Mozilla recommends upgrading from Firefox 3.0.x to 3.5.x

Think Fast! Firefox suggests you upgrade Over the next few days, users of the latest version of Firefox 3.0 will see an information pop-up advising them to upgrade to version 3.5 of the browser. According to a developer blog from Mozilla, the pop-up informs users that Firefox 3.5.2 is twice as fast as Firefox 3.0.13 and includes new features. Previously, in order to stumble upon the new version, Firefox 3.0 users needed to specifically search for updates.

The information pop-up offers users the option of downloading Firefox 3.5 immediately, downloading it later, or skipping it completely. Although the pop-up informs users of potential add-on incompatibilities, users will only find out whether updates for their installed add-ons are available after upgrading to the new version of Firefox. The Mozilla development team says that 90 percent of add-ons have either been updated for version 3.5, or new version have been created.

Mozilla has, according to its own statistics, recently celebrated its one billionth download since version 1.0 was released in November 2004. According to media reports, this figure has been questioned by Amy Barzdukas, product manager at Microsoft, who cautioned that big numbers in PR statements should always be viewed with scepticism. Barzdukas said "It's an interesting number and I have not seen the math [but] how many internet connected users are there? 1.1 billion, 1.5 billion, something in that area". Internet World Stats puts the world total for internet users at around 1.59 billion and many Firefox users will have downloaded the browser more than once.

(djwm)