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Topic: Browser

Firefox a little less buggy now

Summary: Version 1.5.0.2 is out, and fixes a number of crashes, memory leaks, and security holes.

Ed Burnette

By for Dev Connection |

I use Firefox all the time because of its great extensibility and standards support, but I've been less than enthused with its stability of late. This past week, for example, it's been crashing several times *a day* when I'm visiting dozens of multi-media intense sites in a single session.

So I was glad to see the update notice for 1.5.0.2 today. It was completely automatic, the way updates should be, telling me it had already installed the update and asking me only if I wanted to restart the browser right now or wait until later. I do worry a little what will happen the first time a bad auto-update gets installed on millions of PCs, but for now the convenience is nice.

BurningEdge has a list of fixes that went into this release, or you can see the official release notes. And yes, although they're less widely known and exploited than the ones in Internet Explorer, a number of security problems were fixed in 1.5.0.2 as well.

I don't know yet whether this update will help with my particular usage patterns, but any improvements are certainly welcome.

Topic: Browser

About

Ed Burnette is a software industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience as a programmer, author, and speaker. He has written numerous technical articles and books, most recently "Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform" from the Pragmatic Programmers.

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8 comments
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  • So I'm not the only one, good. :-)

    I'm on many hours a day, everyday and yes, I've crashed many times over the last few weeks, more than ever before. I learned of some ext's that don't play well with others and a few that just suck for me and have uninstalled those but I have still crashed several times. I'm using the sessionsaver feature of TMP which I used anyway so that has saved me everytime except for the open node I'll have in Bloglines because then Bloglines thinks I read those feeds and doesn't show them again ARGH!

    I used to be able to tell Bloglines to show last 24hrs etc. for a given feed but I can't find it since they reorged the UI.

    The update was only a few hours ago so time will tell.
    BillyG_n_SC
    Reply Vote

    • Display items within the last [drop down list]

      I did an update to SuSE 10.1 RC1 last nite and and update to Firefox 1.5.0.2.

      I use BlogLines..the right hand pane with the abstracts for a given feed has at the bottom a:

      "Display items within the last [list ], which you can set to the desired interval.

      Once your topics are read you can use the Display button to resurrect the 'read' articles within that interval--I have it set to a 'Week'.

      Hope that helps!

      P.S. I notice that Firefox is less 'demanding' now and I don't know if the Firefox update or SuSE RC1 or both is contributory to better performance.
      D T Schmitz
      Reply Vote

      • I think it's the FF update, Dietrich!

        I upgraded to FF 1.5.0.2 last night(on my Ubuntu box), and it IS quite snappier. From what I've read, there isn't much difference between SuSE 10.1 Alpha 9 and RC1, so I'd bet it's the browser update.
        Tony Agudo
        Reply Vote

  • Bias is amazing

    George Ou is right (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=192), the media is so incredibly biased. When IE was crashing periodically, the media was screaming for Bill Gates' head. When Windows would BSOD regularly, the media was screaming for Bill Gates' head. If all of you media people get your little AJAX/Web 2.0 fantasy fulfilled, then the OS becomes little more than a platform to provide a hardware abstraction layer to the OS. You simultaneously want the broswer to effectively be the operating environment, but love a browser that crashes multiple times a day. IE crashes once every few weeks for me.

    You people amaze me with your ability to hold conflicting opinions simultaneously and still think you make sense or have credibility. At least you didn't think people stick web servers on "broadband" connections (http://blogs.zdnet.com/threatchaos/?p=310) like your buddy Stiennon.

    J.Ja
    Justin James
    Reply Vote

    • People Do Stick Servers On Broadband Connections

      There are a half dozen freeware/free/shareware easy to install preconfigured Webservers for Windows (All versions). Also almost every distro of Linux comes with a web server of some sort- even the microdistros such as DSL and Puppy come with a httpD (HTTP Daemon with the micro-distros it tends to be Monkey).

      Now PHP is not always included in those distros or with those servers.
      Edward Meyers
      Reply Vote

    • Re: Bias

      IE doesn't crash at all for me since I stopped using it. :)

      Seriously, if FF crashes, the worst that happens is I lose whatever tabs I have open. If IE crashes it often required a reboot. Plus, IE's bugs are much worse than FF's. Hopefully both browsers will continue to improve (and other browsers like Opera) so we'll all benefit no matter which we prefer.
      Ed Burnette
      Reply Vote

  • On those updates...

    It was a bit disparaging to learn that Firefox for Mac now forces its clients to accept mandatory update checks from its server, 207.126.111.125.

    I prefer an update plan that is under MY CONTROL... not the software makers.'

    I've blocked Firefox from sending out packets, which it continues to attempt every 5 minutes.
    andy-a
    Reply Vote

  • is the security that comes along with firefox really solid ?

    There are several reports (probably kept secret by firefox) that there is a built-in keylogger that behaves like a "quick find" text bar. Somehow the bar (which is coloured red) appears at the bottom of the browser and plays a sound everytime one hits a key, while typing your id or password it is also vissible what one is typing.

    Many people have complained and some businesses have rejected to implement the firefox browser in their basic set of desktop and browsing applications.

    Very understandable !
    Bonoe
    Reply Vote
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