Approximately two months after the general availability deadline of the latest iteration of its open source browser, Mozilla has given the green light to automatic updates designed to migrate users to version 3.6. According to Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox, Firefox 3.6 has already accounted for in excess of 100 million downloads, in just the last 50 days. However, at this point in time, the vast majority of Firefox users continue to be running version 3.5, no less than 14.54%, according to statistics from Internet metrics company Net Applications. By contrast, only 5.16% of users have already made the jump to Firefox 3.6.

“Mozilla believes that the user’s choice of web browser matters, and is extremely proud of how many people have chosen to use Firefox,” Beltzner stated. “Starting [on March 11, 2010], users running older versions of Firefox will be offered the choice of upgrading to Firefox 3.6. We’re presenting this upgrade offer for our users who may not realize that a new version is available.”

Below, users will be able to find the update screen that Mozilla will serve automatically to users of Firefox 3.5 and older, inviting them to upgrade. According to Beltzner, over 90% of existing Firefox add-ons already offer compatibility with version 3.6. Extension incompatibility problems represent one of the largest barriers when it comes down to upgrading for Firefox users, as the vast majority of them rely on add-ons to extend the open source browser.

“As always, users will be able to choose between: deferring the decision for 24 hours (‘Ask Later’), declining the offer (‘No Thanks’), or accepting the free upgrade (‘Get the New Version’). The offer screen will only appear after 60 seconds of keyboard inactivity to ensure we don’t get in the way of anyone’s activities. If a user declines the offer and later regrets that choice, they’ll be able to get it again simply by selecting ‘Check for Updates’ from the ‘Help’ menu,” Beltzner said.

Firefox 3.6 Final for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6 Final for Mac OS X is available for download here.
Firefox 3.6 Final for Linux is available for download here.

Firefox 3.7 Alpha 2/ Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 2 for Windows is available here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 2/ Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 2 for Mac OS X is available here.
Firefox 3.7 Alpha 2/ Mozilla Developer Preview of Gecko 1.9.3 Alpha 2 for Linux is available here.