Mozilla works on 'silent updates' for Firefox

As it released its latest beta for its Firefox browser, Mozilla continued to work on on "silent updates" to minimize interruptions in the use of the product. In a blog post, Mozilla outlined at least five update improvements it is working on, and how they should improve a user's Firefox update experience. "Over the past few months we’ve been working on a number of improvements to the Firefox update experience. These improvements use new approaches to update that allow Firefox to update silently – without any interruption to your regular use of the browser," Firefox engineering program manager Lawrence Mandel said. Mandel said the first update improvement involves background updates, where a new update installation method lets Firefox install updates while it is running. He said that while Firefox still needs to restart to apply the update, "the application of the update will happen very quickly ... that you shouldn’t even notice it." The new version of Firefox will then launch with no delay as the update procedure has already taken place, he added. A second improvement is a reminder to restart Firefox, especially if a security update has been detected. Mandel said that instead of appearing 12 hours after an update is downloaded, a prompt to restart will appear 24 hours after doing so. He cited research that showed more than 99 percent of Firefox users restart their browser within 24 hours without prompting. "The impact of extending the prompt period was considered minimal, so in November we changed the notification period to 24 hours," he said. He added this change means most Firefox users will restart their browser without being prompted and will never see the Update Ready to Install dialog again. The third improvement involves the User Access Control (UAC) dialog, where Mozilla is working on a new update service that will no longer prompt the user to grant permission for the Firefox update to be applied. But Mendel hinted this may take time as it will be rolled out initially in Firefox's Aurora (early test) stage. A fourth improvement lets Firefox consider add-ons as compatible by default. "These changes should result in more of your add-ons being compatible on day zero of a release. This means less work for you and less work for add-on authors. This also means Firefox updates should download without any prompting by the Incompatible Add-ons dialog," he said. The fifth improvement is a "What’s New Page" that is displayed in Firefox after the browser is updated. As of Firefox 8, the "What’s New" page can now be turned on or off per release. "The five updates detailed in this post will result in a silent Firefox update experience that continues to keep your browser up-to-date, current with the latest Web features, and secure," Mendel said. — LBG, GMA News