In this issue… · Firefox 2.0.0.14 released · Camino 1.6 released · Proposed changes to Mozilla’s privacy policy · AMO 3.2: The Road Ahead · Community Survey results · Security metrics that matter · Firefox wins “Browser” category of the Webware 100 · Developer calendar · Subscribe to the email newsletter Firefox 2.0.0.14 released As part of Mozilla Corporation’s ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 2.0.0.14 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as a free download from GetFirefox... lire la suite
· Firefox 2.0.0.14 released · Camino 1.6 released · Proposed changes to Mozilla’s privacy policy · Security metrics that matter · Firefox wins “Browser” category of the Webware 100 Firefox 2.0.0.14 released As part of Mozilla Corporation’s ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 2.0.0.14 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as a free download from GetFirefox.com. It is strongly recommended that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release. If you already have Firefox 2.x, you will receive an automated update notification. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates...” from the Help menu. If you are still running Firefox 1.5.0.x, you are highly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 2, as Mozilla ceased supporting Firefox 1.5.0.x in May 2007. Simply choose “Check for Updates...” from the Help menu to begin the upgrade process. For more information about this release, see the DevNews blog post. Camino 1.6 released The Camino Project is proud to announce Camino 1.6, a major update to the Camino web browser. This release includes a number of new features and improvements, including a customizable toolbar search field, a find bar, software update, a scrolling tab bar, and enhanced AppleScript support. For more information about this release, see the release notes and the official release announcement. Proposed changes to Mozilla’s privacy policy In February, Basil Hashem blogged about some proposed changes to Mozilla’s privacy policies. After considering the feedback and commentary that arose then, the proposed policy has been revised, and Basil has blogged about it again. “The new policy conforms to the commitments laid out in the earlier discussion. Absent any major objections, we plan to update the policy as proposed and implement the web analytics tool immediately. [The] most notable difference this time around is that Google Analytics is not in the picture. Only Omniture is under consideration.” For more information, and for a copy of the revised policy, see Basil’s latest blog post on the topic. Security metrics that matter Asa Dotzler, as part of the For the Record project, has written a detailed blog post discussing security metrics, and what security metrics actually matter. “A number of press articles...are offering the confusing and incorrect conclusion that the effective security and safety of web browsers can be measured by simply counting the number of vendor disclosed software flaws. This kind of measuring is flawed for several reasons, all related in that they make it more difficult for consumers to make informed decisions about their online safety.” For more of this article, please see Asa’s post at For the Record. Firefox wins “Browser” category of the Webware 100 The 2008 Webware 100 Awards recognize the best Web 2.0 sites, services, and applications available today. After receiving more than 5,000 nominations for inclusion in the Webware 100, the editors selected 300 finalists which were then voted on by Web users, who voted nearly two million times to select the 100 top products — 10 each in 10 categories — from the list of 300 finalists. We are proud to announce that Firefox has been voted as the winner of the “Browser” category this year. For more information about the award, check out the Firefox Webware 100 web page.
· Firefox 3: Tree in lockdown for RC1 · Mozilla Websites, Web Analytics and Privacy Firefox 3: Tree in lockdown for RC1 On April 8th, the Firefox tree entered a lockdown period in preparation for delivering Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1. The same process will be used for this release as for past betas — the blocker lists will be driven to zero, and only patches with explicit approval will be allowed to land in order to more tightly control potential for regressions. For more information, please see the DevNews blog post. While he was at it, Chris added two new machines to to the Firefox tinderbox tree to improve our unittest coverage on Windows. Named qm-win2k3-02 and qm-win2k3-03, these new machines should provide added information and help diagnose single-machine failures. For more information, see Chris’ weblog post. Ars Technica has reviewed the first pre-alpha test builds of Fennec, Mozilla’s initial mobile Firefox prototype. “With Firefox 3 right around the corner, Mozilla’s top lizard wranglers are turning their attention to the next step in their plans for world browser domination. The Mozilla Mobile initiative, which was first announced last October, has reached the functional prototype stage. The developers have released pre-alpha test builds of a mobile Firefox prototype, codenamed Fennec, which we tested and discussed with Mozilla Mobile director Jay Sullivan.” Read the rest of article over at Ars Technica. Mozilla websites, web analytics and privacy Mitchell Baker has written an article about the application of web analytics tools to Mozilla websites. “We live in a world of data; we should be thinking carefully about that data and its impact. [A] core of the Mozilla community is intensely focused on privacy and the individual person’s ability to understand and control personal information. With this in mind, I’ve put together a discussion of a particular data-gathering proposal, together with the safeguards that make me comfortable with it.” You can read the rest of this article at Mitchell’s weblog.
