Mozilla Firefox 6, what people are saying
(CBS) - It seems like just weeks ago we were updating to Firefox 5... Yup, that was just weeks ago. Now with Firefox 6, we're provided with a straightforward collection of security updates and tweaks. Ars Technica anticipates "more substantial improvements" will come with Firefox 7, including a new JavaScript engine that "uses much less memory."
One (ahem) can argue that this is too much updating with very little time in between.
Because Firefox 6 is not a major overhaul, the reviews are sparse, but people are still expressing their opinions. Here are the highlights from users around the web...
Michael Muchmore of PC Magazine reminds us that although the update is not dramatic, there is much to appreciate. "In fact, a look at its complete change log reveals a significant total of 1,300 changes and fixes. One that end users may notice include URL highlighting, which, like Internet Explorer 9 and Google Chrome, shows the domain name in darker font than the rest of a page's address."
CNET's Seth Rosenbatt pointed out, "Firefox 6 for desktops and laptops contains a number of important stability fixes, as well as some feature improvements, most of which are aimed at developers. There's a new Web Developer menu in Firefox 6, which collates tools for building and debugging Web sites into one location. These include the new Scratchpad tool, which browsers like Opera and Chrome have had for some time. It allows developers to test JavaScript before implementing it. The web console feature also has a new auto-complete option and can have its location customized."
Ryan Naraine at ZDNet reports 10 major security fixes, including "a WebGL crash, a JavaScript crash, a crash in the Ogg reader, memory safety issues and unsigned scripts. These all affected Firefox 4 and 5." More details can be found at ZDNet.
Here are reactions from the Twitterverse...
The official Internet Explorer Twitter account (@IE) sent the Mozilla team a cupcake and tweeted, "Congrats to Mozilla on shipping Firefox 6!"
Twitter user @rem tweeted, "Firefox 6 highlights for me: server sent events, web sockets (albeit vendor prefixed) and dataList support."
"So...Firefox 6 is stupid fast," said Twitter user @beep.
Twitter user @igrigorik tweeted, "yay, Firefox 6 supports the latest Websocket spec, and finally added eventsource support - long overdue! downloading..."
And for your viewing pleasure, here's an infographic of Firefox's rapid release schedule:
