Firefox 3.5.7 fix could 'goose' browser upgrades

Mozilla has released Firefox 3.5.7 and 3.0.17 Tuesday to fix a common crash problem and an issue in which people weren't getting much of a suggestion that they should upgrade.

Firefox is supposed to prominently tell users when a major upgrade is available, but Mozilla was puzzled by recent data suggesting fewer than expected people actually installed the new version, according to a bug report.

"What's happening is that users who do not leave their browser open for 12 hours...will never see the major update dialog, only a little notification slider," said Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's director of Firefox, in a December comment.

He wasn't happy that the earlier process didn't work as he'd expected, but saw a silver lining to the change: "We need to fix this immediately on all branches. Added bonus: we're about to goose our Firefox 3.5 numbers!"

The programmers also fixed a high-priority problem that was causing Firefox to crash. Both changes also were made in the 3.0.17 update, Mozilla said.

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