Firefox 1.5 update released
The Mozilla Foundation on Wednesday released a update for Firefox 1.5 that provides greater stability and security.
Firefox 1.5.0.1 offers improved stability, improved support for the Mac OS X platform, and fixes for several memory leaks and security bugs, according to the release notes. Users of Firefox 1.5 can upgrade to the new version using the automatic update feature, or the update can be manually downloaded from the Mozilla Web site.
Over the last couple of weeks some Firefox users were surprised to discover that they were being offered the update before it was publicly announced on the Mozilla site. A posting in the Mozilla Developer centre explains that this happened to people who installed a beta version of Firefox 1.5, and were therefore assumed to be a beta tester.
"There have been more than a few people wondering why they got a 1.5.0.1 update when there is no announcement of the Mozilla sites. The update you are getting is the 1.5.0.1 release candidate," said the posting.
"You are, whether you knew it for sure or not, a beta tester! How did this happen? Simple — you installed Firefox 1.5b1 or 1.5b2 and then used the auto-upgrade system to move to the 1.5 final release. Since you installed a beta and never reinstalled Firefox from the full installer your update "channel" is beta — which means you are willing to run beta versions of Firefox," the posting continued.
The posting also gives information on how to change the settings of Firefox so you will only receive final release updates.
A beta new version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer was also released this week. Microsoft released a beta of IE 7 on Tuesday and by Wednesday people had already found a number of bugs, including a potential security vulnerability in the Web browser.