a file hoster, in case you want to download it right away to protect your computer system. You also find the new versions for all supported operating systems and languages on the release servers.

Users who want to wait for the official release should disable JavaScript in the meantime, as the exploit requires JavaScript enabled.

The release notes are up already, they simply confirm that the critical security vulnerability was fixed in this Firefox update:

Firefox 3.6.12 fixes a critical security issue that could potentially allow remote code execution.

Downloads:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/i5wdlb4ek2mi6i8/Firefox%20Setup%203.5.15.exe

http://www.mediafire.com/file/t4clgc7vkxwdxj2/Firefox%20Setup%203.6.12.exe

We expect an official release announcement in the next hours. The reaction time to resolve the vulnerability was excellent to say the least.

Firefox users who can wait a bit longer can check for updates manually in the web browser by clicking on The Help menu link.

The release notes have not been updated, but the beta release notes mention several security and stability issues that have been fixed

Bugzilla lists 40 bugs that have been fixed in the release, of which seven have received a critical rating.

Expect a final release later today. The Firefox client will pick up on new releases automatically once they are released officially.

In this case, Firefox 3.6.10 fixes a single highly critical stability issue in Firefox 3.6.9 that is causing crashes for a group of Firefox users.

Users who want to read up on the issue can visit the Bugzilla listing for a list of bugs fixed in Firefox 3.6.10, or the actual bug listing of the bug that caused the stability issues.

Firefox 3.6.9 users should receive automatic update notifications in the browser already, another indication that the fix is critical and needs to get out as soon as possible.

firefox 3 6 10

Firefox users who have not updated the browser yet can download the latest version from the official Firefox download page over at the Mozilla website.

This version introduces support for the X-FRAME-OPTIONS HTTP response header which can be used by webmasters to define how and if their website can be displayed in a frame.

Bugzilla lists a total of 67 bugs that have been fixed in the new version of Firefox, among them 11 that have received a critical rating.

Firefox users should already receive update notifications in the browser. Please note that you may have to click on Help > Check for Updates manually for this. The new version can then be downloaded and installed directly from the interface.

New users can download Firefox 3.6.9 from the official Mozilla website where it is available for all supported operating systems and languages. Make sure you check out our Firefox 4.0 Beta 5 and Thunderbird 3.1.3 release threads in case you have missed those yesterday.

A quick second release usually indicates a severe problem that needs to be addresses asap, often stability or security related.

The Mozilla Developer Center blog offers an explanation. Firefox 3.6.8 fixes a single “stability problem that affected some pages with embedded plugins”.

Users who have not received the update notification yet, can download the latest version of Firefox directly from the Mozilla website instead.

This downloaded version then needs to be installed after the download to the local hard drive has finished.

The Firefox 3.6.8 update is offered for all supported operating systems and languages.

In the blog posting Mozilla “strongly encourages” users of Firefox 3 and Firefox 3.5 to upgrade to the latest Firefox 3.6 branch.

The new version of the web browser is currently distributed to worldwide mirror servers, and will be announced officially once the distribution completes.

As of now, it is only available directly on the Mozilla ftp site. The release notes are still mentioning Firefox 3.6.7 Beta and not the final release, it is expected that they are updated to reflect the final release.

Bugzilla lists a total of 76 bugs that have been fixed in the new version of the web browser, among them ten critical issues, and seven major issues.

firefox 367

Specifically Windows 7 users will see several improvements, a memory leak issue has been fixed as well as two Windows 7 taskbar related issues.

Official downloads will be made available on the release notes page later on. Users who do not want to wait this long can check the ftp server to find the release for their operating system and language.

The latest nightlies of Firefox 4.0 concentrate on finalizing the graphical user interface of the web browser. We have reviewed some design changes like tabs on top or Windows Aero support in the past.

Chrome and Opera users will recognize many similarities, many Firefox users on the hand will need some time to get used to those changes.

firefox 4.0

The most obvious user interface changes are visible in the Firefox header. The menu bar has been reduced to a Minefield button which displays the menu items on click.

Tabs are not on top of the address bar by default. That’s again similar to how Google Chrome and Opera display the tabs.

Both options can be reverted by customizing the top bars in Firefox. The menu can be expanded and the tabs placed under the address bar. It remains to be seen if those options will be available in the final Firefox 4.0 release as well.

Firefox users who have placed other UI elements in the menu bar in previous versions will notice that they are automatically hidden if the single menu button is active. A bookmarks bar placed in the menu toolbar for instance is not visible in the default design. Lots of free space in the main toolbar which could be put to good use.

The title bar has been removed, page titles are now displayed in the tabs only.

The navigational elements fit nicely in the design. The arrow symbol next to the forward and backward buttons provides a listing of the last opened tabs in the web browser.