· Firefox 2.0.0.15 released · Mozilla security metrics project The Firefox community is the proud holder of a new Guinness World Record. On July 2nd, Mozilla received confirmation from Guinness that we’ve officially achieved the record for the “largest number of software downloads in 24 hours,” with a final total of 8,002,530 downloads. This is another in a long line of wonderful accomplishments for our community. Ever since Firefox was launched in 2004 we’ve relied on Firefox supporters to help spread the word, and we now have over 180 million users in more than 230 countries. It’s an amazing accomplishment, and we’re all extremely grateful. Don’t forget to get your very own personalized Download Day certificate! Firefox 2.0.0.15 released As part of Mozilla Corporation’s ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 2.0.0.15 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Please note that Firefox 2.0.0.x will be maintained with security and stability updates until mid-December 2008. We encourage you to upgrade to Firefox 3, which is now available at GetFirefox.com. For more information, please see the DevNews blog post. Mozilla security metrics project Mozilla has been working with security researcher and analyst Rich Mogull on developing a metrics model to measure the relative security of Firefox over time. The team is trying to develop a model that goes beyond simple bug counts and more accurately reflects both the effectiveness of secure development efforts and the relative risk to users over time. The goal for the first phase of the project is to build a baseline model that can evolve over time. A preliminary version of the project goals and a spreadsheet of the model have been published by the team. These, along with more information about the project, are available through the Mozilla Security blog. Weave is a Mozilla Labs project focused on building online services into the browser. The project’s goals are to enhance the new Firefox user experience and increase your control over how you share your personal information between computers, and with other people. Version 0.2 is a major update to the Weave client and to the servers than control it, and has significant new features. For more information, including details about the changes, or to try it out for yourself, check out the Mozilla Labs’ weblog post.
· Candidate revisions to Mozilla’s web site privacy policy · Firefox 2.0.0.12 released · Camino 1.5.5 released The support.mozilla.com Firefox Support website now has better localization tools. There’s more work to be done, of course, but a number of important advancements have been made, including automatic language detection based on a browser’s accept-lang setting, the ability to hard-code locales into page URLs, and several improvements to other tools and processes. Lots more information about the recent changes is available on the SUMO blog. John Lilly, the new CEO of Mozilla, appeared on last week’s GigaOM show where he talked about the recent executive changes, the upcoming release of Firefox 3, Mozilla’s mission, the new “MailCo” Mozilla subsidiary, and several other topics. The video is just under fifteen minutes long, and is available through Revision 3. Candidate revisions to Mozilla’s web site privacy policy Mozilla’s websites have grown to be some of the top visited web sites in the world, and this massive increase in traffic has maxed out the capabilities of the current web analytics tools. New tools have been selected that will scale up to meet the new requirements, but are such that some changes to existing website privacy policies are required. Basil Hashem has blogged about the proposed changes and is seeking feedback from the Mozilla community. For more information, including links to the proposed changes and forums for providing feedback, please see Basil’s weblog. Firefox 2.0.0.12 released Last Thursday saw the release of Firefox 2.0.0.12, the latest security and stability update for Firefox 2. It is recommended that all users upgrade to this latest release in order to take advantage of the latest batch of security fixes. If you are still running Firefox 1.5.0.x, you are highly encouraged to upgrade to the Firefox 2 series as Mozilla ceased supporting Firefox 1.5.0.x in May 2007. Simply choose “Check for Updates...” from the Help menu to begin the upgrade process. More information about this release, please review the Firefox 2.0.0.12 release notes. Camino 1.5.5 released The Camino project has recently released Camino 1.5.5, a maintenance release that contains a number of security and stability updates for the browser. It is recommended that all Camino users upgrade to this newest release. More information is available in the Camino 1.5.5 release notes. Last Thursday, the SeaMonkey project released a new version of its all-in-one internet suite. This latest release closes several security vulnerabilities and fixes several smaller issues discovered in earlier versions. All SeaMonkey users are urged to upgrade to this newest version. More information is available through the SeaMonkey blog. Last week Neil Deakin blogged that the XPCOM Reference on XULPlanet has been updated to reflect the most recent XPCOM changes and is now up-to-date for Mozilla 1.9 and Firefox 3.
