Firefox 15 Available 08-28-12

ghacks.net: Firefox 15 launches tomorrow, downloads already available

If everything goes as planned, Mozilla will released an update for Firefox 14.0.1 that will bring the version of the Internet browser to 15.0. The stable version of the browser won’t be the only version that will receive an update in the coming days. Firefox’s extended released support version will be updated tomorrow as well, followed by updates for Firefox Beta on August 30, and Firefox Aurora on August 31 (you can check out the regularly updated Mozilla Firefox Release Schedule to find out about future Firefox releases).

For a general overview of what is new and hot in Firefox 15, check out our initial coverage from June of this year which looked at the version when the Firefox Aurora version was upgraded to it.



When you look at the beta changelog you will notice the following changes in Firefox 15. The most important changes for users are listed at the beginning:

• Optimized memory usage for add-ons
• Preliminary native PDF support
• Support for SPDY networking protocol v3
• WebGL enhancements, including compressed textures for better performance

Developers benefit from the following new technologies and features

• JavaScript debugger integrated into developer tools
• New layout view added to Inspector
• The CSS word-break property has been implemented.
• High precision event timer implemented
• New responsive design tool allows web developers to switch between desktop and mobile views of sites
• Native support for the Opus audio codec added
• The <source /> element now supports the media attribute
• The <audio> and <video> elements now support the played attribute

Firefox users who install add-ons may benefit from the memory optimization technologies that Mozilla added to Firefox 15. This basically does away with a certain type of memory leaking by add-ons so that you may notice a reduced memory usage, or at least no increase of memory usage during a session anymore.

The changelog does not mention several other features that have been included in Firefox 15. Background updates are for instance one of the features not mentioned in the changelog. The change affects the speed in which updates are installed. Instead of applying the update on the next start of the browser, it is not applied to a copy of the program, so that the files only need to be copied over to the Firefox program directory on start which speeds up the time it takes to update during start of Firefox significantly.

If you are using the browser’s search form you may also notice that search has become faster thanks to connection improvements. You can read up on that technology here on this blog post. Additional performance related improvements include the comportment-per-global change, and caching improvements where items are simultaneously verified and loaded.

The click to play and in-content preferences features are still disabled by default and need to be enabled by the user of the browser in the about:config preferences before they can be used.
As far as downloads of Firefox 15 go: the official Mozilla ftp server and worldwide mirrors are already hosting Firefox 15. You can alternatively download the new release from third party download sites, or wait until tomorrow for the final release. Since there is always the chance of last minute changes, I’d suggest you wait until the release is made official by Mozilla.

You can download Mozilla Firefox here: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/27/firefox-15-launches-tomorrow-downloads-already-available/

August 30, 2012, 7:06AM

Mozilla Releases Firefox 15 With New Invisible Updater

by Christopher Brook

 

Boasting a new silent updater and an optimized memory management system, Mozilla pushed out Firefox 15 this week, the latest build of its flagship browser. Following similar steps taken by Adobe and Google with its Flash, Reader and Chrome products, Firefox’s new updater will now perform updates in the background, saving users from those pesky, sometimes intrusive notifications.


Mozilla debuted a silent update mechanism for the browser in April when it released version 12 of Firefox. While that method allowed Firefox to update while the browser was running, installing that version, during its next restart, would take slightly longer. Firefox 15’s background updates are different than silent updates in the sense that when an update is installed in the background, the browser will take the same amount of time to start up as it usually would.


Firefox’s new memory management system should help prevent add-ons from hogging memory after a user has already closed a browser tab. The new mechanism apparently notices when extra versions of websites no longer need to be held onto and recaptures the leaked memory, according to Asa Dotzler, Mozilla’s Product Manager for Firefox, in a blog post detailing the new system.


 “Many users should experience greatly reduced memory consumption, particularly on long browsing sessions,” wrote Nicholas Nethercote, a Firefox developer who previewed the functionality in a blog post last month.


The update also fixes a laundry list of bugs and 16 vulnerabilities, seven of which the Mozilla Foundation deems critical. Among the critical vulnerabilities addressed by the update is a “new tab” escalation of privilege bug, memory corruption via WebGL and an issue with the SVG buffer overflow. For the full list of vulnerabilities, head to the Mozilla Foundation’s list of Security Advisories.

 Source: http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/mozilla-releases-firefox-15-new-invisible-updater-083012