Mozilla released today updates to its Aurora and Beta
versions that introduce some changes for the Firefox
on PCs.
Firefox 11 will feature add-on sync. Users will now be
able to mirror the same add-on installations and
settings across multiple desktops - a feature already
available in Google's Chrome web browser.
In addition, a new update installation method allows
Firefox to install an update while the browser is
running. This means that the update can be installed
immediately after it is downloaded. A restart of the
browser will still be required to apply the update
but, using the new method, the application of the
update will happen very quickly. Mozilla says that the
new version of Firefox will then launch with no delay
as the update procedure has already taken place.
Background updates are currently planned to be
delivered in the next couple of releases. This means
that updates for subsequent Firefox releases should no
longer display a progress dialog after restarting the
browser.
Most Firefox updates include security fixes. Firefox
must be restarted in order to apply an update. In
order to facilitate the installation of an update, if
Firefox has not been restarted within 12 hours of the
download of the update users will be prompted to
restart with a dialog. Mozilla said that around only 1
percent of users will ever see this dialog Window, as
they will have probably restarted their browsers
earlier.
In addition, the new Firefox will not require users to
grant permission to the updater each time it needs to
install an update one of these versions of Windows.
In order to work with User Account Control (UAC) security that doesn?t prompt
users for each installation, a new update service will
land on Firefox Aurora shortly. This service runs as a
background process and installs updates when they
become available. After users grant permission to the
Firefox update service they will not be prompted with
a UAC dialog when installing updates for subsequent
releases.
The new beta also includes support for Google's SPDY
protocol for faster and safer site loading, a 3D view
for the Page Inspector developer's tool, a live update
option for changing CSS code on the fly, and support
for importing data from Chrome.
Firefox 11 for all platforms is due in March.