New Firefox Beta Adds Faster Navigation, More Mac Support
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Updated: Mozilla releases Firefox 1.5 Beta 1, a preview of the next major release of its popular open-source-based browser.
Mozilla released Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 (code-named Deer Park) on Friday, a preview of the next major release of its popular open-source-based browser. The company said the beta is intended for the early adopter community, Web site and Web application developers, and Firefox extension developers, and does not come with technical support.Later in the day, Mozilla also announced it has posted a new workaround for a potentially serious security flaw in which hackers could remotely execute arbitrary code on an affected host.
Click here to read about Firefoxs gains in user share against Internet Explorer.
In extensions, Answers.com has replaced Dictionary.com for built-in dictionary lookup. "We received a lot of user requests for this," Beard said.
Beard said the application is faster overall thanks to the next-generation Gecko layout engine the application uses.
"There has been a full years worth of development on it, the code is a lot tighter, and it gets pages and renders them faster from the Web," Beard said.
Mozilla has taken a tip from Microsoft Corp. and other software makers in adding an automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of updates is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved, Mozilla said.
For more technical users, Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 now provides better accessibility support, which includes DHTML accessibility, security enhancements and new support for Web standards—including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6, Mozilla said.
The beta release apparently still has a serious security flaw involving buffer overflows. Security researcher Tom Ferris of Security-Protocols.com posted an advisory and a proof of concept about the buffer overflow security problem to his Web site Thursday night.
"A buffer overflow vulnerability exists within Firefox version 1.0.6 and all other prior versions (including the new beta) which allows for an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code on a affected host," Ferris said. A bug fix was not issued for the vulnerability with the Friday release.
Next Page: Bug fixes are a priority. 
Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz
