Firefox - the Aurora and beta channels

Got an update for the beta on Ubuntu. But it was a full one since I moved from b2 to b4. Actually, b3 wasn't released via Help, About. At the rate at which skeletons are tumbling out of the certificates cupboard, there maybe more "chemspill" updates merely on that score

 

Shorter cycles to come?

Source: Post by Christian Legnitto here -http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.planning/browse_thread/thread/9af570785f31411c#-

The armchair critics of rapid versioning will explode!

 

Even quicker than now? Unbelievable.

 

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/ now has -http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-aurora/firefox-11.0a2.en-US.linux-i686.tar.bz2- but I'm going to sleep over it and will pick it up tomorrow.

 

Firefox beta channel was successfully updated to 10.0b1.

I updated using Help > About Firefox > Check for Updates. It went flawlessly for my Portable Firefox Beta from PortableApps.com. No need to wait. Very good!

 

Updated my Aurora.

 

http://www.ghacks.net/2011/12/24/firefox-11-whatd-new-what-has-changed/

Anyone?

 

It looks like Mozilla have been working on sandboxing anyway.

 

I don't expect that anytime soon.

 

There's no mention of sandboxing here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Features/Release_Tracking

That would imply, at least to me, that even Fx 13 won't have anything of the sort.

 

Well, with the RRC maybe by Fx 14?

 

What is "RRC"

If you mean rapid release cycle, that is what we've been in since Fx 5. And my feeling is that there won't be any Sandboxing in the way Chrome does it even until Fx 20

 

If ever. They've said they aren't pursuing multiprocess architecture. Without that there won't be sandboxing on the level that Chrome provides.

The article says they're "looking closely at it" but we'll see.

 

Well, the way things are RRC-ing that will be in a couple of months then.

 

IDK, surely any level is an improvement?

Yeah, they've been saying that for a while now I believe. It could mean anything.

 

Recently on a Reddit AMA they stated that they weren't super interested in sandboxing and would focus on other areas. They'd also put electrolysis on hold.

JIT hardening will be nice. They say their engine is resistant but I wish they'd give details.

http://www.matasano.com/research/Attacking_Clientside_JIT_Compilers_Paper.pdf

Reading this at the moment.

 

I suppose it's another case of us waiting & seeing. I'm fairly patient. I used to have Opera as my default browser ... you need patience for that LOL.

 

Implementing these mitigations late in the game is a bummer. Some of these mitigations can/will break or slow things down.

Still, I'm hoping it gets done soon.

 

Yeah, that's inevitable I suppose. I have faith in the Mozilla devs though, they drastically turned Firefox around (with a little prompting by Chrome).

Firefox is finally my default browser again, after quite some time. I'd rather they get it right than soon.

 

It's a six weeks cycle.

 

I don't see where it's even implied that they're going to be releasing a sandboxed Firefox. They're "looking at it strongly" or whatever but the security team just recently said they aren't to keen on the idea.