New buttons can be added to the toolbars as well, available are for instance buttons to display the bookmarks or download manager.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users will notice that the Aero implementation is still not optimal depending on the background colors. A dark background image makes the displayed menu bar items almost unreadable.

firefox 4 windows aero

The graphical user interface nears completion but it is likely that it will be fine tuned by the developers to sort out the latest quirks before the beta versions and release candidates get released.

The reveamped add-ons manager is another new interface element in Firefox 4.0. The manager displays in a tab in the browser now and displays the standard options to manage add-ons, themes, plugins and to get new add-ons.

firefox 4 addons manager

Firefox users who want to test the latest Firefox 4.0 builds can download it from the locations below for their operating system:

firefox-3.7a6pre.en-US.win32.installer.exe
firefox-3.7a6pre.en-US.mac.dmg
firefox-3.7a6pre.en-US.linux-i686.tar.bz2

What’s your take on the new Firefox design?

This could very well be a response to user complaints who noticed slow downs and cpu spikes after upgrading or installing Firefox 3.6.4.

The Mozilla Blog has additional details about the upgrade.

Following the release of Firefox 3.6.4 we heard from some users, mainly those using older computers, that they sometimes expect longer periods of non-responsiveness from plugins, especially with games. For these users the default timeout of 10 seconds was too short. To address this, we increased the amount of time Firefox waits for a plugin to respond before terminating it from 10 to 45 seconds. This change has been made in Firefox 3.6.6, which was released today as an automatic update for all users.

Firefox 3.6.6 is not yet available via the automatic update check in the web browser itself. A download is provided over at the Mozilla website.

Firefox users can download the latest version for their operating system and language. It is likely that the new version will be picked up by the internal update checker later today.

Regular Ghacks readers might already know the answer. Mozilla has added so called out-of-process plugins to the Firefox web browser. This feature runs specific Firefox plugins, like Adobe’s Flash Player, Quicktime or Silverlight, in their own process whenever they are needed to run elements on a web page (see Firefox 3.6.4 release announcement for additional information).

The plugin-container.exe process is that extra process that is launched whenever one of the supported plugins is started in Firefox.

plugin-container.exe

The process remains active once it has been started. It is for instance triggered when the Firefox user starts to view a Flash or Quicktime video and closed when Firefox is closed or its manually killed.

Mozilla currently uses one plugin container for all supported browser plugins. This is unlike Google Chrome where every plugin is launched in its own process. Future Firefox versions will be modified so that the plugins are run in their own process as well.

Check out Run Custom Firefox Plugins In Their Own Process to find out how to run additional plugins in Plugin-Container.exe instead of the main Firefox process.

Update: Plugin-Container.exe currently supports the following three popular plugins:

• Adobe Flash
• Apple Quicktime
• Microsoft Silverlight

Support is tied to plugin crash reports that Mozilla receives from user systems who have opted in to submit those information automatically whenever a plugin on the system crashes. New plugins may be added to the Plugin Container process if their crash rate increases significantly.

By default, only Silverlight, Flash and Quicktime are making use of this feature. Every other plugin is still running in the main Firefox process.

The developers have however created an option to add other plugins to the out-of-process plugins list so that they are run in their own process as well.

Custom out-of-process plugins

The first step of the process is to get the filename of the plugin, this can be done via about:plugins in the Firefox address bar.

firefox installed plugins

The plugin name of the Java plugin in the screenshot above is npjp2.dll. Just look at the File: reference to find the names of other plugins that are installed in the web browser.

Write down the names or open a new tab in Firefox and enter about:config into the address bar. This opens the Firefox configuration editor.

First time users need to get passed a warning message first before they can make changes.

A new boolean preference needs to be created for every plugin that should be run in its own process. This is done by right-clicking in the configuration window and selecting New > Boolean from the list.

This opens a form popup where the new parameter needs to be entered. The syntax is always the same; dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.Pluginname.

For Java it is dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npjp2.dll.

out of process plugins

A second form is displayed right after the creation. Setting the value of the new parameter to true will enable out-of-process for the Java plugin.

boolean value

Firefox needs to be restarted before the changes take effect. Setting the value to false disables the feature again which can be helpful if a configured plugin is not running stable in its own process. (via Mozilla Links)

The delay can be largely attributed to the out-of-process plugins feature that the developers have integrated into Firefox 3.6.4. The feature is similar to that in Google Chrome as it runs plugins in their own process to increase browser stability and security.

Out-of-process plugins are enabled by default and ensure that a crashing plugin will not crash the browser itself as well.

firefox 364

It might take some time before the official downloads become available. Users who know their way around the Mozilla ftp can download the release from there, most mirror sites should carry the new release for all supported operating systems and languages by now as well.

The update check in the browser has not picked up the new version yet, it is likely that this is enabled right after the release distribution finishes.

The release notes have not been updated yet as well. Firefox 3.6.4 does not only add out-of-process plugins, it fixes several stability and security issues in previous Firefox 3.6.x editions.

