Gradual Panic!

It took us years and years and years to reach Firefox version 4 but with only a few months passing since its most awaited release we already find ourselves ready to download version 6.

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Dear Firefox,

When we met you were chiselled, toned and good looking. You turned my head from the ball and chain that was Internet Explorer and promised me a life of fast, carefree internet and you delivered.

I was your companion through the last 5 regenerations but over time the sheen of our love has faded. You’ve become slow, bloated and unresponsive. Over the years people have continuously fed you burgers and filled you to bursting point. I’ve tried to turn a blind eye but the affects are starting to show.

I know you’ve tried to change (twice in the last few months) but it’s too late.

I don’t know how to say this but there is someone else. Her name is Chrome and she’s sleek, sexy and gives me everything that I ask for without question. She changes whenever I need her to and even lets me play with her more advanced if less stable older sister.

I’m sorry that it’s come to this but Chrome has been asking that she is currently not my default browser. I’ve just said yes.

I wish you all the love and luck in the world but I need to move on.

Regrettably

Paul xxx

By the time you read this the long awaited final release of Firefox 4 should have finally happened. In fact the release softly started today with keen eyed techies spying download links to the latest browser that originally was scheduled for a November 2011 launch.

So what’s changed? Well the first thing you’ll notice is a brand new look. The interface has been completely re-written to give you more screen real estate but if you grabbed last weeks release of Internet Explorer 9 you’ll notice that it and Firefox 4 look a heck of a lot like Google Chrome. I think it’s going to take some time to get used to it but I do like the features such as revealing the old school menus if you need them just by hitting the ALT key. But if you’re a fan of the old look you can restore this in the settings.

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So you may have heard on the grapevine that the German government are advising their poplous not to use Internet Explorer. Today they were joined the French sharing the same sentiment. So what’s all the fuss about?

Well it was all sparked by the recent cyber attacks in China for which Google have become embroiled. I won’t go into it in depth but basically it exposed another one of those lovely vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s flagging browser. The vulnerability is in all versions of IE but the advice is, if you insist on using IE make sure you’re running the latest version, IE8. To check your version load up IE, then click on help and then the about option. If you’re only on version 7 or even worse 6 go grab the latest version here.

Obviously those Firefox, Chrome and Safari users can chill out… for now!!!

Additional 26/01/2010

Microsoft have now released a patch for the vulnerability for all versions of IE. Direct download links can be found below.

Windows XP

• Internet Explorer 8
• Internet Explorer 7
• Internet Explorer 6

Windows Vista

• Internet Explorer 8

Windows 7

• 32 Bit
• 64 Bit