Major update gets the green light

Aug 17, 2009 15:01 GMT  ·  By

Mozilla traditionally doesn’t linger too much on any given release of its open-source browser, and the 3.0 release is no exception to this rule. In fact, it is the beginning of the end for Firefox 3.0, marked by the availability of Firefox 3.5 as a Major update for all users of the previous version of the browser. At the end of the past week, Mozilla gave the green light to automatic upgrades to Firefox 3.5. Firefox users of version 3.0.13 have undoubtedly already started being prompted to upgrade to version 3.5. The upgrade notification is designed to invite users to “Think Fast!” and make the jump to Firefox 3.5, specifically, version 3.5.2, released earlier this year.

“Clicking the “Upgrade to Firefox 3.5″ link will open a new tab with more information about Firefox 3.5 to help you make your decision about upgrading. From there, you have a choice: select Later if you don’t want to decide now; Firefox will ask again in 24 hours; select Never if you don’t want to accept this upgrade offer; we might send you another offer again in the future, but it won’t be for several weeks or months; select Get the new version to continue on with the upgrade process! Once you’ve accepted that, Firefox will download and install the update, then offer to restart the browser. When you restart, you’ll be rolling with Firefox 3.5,” explained Samuel Sidler, Quality Assurance engineer at Mozilla.

The biggest compatibility problem with automatic Firefox 3.5.2 upgrades is related to add-ons. Sidler indicated that over 90% of all Firefox add-ons were already compatible with Firefox 3.5.2, but in some cases, incompatible extensions have entirely new versions available, designed to play nice with the latest iteration of the browser. However, Firefox 3.5.2 will inform the users of any incompatibility issues detected, and will allow them to perform a check for compatible variants of the extensions.

If a newer version of an add-on is detected, users will get the option to “Install Now which will fetch the update and then continue loading Firefox 3.5. If an update isn’t available, Firefox will check every day and let you know once the add-on author has created one,” Sidler noted. But don’t expect to be running Firefox 3.5 for very long either. Mozilla is already working on Firefox 3.1, having produced the first Alpha version and offered it to testers, with a general availability date set for November 2009.

Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6 are available for download here.