Are the browser wars about to flare up once again? That's a possibility after Mozilla, the creators of the Firefox web browser, announced that Microsoft has made a decision not to allow any other web browser, except Microsoft's own Internet Explorer 10, from being run on PCs and tablets that have the ARM-based version of Windows 8 (also known as WindowsRT) installed while in the Windows Classic (desktop) mode.

In a post on Mozilla's blog titled "Windows on ARM Users Need Browser Choice Too", Mozilla's General Counsel Harvey Anderson states:

Why does this matter to users? Quite simply because Windows on ARM -as currently designed- restricts user choice, reduces competition and chills innovation.  By allowing only IE to perform the advanced functions of a modern Web browser, third-party browsers are effectively excluded from the platform. This matters for users of today’s tablets and tomorrow’s PCs

Read the full post HERE!

Holy crap. And it took someone THIS long to figure this out? I have no idea why I am bitching. It's not like I could figure it out. 

Mozilla very recently made a breakthrough that has not yet been picked up by any tech news site out there. In fixing the memory leak, Mozilla developer Kyle Huey explains how he fixed add-on memory leaks once and for all in the web browser.

My approach takes advantage of the fact that chrome code lives in a separate compartment from web page code. This means that every reference from chrome code to content code goes through a cross-compartment wrapper, which we maintain in a list. When the page is navigated, or a tab is closed, we reach into chrome compartment and grab this list. We go through this list and “cut” all of the wrappers that point to objects in the page we’re getting rid of. The garbage collector can then reclaim the memory used by the page that is now gone.

In layman terms, Firefox is now blocking add-ons from accessing content in the browser that does not exist anymore. 

Read the entire article.

If you're reading this article, you are likely more security conscious and tech-aware than the majority of computer users. Most people just want to be able to have a computer for basic tasks and everyday living, but never consider the security hazards they leave themselves open to. If anyone was to send some of the less aware computer users a link to a malicious Java or Flash file they almost definitely would fall for it, hook, line, and sinker. Mozilla wants to change that.

As Sophos observes, the company is adding "click-to-play" functionality to Firefox 14. At present, the version of Firefox released on the normal stream is 12, though Mozilla's aggressive releases mean that the feature will trickle down quickly. Click-to-play functionality is not exclusive to Firefox, with the Opera web browser also including the functionality. The change also means that Firefox will consume less memory when in use, going some distance to relieve the browser of its memory consumption issues, for which it is notorious.

Users who have used NoScript or Flashblock will know what Mozilla are adding: the black box signifying a plugin, which can then be clicked to enable it.

Neowin has the details HERE!

Mozilla will give Firefox 3.6 the coup de grace next month by automatically upgrading users of that 2010 browser to Firefox 12.

The move isn't a first for the open-source developer: A year ago, it gave Firefox 3.5 the same auto-upgrade death blow.

According to Alex Keybl, Firefox's release manager, the automatic upgrade of Firefox 3.6 to Firefox 12 will take place in early May, although a date has not yet been set.

The decision to push Firefox 3.6 users to a newer edition has been under discussion for several weeks. In late March, Keybl brought it up on a Mozilla planning discussion thread, saying that the proposal was needed to keep users safe while they browsed.

Computerworld has the information HERE!