btw, Mozilla is US based, isn't that? Why do you start this time in the night? Do you prefer home users to be the first ones who get the update?

two reasons I believe...to reduce bandwidth issue (less people at night) and also incase of a problem, can fix before morning when most people will receive the notification to update

hmmm, interesting.

With all the talk of number of downloads vs. actual market share, this seems like a pretty acurate way of figuring out how many active installs are out there. Cool.

Hope you're tracking the server logs ... and you let us know ... and MS lets us know theirs so we can compare ... OK I'm dreaming ... and I'm a stats junkie

Slightly OT: "Sidebar: Microsoft's New Browser Plan Miffs Win2k Users", Article in Computerworld:

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,100052,00.html

Windows 2000 users are left behind by MS because the fabulous new MSIE 7 (right now, just a glint in the eyes of the coders) does not support Win2000. Dies anybody know a state-of-the-art browser that runs well on Windows 2000? HotJava? Lynx? Or could it be ... Mozilla Firefox!

lol pretty dumb move on M$'s part.

Anyways, Asa what were the download stats from last week?

Does automatic update of the browser (not extensions) work, if you are not online as "administrator" on Windows or "root" on Linux/Unix (= have no write access to installation directory)?

--Thomas

When will the 1.0.1 update be available in my language - en-GB!!
On the side note, WinXP is just windows2000 with a new skin, there is no difference! (The engines even report as NT5.0 for 2000 and NT5.1 for XP) There is no actual good reason why IE7 cannot run on windows2000, they both have exactly the same API and technologies - this is the most blatent marketing move to force happy win2000 users to upgrade that there has ever been. And if they come out with the same "XPSP2 cannot be ported to 2000 because of 'technological limitations'" I'm going to go homicidal, Firefox is twice as secure as IE6SP2 and it can be run on friggen Windows95! Sort your bloody act out Microsoft. >:[

I second the en-GB comment :) . I noticed there's a en-GB in http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-aviary1.0.1-l10n/ from yesterday but I don't know whether that's what we can use.

What exactly is the differance for UK users with the localised build? Surely it must be negligable?

I've allways just used the default US version and haven't noticed anything outrageously American :D

"What exactly is the differance for UK users with the localised build? Surely it must be negligable?"

It's not huge, but it's not negligable - there are a fair number of US spellings (-ize, -or, dialog) and other Americanisms (trash) in the UI, and many more in the built-in help. And then there are UK versions of search and default bookmark URLs.

I generally use en-US builds as well, as I'm using often development stuff and that makes it easier. But if you try a GB build, you will notice the differences. I don't imagine that any British people would actually have a problem with understanding the en-US build, but I'm sure there are people that prefer not to have Americanisms all over their software.

+1 vote for en-GB

Another vote for an en-GB 1.0.1.

Using 1.0 en-US (zip build) on WinXP and the autoupdate did not find anything to update.

Yes, we want en-GB 1.0.1.

I'm waiting for the Swedes to push SE-sv 1.0.1, so I can update all my friends' & relatives' comps.

Same as Hanspeter: en-US and winXP (SP2), autoupdate didn't find any updates :(

Hanspeter and Leo leon,

I could be wrong but, please notice Asa's last update to his blog entry:

"Ugh, seems like we were serving bits up to Mac and Linux users which didn't work. We've temporarily pulled the update while we investigate."

With the german locale the update doesn't work.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de-DE; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041122 Firefox/1.0

Just several extensions are listed after checking for updates.

I read that as meaning that the Mac/linux parts were pulled, not the Win stuff as well. But you could be right.

Question though, the web site recommends a full install and uninstall of the old version. Will the update fully remove all vulnerable parts?

In any way Mozilla is the best 8)

Here's the page to keep your eyes on people - http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/all.html

Asa, before 1.0.1 en-GB is compiled can someone please change the phrase "save to disc" on the download manager to "save to disk", this has nothing to do with British-English - a disC is always optical-media and a disK is always magnetic media in both en-US and en-GB!

Kroc: You might want to Mark Tyndall - http://www.tyndall.org.uk/ - I think he's in charge of the strings for the en-gb language packs.

As for the differences between British and American English, it's a few spellings and alternative words - "Deleted Items" instead of "Trash", "Fill in" instead of "Fill out" (we fill in forms instead of filling them out) and "Postcode" instead of "ZIP".

Asa,

I have seen people discussing in the forums that there is going to be a 1.0.2 coming soon. Is this true?

Is it possible to spread the official word about need of admin rights when using Automatic Update? That update starting timeline was discussed on the BugTraq list http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/391836 linking to this blog (earlier posting) and in the IT online news too.
Screenshot samples of that update arrow symbols needed too for non-geek users ;-)
Greetings from many fi-FI users here in Finland.

de-DE update doesn't work, asking for update again and again

Yep, german version won't update. Thank god that is Firefox and not IE, 'cos we would wait for a fix for years ;)

Updated a Windows 2000 machine by telling Firefox to check for updates.

That started a check, then FF downloaded the installation file to the desktop, started the install, spotted that Firefox was running, and asked for permission to close Firefox, at which it was unsuccessful as a dialogue appeared grumbling that Firefox was still up and running.

However it then closed and overwrote the old version with the new.

The new installation finished and presented the 'Start firefox now and would you like to set your home page to Firefox's' which is probably unneccessary with existing users.

After which Firefox was happy.