I have been a beta user ever since the first version of Firefox 3.6.4 came out. The latest build is a security and stability update which makes it a recommended update for everyone who is already working with Firefox 3.6.4.

The only viable source of information at this point is the Bugzilla bug listing as the release notes do not list changes in beta and alpha builds separately.

Bugzilla lists many critical crash bugs mostly related to plugins. Seems that the developers are still working on the out of process plugin capability which is likely to be responsible for the crashes.

Firefox 3.6.4 users should receive an update notification directly in their web browser. The new build of Firefox is also available on the developer’s site for all operating systems and languages.

Firefox 3.7 Pre-Alpha 6 was released yesterday by the developers. And while we would not recommend using it in a work environment it does showcase some of the recent interface changes that may make it into the beta and final builds.

Especially Windows Vista and Windows 7 users can enjoy the new Aero Glass interface. It does seem that the Firefox developers need to fine tune that interface a bit as it made the menu texts almost unreadable on certain backgrounds.

firefox 4 design

The tabbar now integrates some of the navigational toolbar elements. That’s in theory not a bad thing especially for users who like their browser header to be as small as possible. The elements at the right side of the tabbar however seemed to mess things up a little bit. Most users are used to seeing a close tab button there. Mozilla have now placed five buttons to the right of the tabbar of which two display an X.

Even more confusing is the fact that the rightmost X stops loading a page while the X on the left side of it closes the active tab.

The other buttons from left to right are reload, display all tabs and open a new tab. The layout of the buttons can be changed so that it is possible to move, remove and reorder the buttons.

The bookmarks toolbar does not seem to make use of Aero at all, the tabbar only if it is placed right underneath the menu bar.

Removing the menu bar from the layout will now display a single menu button in the browser’s interface, much what Opera have done in Opera 10.50.

firefox 4 menu bar

The latest Firefox 4 builds, still labeled as Firefox 3.7 currently, are available for all supported operating systems from the Mozilla ftp server.

Firefox 3.6.4 Beta Build 6 is very close to the final version of Firefox 3.6.4 which is expected to be released on June 1, 2010. The release notes have not been updated yet which makes it difficulty to find out what has changed in this new build.

There are no apparent changes visible on first glance and the biggest new feature of Firefox 3.6.4, the out-of-process plugins, have already been enabled. It is likely that the developers have sorted out some bugs related to this new feature.

The new release is currently rolled out to all beta users and it makes little sense for everyone else to jump on the beta bandwagon as the final release is near. It is likely that there are not a lot changes in the final release compared to build 6 on the other hand.

The release notes are likely to be updated later today.

Users who have not downloaded Firefox 3.6.4 yet can download the latest build directly from the Mozilla Beta download page where it is offered for all supported languages and operating systems.

The release notes do not mention the changes in this build of Firefox 3.6.4. Bugzilla lists a total of 194 bugs that have been fixed in all supported versions of Firefox 3.6.4 Build 4.

This version contains the out-of-process plugins module that will run Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime and Microsoft Silverlight plugins in their own process so that plugin crashes or freezes do not affect the rest of the web browser.

It is now possible to open the add-ons manager in a tab by typing about:addons. The new interface displays add-ons, themes, languages, plugins, search engines and the ability to get more add-ons in the left sidebar and the available data on the right part of the screen.

Some features, like the get add-ons menu, is not working yet. The browser header has also been redesigned. Tabs and navigational elements share a single row in the Firefox header. The back and forward buttons are placed on the left side of the tabs while all other elements including reloading a page are placed on the right. That’s confusing to say the least, especially since there are now two X buttons on the right (one for closing tabs, one to stop the page from loading)

Firefox users who want to try the new release can download it for their operating system from the official Mozilla ftp site.

The blog post is actually a summary of a presentation that is available as a slideshow and video as well.

The most important announcement concerns the versioning. Beltzner basically states that the developers managed to implement the out of process plugin feature that was initially planned for Firefox 3.7 into the soon to be released Firefox 3.6.4. This effectively allowed the developers to turn Firefox 3.7 into Firefox 3.6.4.

This means that there will be no Firefox 3.7 release. The developers will make the jump directly to Firefox 4 with a first beta release expected in June 2010 and the release candidate 1 in October 2010.

The primary goals for Firefox 4 will be making a browser:

Fast: making Firefox super-duper fast
Powerful: enabling new open, standard Web technologies (HTML5 and beyond!),
Empowering: putting users in full control of their browser, data, and Web experience.

Planned features of Firefox 4:

• Performance optimizations
• New optimized theme
• Updates and installations without restarting the browser
• Control over website permissions and relationship status
• Jetpack based add-ons running out of process
• New web development tools, HTML5 and web technology support, native multimedia capabilities
• 64-bit support
• startup optimization, reduced I/O operations, DOM performance improvements, new JavaScript engine, hardware acceleration, multitouch support

You can visit Mike’s post to take a look at the slideshow presentation or watch the video of the presentation in a HTML5 video capable browser.