14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla has just released a new version of Firefox for all supported desktop platforms, only a few days after the company officially rolled out Firefox 77.
The new build is Firefox 77.0.1, and it comes with single fix that concerns DNS over HTTPS. The changelog explains the following:
“Disabled automatic selection of DNS over HTTPS providers during a test to enable wider deployment in a more controlled way.”
Mozilla further discusses the issue on a report published on Bugzilla, where the company explains that the release of DNS over HTTPS might cause issues for some providers, including for NextDNS.
“We need to be able to roll this out gradually so that we don't overload any providers. Even the dry-run involves up to 10 requests per client which can be very significant when the entire release population updates,” an engineer explains.
Firefox 77 rollout suspended
Mozilla explains that due to the discovered issue, the rollout of Firefox 77 has been suspended, so users are now offered the new version that is available today. In other words, installing Firefox 77.0.1 is now possible directly for users of previous builds.
“This prefs-off a feature that seems to be effectively DDoS'ing NextDNS, one of our DNS over HTTPs providers. This patch is blocking the rollout of Fx77,” Mozilla says.
Firefox is now getting updates at a faster pace, as Mozilla plans to roll out new major versions every four weeks. This means smaller revisions like the one going live today are also going live at a faster cadence.
The next major build of Firefox is version 78, which is scheduled to go live on June 30 for all supported desktop platforms. This version will come with major changes for macOS and Linux, and you can read more about this in the article here.