14 DAY TRIAL // Firefox 1.5 is dead, long live Firefox 2.0, and Gran Paradiso Alpha 5, and Firefox 3.0 when the time will come later this year. While Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 is still an embryo in Redmond utero, Mozilla is going through various versions of its open source browser like through pairs of socks. And while Internet Explorer 6 has been around since 2001, with an update in 2004, until Microsoft made available Internet Explorer 7 in October 2006 for Windows XP SP2 and in January 2007 together with Vista, Mozilla is prepared for the task of killing Firefox 1.5, introducing automated installations for Firefox 2.0 and launching Firefox 3.0 in the course of the same year.
It is obvious that this is a race won by Mozilla. As of May 2007, the foundation has officially confirmed the end support date for Firefox 1.5 urging users to upgrade to version 2.0. Additionally, Mozilla is ready to bring to the table the Major Update functionality via the Automated Update Service (AUS) "beta" channel.
"Mozilla announced previously that Firefox 1.5.0.12 would be the last available release in the Firefox 1.5 product series. In order to help users migrate to the latest supported Firefox release, the Major Update functionality was developed. This week Mozilla will start testing major update with users on the Automated Update Service (AUS) "beta" channel, and within a couple of weeks, to general users on the "release" channel. Mozilla will start presenting major update offers starting Thursday, June 7th in the afternoon (PDT). Firefox 1.5.0.12 users on the "beta" channel will be offered a major update to Firefox 2.0.0.4," Mozilla revealed.
The screenshot on the left contains the dialog box that users of Firefox 1.5 will be presented with. They will have the option to upgrade immediately, to further postpone the refresh or not to upgrade altogether. As of the past month, 3.80% of all users were still running Firefox 1.5 according to data made available by Market Share by Net Applications.
"If a user selects "Later", they will be prompted again in approximately 24 hours. If a user selects "Never", they are opting to skip this offer to upgrade and will not be prompted again for this particular release (2.0.0.4). If Mozilla decides to offer a 1.5.0.12 to 2.0.0.5 major upgrade, the user will be prompted again with that new offer. Note: this new offer is not currently scheduled. If a user selects "Get the new version", they will be asked to accept the revised End User License Agreement (EULA) for Firefox 2 in order to proceed with the upgrade. The major update will then be downloaded and the browser restarted with Firefox 2.0.0.4 as the current version," Mozilla informed.
The remaining images at the bottom offer visual guidelines in what the automated upgrade process from Firefox 1.5 to Firefox 2.0 will look like.
