Mozilla’s move to a rapid cycle release for some of their products means that there are new releases every few couple of months, instead of once a year. The changes aren’t many, but the few major changes means that the product evolves rather quickly. Firefox 9 was released back in mid-December 2011, and the next major release - Firefox 10 was expected this week and there’s news that it’s going to be out tomorrow. The Firefox development builds have been around for a while, ever since Firefox 9 came out. The new version brings along a few changes, along with a large number of bug fixes. One of the biggest features to come with Firefox 10 is improved extension support. Firefox version in the past are notorious for not letting users enable extensions that aren’t supported officially by the latest version.
Everytime a new Firefox release comes out, extension developers take a while to compile new versions, so that they’re compatible with the new Firefox build. According to ComputerWorld, Mozilla is working on a silent update feature that will update Firefox to the latest version without the user knowing. A similar feature is already in place where users no longer have to manually download updates. Currently, users can click on the About menu under Help to access. By June, Firefox 13 should be out and it should allow users to completely automate the Firefox update.
One of the other unique features of Firefox 10 will be the Extended Support Release. This will be a release for enterprise customers who don’t like the idea of rapid releases. This means that bug fixes and security fixes will be installed on this version, as the year goes by, but drastic changes to add-ons and the browser won’t be added. Updates to Firefox ESR will take place every 42 weeks, Firefox 10 is also being released for other platforms, such as the Linux operating system as well as Android devices - smartphones and tablets.
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