However the control panel Add/remove programs' wasn't: it had both 1 and 1.01 listed. Selecting the version 1 and uninstalling it removed Firefox from the machine. It happily reinstalled from the downloaded installation file though: that was still on the desktop.

So the impression is 'OK but could do better.'

Hope this helps. Firefox certainly does but you know that don't you ...

Mark

I'm using windows but the dutch update won't work. Browser keeps checking for updates but doesn't seem to find any.

Another "Please" for en-GB :)

Would it break anything to use a 1.0 en-GB.xpi in a 1.0.1 release, or would that be a Bad Idea (bearing in mind, BTW, that I never read the help files)

Update alert and update seem to work fine. But why can't we get some more information about the update - why is it critical ?

Did the en-US update on Windows NT 4.0 this morning.

Downloaded fine, installed OK but installed it in the original firefox directory. Also, created a second entry in the "Add/Remove" menu, which seems to indicate that it did not uninstall the original.

Themes and extensions seem OK so overall, a pleasant experience. Will do Windows XP tonight (on home machine) and will report on the auto-update....

Is there any plans for auto-update on Linux and OSX soon?

Maybe, Mozilla should have a built in bittorent client specicaly for the software update. It would relieve the Mozilla servers of a lot of traffic. I believe thats how updates are delivered in Linux. Mozilla probably wouldn't have to write the bittorent client. Most bittorent clients I have seen are open source so they could find one that would be easy to fit into Firefox and has a license that would allow it to be used in the browser.

Performed an update on en-US (no en-GB yet :( ) on Win XP

Following points to be outlined:

-Update window hung for a few minutes after download completed. I was about to close it but eventually wisely waited for it to wake up

-How come do we need to download a full installer each time for an update? When update needs to be released quickly for security, it would be so much better to just have a patcher

-When restarting FF after reinstall, I was told that extensions would be disabled. They effectively were but not displayed as such on the extensions list. I then had to disable/re-enable all of them manually :(

-Common pb of duplicate entry in "Installed programs" list. In my case when I uninstalled FF1.0 it deleted my beta-testing version for bug tracking (installed in a separate folder) and automatically closed my instance of FF1.0.1 running. I think multi-versions, installation instances should be made more consistent

Otherwise I'm still alive and life goes on...!

WinXP Pro user here in Canada, and my auto-update went off without a hitch, it appears. I have difficulty logging into Gmail occasionally, but that may have been happening in previous versions too...I don't recall.

disk vs. disc Disk is preferred. Merriam-Webster uses floppy disk, hard disk.
It appears that disc originated from geeks who couldn't spell and wouldn't take the time to look it up.

Did the en-US update, also ended up with two entries in the installed programs list. Otherwise all my extentions are still working - very happy :-)

Yet another note to point out that there still isn't an official en-GB release - at least as far as I've found.

Re: disc/k - there's a strong tradition of using the classic British spelling, or at least A tradition. Right from the beginning of the 80s all the Acorn computers, including the Electron, all BBC models and the Archimedes machines right up to the fêted (and fated) Phoebe, all used disc in preference to disk for both optical and magnetic media. As Sinclair support for diskette (or discette) media was rather narrow, I must confess my ignorance. Now in the age of international computing the difference is clearly neglegible, but for personal preference I use C when referring to opticals and K for magnetic. It seems right, due to the en-US domination of computing terms, but for when the object in question is clearly a disc! (i.e. Compact Disc, Mini Disc, Digital Video/Versatile Disc)

Gosh that was off-topic and long.

CJB

Disc is the official moniker for Compact 'Discs'. Disk is the appropriate term for any other magneto-optical spinning contraption. Expcept possibly LP albums...but they are so big they are considered a platter or record and nobody ever dares to call them discs or disks. DVDs are generally refered to simply as DVDs, and the disc/disk is implied foreknowledge.

Disk != Disc
Disk ~ True
Disc ~ True

The upgrade process leaves an orphaned Firefox-1.0 entry in Add Remove Programs.

Running Win XP SP2 with admin rights at time of upgrade.

10:22
Initial upgrade warning is vague and “scary” like Microsoft’s. You may want to provide better information than “Critical update. Install to protect your computer.” I thought that was why I was using FF; so I didn’t have to worry about these things.

Note: This last statement is meant to be sarcastic. Other than tabbed browsing and slightly better render times, the only real claim to fame for FF, for the average user, is that it is “more secure” than IE; having to install “Critical” updates starts to erode its strongest attribute.

10:22
Initial “Installing Updates” form came up and says “now downloading and installing updates.” I am monitoring network traffic, cpu usage, etc and see no activity.

10:24
Progress bar still hasn’t moved. No network traffic and no cpu activity.

10:25
Noticed that the “Cancel” button is grayed out. Not very useful.

10:27
Nothing

10:28
Fired up both IE and FF to see if my internet connection was still working and if anything had changed in FF. Still on version 1.0.

10:29
Still no activity on updater.

10:30
Okay, this is dead. I clicked the “X” in the top right corner to close the updater and it closed with no message. I couldn’t click cancel because it was grayed out. FF 1.0 is still installed and seems to be working fine.

Overall, not a good experience.

As a side note, not related to the upgrade, I am now only getting pop-up windows in FF (yes, the blocker is still enabled and blocking most adds). IE still seems to be blocking them. If you can’t keep up with your initial promises for FF, then it will fall apart. While FF was still unknown, and not being attacked, it was obviously a good replacement for IE. But now, as it becomes more popular, for users and attackers, your margin of “goodness” is slipping. I like the product, but I am seeing less value added every day.

Aaron