The Blog Year In Review: December 2006

December 2006, saw several blog design changes. I am happy to report that the Blog design changes are done (for now). There were new ways to “Spread Firefox” in December with the introduction of four Firefox Flicks TV commercials airing in select markets and several Firefox/Thunderbird wallpapers; Firefox 1.5.0.9, 2.0.0.1 & 3.0a1 along with Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 & 2.0b1 were all released; an update on the Firefox Password Manger vulnerability and what you can do to protect yourself; information about the “Improper Shut-Down” bug. In addition there were a couple posts for testers on migrating profiles and changing your update channel. On Christmas I took a look at Firefox during 2006 and even gave some predictions for 2007. Finally a couple ‘predictions’ articles for your reading pleasure.

December began with some very heartbreaking news about the Kim Family. On Thanksgiving, CNet Editor James Kim and his family were traveling by car in Oregon to family but never arrived. That weekend a massive search began and by some miracle, his wife and two daughters were found alive nearly a week after they went missing. Sadly, the next day rescuers came upon the body of James Kim. CNet’s Greg Sandoval put together a Tribute to James Kim.

Now for some lighter news, predictions for 2007. Open-Source Predictions for 2007 provides some enlightening insight about Linux and Windows Vista. Better yet are the Alt Predictions for 2007, including my favorite: Google acquires itself for an unprecedented $10.4 billion in stock.

Four Firefox Flicks (try saying that three times fast), 30-second TV commercials which aired in Boston and San Francisco areas. These were created by Firefox users and brings new meaning to “Spread Firefox”

While on the theme of Spreading Firefox, how about some wallpapers? Sonickydon has created several Firefox and Thunderbird themed wallpapers.

Ever wondered what all is contained in your Firefox user-agent (build id)? After some extensive research I was able to decipher the Fx user agent.

Part of being a Tester is having multiple profiles for different versions and builds of Firefox. If you have ever had to create a new profile you know it is painful. You are starting with a clean slate (no bookmarks, history, saved passwords, cookies, extensions, themes, etc.). Migrating your existing profile into a new one is not that difficult and makes the process of setting a new profile a little less painful.

Our friend Ryan Wagner at CyberNet tried a little test of his own. He got this crazy idea to install 200 extensions on Firefox 2, just to see “what would happen”. The results may surprise you!

The Update Channel Changer extension allows you to change the update channel, changing the type of updates (releases, betas, nightly, etc) you get. This is recommended for testers or if you need to get custom a Firefox build.

Firefox 2.0.0.1 and both Firefox & Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 were released on December 19th. All of these had several bug fixes although the Firefox 2.0.0.1 release had the most bug fixes.

However neither of these versions fixed the Firefox Password Manger vulnerability which was exposed last month. However, there are couple minor tweaks that can be done to protect you until this is fixed in the 1.5.0.10 & 2.0.0.2 builds due out in January.

While on the topic of bugs and Firefox 2, WinXP users who don’t close their browser prior to shutting down Windows are experiencing what is being called the Improper Shutdown Bug. This is also slated to be fixed in the Firefox 2.0.0.2 release.

2006 was a great year for Firefox. After many hours of exhaustive research I put together The Fx Year In Review.

Happy New Years!!!