What’s one way that Google is different from AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft? It’s the only one of the big Internet companies that doesn’t put a link to its privacy policy on its home page. One of the core principles of the group has been that its members should provide “clear and conspicuous notice” of how they collect and uses data. This has been interpreted to mean that a link to a site’s privacy policy should be on its home page. Larry Page, the company’s co-founder, didn’t want a privacy link “on that beautiful clean home page,” said one executive at a Google competitor who is involved in reviewing Google’s N.A.I. application. (The executive didn’t want his name used because the applications are meant to be considered privately.) We believe it is important for consumers to be able to easily find privacy policies and other privacy information. By simply typing ‘Google privacy policy’ into the Google search engine, consumers can easily find not only our privacy policy, but additional information about privacy. When I asked why not simply put the link to the privacy policy on Google’s home page, Mr. Langdon said in another e-mail:
The word “privacy” now appears on Google’s home page, with a link to the company’s privacy policy. With that one word, the Web search giant heads off the growing controversy over whether its previous practice ran afoul of a California law, the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003, which requires the operator of a commercial Web site that collects personal information to link to its privacy policy from its home page. When I wrote in May that Google appears to be violating the law, Google told me that it did not believe that it was required to put a link on its home page. The company said that its privacy policy was easy enough to find, either on the page called “About Google” or by searching for “Google privacy policy” on its search engine. Later, I spoke to Joanne McNabb, the chief of California’s Office of Privacy Protection, who said that her agency believes that Google should have a link to its privacy policy on its home page. After the issue buzzed about the blogosphere, four privacy groups wrote Google urging it to change its practices. Both posts said, “We added this link both to our homepage and to our results page to make it easier for users to find information about our privacy principles.” Neither post mentioned the California law. In the main blog post, Marissa Mayer, the Google vice president who looks after the user interface of its search engine, reiterated that the company believes in keeping its main page short. She said that Google’s two founders told her the word privacy could only be added to the home page if another word was deleted, leaving the page at 28 words. So the copyright notice at the bottom of the page was changed from “© 2008 Google” to “© 2008 - Privacy.” Ms. Mayer wrote that it is implied that Google is the one copyrighting the page.
· Firefox 3 launch: collecting pictures, videos · Camino 1.6.3 released Firefox 3 launch: collecting pictures, videos Alix writes, “The launch of Firefox was amazing with events around the world: download day fests, launch parties, and more! We would like to collect your pictures, videos, and stories from the launch to share with everyone. To do this we have created a new group on spreadfirefox: Firefox 3 launch archive where you can post links to your memories of the launch. If you posted your pictures to flickr and would like to share them, please tag them as ff3launch so we can easily find them.” For more information about the archive, please see Alix’s weblog post. Mike Schroepfer has written a long post outlining why the new support for the “video” and “audio” tags in Firefox 3.1 is important. “Right now millions of users can view videos in their web browsers, but it requires one of several proprietary plug-ins which support proprietary formats. By shipping HTML5 ‘video’ and ‘audio’ with royalty free open source formats in Firefox we hope to make these formats ubiquitous through common usage. Royalty free open source formats will allow all web-browser makers to enable native video and audio playback on all platforms, devices, and environments, without restrictions. Ubiquitous access to content. This is the world we want.” Read Schroepfer’s full post for more detail and for answers to some of the more commonly asked questions about these technologies. Camino 1.6.3 released The latest release of Camino has been announced over on the Camino blog. “We’ve just released Camino 1.6.3, a maintenance release which contains various security and stability updates to Camino 1.6.x. All users are urged to update.” More information can be found in the weblog post.