August 2006, begins with the announcement Firefox had been download over 200 million times! But the news was not all good, reports of a Trojan-Horse within a Firefox extension and Firefox 2 is delayed yet again ( but Beta 2 would get released). Then there was the much unexpected Firefox 1.5.0.6 release. Also featured a couple neat Firefox related sites. Plus the huge out-cry over the Windows Vista Boot up Sound!

• Big celebration at the beginning of August with the news of the 200 Millionth download of Firefox. In case you are wondering as of this writing the number of download is now around 277 Million!
• A modified Numbered Links 0.9 extension (Trojan-Horse captured and sent banking information along with passwords. This was installed when user inadvertently installed a piece of Windows malware, Downloader-AXM. The malware was contained (as an attachment) within a spoof e-mail from WalMart.com. The moral of the story: don’t open e-mail attachments!

• More delays for Firefox 2, this time the Beta 2 release. This delay was so the developers could finish up the visual refresh for Firefox 2. Sadly though, it would get delayed again because of the burrito-overflow bug.
• However there was some good news with Firefox 2. A NewsForge interview with Mozilla Corp.’s Vice President of Engineering, Mike Schroepfer touches on Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 release schedules.
• Within a few days of the latest Firefox 1.5 update, Mozilla had to do an emergency release with Firefox 1.5.0.6. This fixed the problems with Windows Media Player plug-in not working that were created with the 1.5.0.5 release.

• With all the delays with Firefox 2b2 and since things were quiet with the 1.5 builds, I did a few Something Different posts. Let’s start with An Unusual Way To Promote Firefox, then lets take a tour of The Mozilla Museum!

• In late August Microsoft found another way to annoy the future Windows Vistas users. They had announced users would not be allowed to disable The Windows Vista Boot-up Sound.

“A short, brief, positive confirmation that your machine is now conscious and ready to react.”

Steve Ball, Program Manager, Windows Audio Video Excellence Team

• It’s the last day of August and it’s finally here! The Firefox 2 Beta 2 Milestone that is! This milestone release included the much anticipated Visual Refresh and a couple minor tweaks.

July

2006 Index

September