Browser Face-Off

Firefox Gets Auto-Updates

Firefox made a big splash with its initial 1.0 release in November 2004. With more than 100 million downloads since, the Mozilla Foundation is now trying to build on that success with version 1.5, which includes no radical changes to the open-source browser but does have some incremental upgrades, such as drag-and-drop tab reordering.

Automatic updates for the browser will probably prove the most welcome change for users. Firefox's old update procedure was more like a full reinstall; the new process is streamlined and smooth.

Aside from convenience, making updates easier and faster can help security, which has become more of an issue for Firefox. With the new approach, more people will likely obtain and install updates, helping to minimize the number of vulnerable systems. Critical flaws discovered in 2005 have demonstrated Firefox's vulnerabilities, though the browser still beats IE in that regard. In a recent study, security analysis and software company Secunia found that Firefox had 3 unpatched security risks out of 25 discovered problems, compared with 20 unpatched risks for IE out of 86 found. Opera had them both beat, with no unpatched holes out of 8 detected. Of course, as browsers become more popular, they also become more attractive targets.

Many browser extensions (add-ons that incorporate new functionality) already have updates for the new release, which automatically checks for new versions of out-of-date add-ons when you start the browser. But quite a few don't yet work with version 1.5. Current scripts for the popular Greasemonkey add-on might not work in version 1.5, for example, and users will have to wait to see which authors will update their scripts and when.

Tools for subscribing to RSS feeds remain unchanged. If sites are not coded for Firefox, you must go through a clunky mechanism to add feeds to your favorites, or use one of the many extensions available to simplify the process.