Firefox patch

[Badkarma]

Three days late but I hope some may still find this informative.

The Mozilla Foundation on Thursday released its first security update to Firefox, comprising a series of patches intended to prevent spoofing and phishing attacks and fix glitches that cause the browser to crash.

For more more reading

BK

[noid]

I managed to miss this. Thanks. I will now go update my browser(s).

[astcell]

The link for the update sent me in circles so I downloaded the entire program again. Thankfully it does not overwrite your settings.

[alklloyd]

Gotta love that prank somebody pulled about MS Anti-Spyware flagging Firefox as high threat level...

Al

[astcell]

Gotta love that prank somebody pulled about MS Anti-Spyware flagging Firefox as high threat level...

Al

It IS a threat, to IE!!!

[allentrace]

It IS a threat, to IE!!!

Let the REVOLUTION begin!

[klepto]

I think Firefox will die once Internet Explorer 7 is out, that is if it includes the main features that others have had for years, like tabbed browsing for one.

Firefox accounts for 10% of the total internet web browsing traffic. That's not much, but who knows.

[TheCotMan]

I think Firefox will die once Internet Explorer 7 is out, that is if it includes the main features that others have had for years, like tabbed browsing for one.

So long as source is available, it is not really dead.

Businesses moved to Mozilla/Firefox/Opera//away-from-IE in droves when security issues in IE went unfixed by MS. [Or "addressed" with a "fix" like tell users to disable common features in UE and/or increase security zone.] Outstanding issues previously classified as non-critical have permitted remote "evil" sites to install malware on user's machines visiting with a fully patched MSIE. When costs to install mozilla/firefox are greater than costs to fix security problems from web browsing with MSIE, *then* you will probably see businesses choose to not add Mozilla/Firefox to new machines.

Firefox accounts for 10% of the total internet web browsing traffic. That's not much, but who knows.

Looks like there is disagreement on this value:4.48% + 4.23%, and 20.4% + 3.9%

[klepto]

So the stats I have are old, that is impressive.

But Internet Explorer has been vulnerable for years and years, people STILL use it. I'm not advocating it or protecting Microsoft's browser. It's just hard to get a dominate share of anything from Microsoft when it comes to desktop applications.

But the Mozilla foundation is doing good so far, let's see if they do better, they are not there yet.

[TheCotMan]

So the stats I have are old, that is impressive.

I was not complaining about your 10%, only showing that there is disagreement from different sources (not just yours)

But Internet Explorer has been vulnerable for years and years, people STILL use it.

Yes they do. If people made wise decisions with technology, I would probably be working in another field.

I'm not advocating it or protecting Microsoft's browser. It's just hard to get a dominant share of anything from Microsoft when it comes to desktop applications.

I heard somenoe say that a new product on the market has to be 10 times better than the existing product to cause a shift and takeover of that market in short time. Similar rules exist for taking a heavily defended position from an enemy controlling a ground of contention.

MS has a ground of contention-- they own the OS that ships with their own browser. It is easiest for users to not install a new browser. Users are lazy, unless they find enough reasons to make an effort to install something different.

Mozilla/Firefox has/have OpenSource. Is/are Mozilla/FireFox with OpenSource 10 times better than IE to more than 25% of the population? The future will tell us.

[Second]

The link for the update sent me in circles so I downloaded the entire program again. Thankfully it does not overwrite your settings.

Same for me, so I have a technical question. If you have to download the whole program (assuming they don't just have the patch, because neither of us could find it) is it really a patch? I thought a patch was just a smaller part that fixes the original program. Sorry I don't really know, that's why I'm asking. Thanks.

:)

[TheCotMan]

If you have to download the whole program (assuming they don't just have the patch, because neither of us could find it) is it really a patch?

story seems to explain the problem

[Second]

Thanks for the link, but I'm still curious about the actual definition of a patch. Sorry if I'm splitting hairs, it's not really important, just would like to know.

:)

[dataworm]

The link for the update sent me in circles so I downloaded the entire program again. Thankfully it does not overwrite your settings.

Yea that bug is supposed to be fixed by the update :)

[TheCotMan]

Thanks for the link, but I'm still curious about the actual definition of a patch. Sorry if I'm splitting hairs, it's not really important, just would like to know.

Since the term "patch" in CS was derrived from the textile industry, in its purest form, can be used as the metaphor would appear to make sense.

From textiles, a patch (small bit of cloth) could be used to cover a hole, wear-spot, or stress-point in a larger piece of cloth. Then "Patch" became associated with using a patch to fix a problem.

The hole/wear-spot/stress-point is the "bug" or defect, and the patch is what is used to make it functional (even if it is not pretty.)

A patch could be a procedure, where an admin only edit a config file and remove an option, or add one, but that assumes a loose definition.

Can the word patch be applied to a complete replacement of the whole? Sure, but it does not make much sense when you look at the original source... "Patch a blanket by throwing out the old one and buying a new one?"

It could be argued that a view of an application as a part of a large system would permit you to see that replacing an application is patching the system, but that is not a "complete replacement of the whole" (system) only a part of it.

Do/did they have a patch? Yeah, they installed it in the new version.

Hm. Even I think this post is boring. I should add pictures of naked people, and images of great food.