Firefox 12 Released with Updated Updater
by Andrew Cunningham on April 24, 2012 4:15 PM ESTMozilla has just released Firefox 12 to the release channel, six weeks after Firefox 11. Version 12's chief addition to the browser is a new auto-updater for Windows users, which no longer requires administrative privileges to install updates - you'll be prompted once by the UAC the first time you install Firefox, and the browser will update silently after that. If you still want to be notified before updating, you can revert to the old behavior by unchecking "Use a background service to install updates" in Firefox's update preferences. The new auto-updater appears to be a Windows-only change, at least for now; the updater's behavior is unchanged in OS X and Linux.
The other major user-facing change is in Firefox's developer tools, which Mozilla claims introduces 85 improvements, including the addition of line numbers to the Page Source window. Other minor changes include a WebGL performance issue under OS X on certain hardware and a smattering of security fixes, a list of which can be found here.
More information on these changes, as well as on other fixed bugs and known issues, is available in the release notes linked below. Firefox 12 is available for Windows XP, Vista, and 7, as well as OS X 10.5 (Intel), 10.6, and 10.7 and most Linux distributions.
Source: Mozilla
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aguilpa1 - Friday, April 27, 2012 - link
typical smart ass answer, unfortunately despite all the "current" versions somehow, Flash still manages to kill Firefox, often, so no it hasn't been fixed.phoenix_rizzen - Friday, April 27, 2012 - link
That's the theory. Unfortunately, it's not always true in practise. Especially on non-Windows systems.Musafir_86 - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - link
...should be "Firefox Updated to Version 12 with an Updated Updater". :)thegr8anand - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - link
I started using 12 beta when it came out and surprisingly the memory problem I used to have with previous version finally got fixed!In 11 if I let it running for more than 4 hours eventually the memory would increase upto 1.2GB and i could see firefox lagging and had to restart it. Yes this with 5-7 addons and a lot of tabs.
But with version 12 it never goes over 600k under the same load and I can keep it on as long as i want without it lagging!
This for me is a great improvement. I have tried others but none is as good as firefox imo.
Fergy - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - link
Do you use McAfee?thegr8anand - Thursday, April 26, 2012 - link
No, MS:SE and MBAMversesuvius - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - link
Firefox uses upwards of 150k of memory at start up, without any addon. Chrome and Opera use a lot less. While it is true that memory is cheap these days, still it would be nice if Firefox could accomplish the same thing with less memory. It is always good form to write smaller programs with less pressure on hardware resources.I have been the Mozilla browser since version 1.0 and have found it to be quite friendly and productive. However, I have heard more than I can remember that as far as web standards; and to some degree speed, go Opera is the browser to beat.
Spoelie - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - link
Something else is wrong, or that's just spreading FUD.http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/chrome-17-fire...
piroroadkill - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - link
Something's wrong?He said it only uses 150k of RAM at startup!
That's an unheard of low-amount of RAM, if we assume that is 150,000 bits, 18.75 kiB!
I think Mozilla should be commended. They were serious when they said they wanted to reduce bloat, but I didn't know they'd be getting it down this far.
Jedi2155 - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - link
Not necessarily. Afterall 640K ought to be enough for anybody ;).He probably meant 150 K * KB (i.e. he 150k = 150 MB).