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Mozilla issues quick-fix Firefox updates

A surprise bug didn't affect many people, but because it blocked Firefox from loading, Mozilla issues updates as fast as possible.

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Stephen Shankland principal writer
Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and writes about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science Credentials
  • I've been covering the technology industry for 24 years and was a science writer for five years before that. I've got deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and other dee
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Stephen Shankland

Mozilla released on Wednesday two new versions of Firefox, 3.6.10 (Windows | Mac | Linux) and 3.5.15, to deal with a surprise problem that was crashing the browser during launch.

Mozilla had released the preceding versions a week earlier but cut off downloads when the bug emerged.

The problem hadn't reared its head particularly prominently in pre-release test versions, release manager Christian Legnitto said in a bug comment.

"Interesting that this doesn't show up in the top 300 crashes in 3.6.9pre or 3.5.12pre," he said. However, he pointed out in a follow-up remark, "Though this was a spike, the overall 'crashiness' of Firefox 3.6.x has not really increased at all. At about 1k [1,000] crashes a day, this crash is a drop in the bucket vs. active daily users."

"Because it is a crash on start-up that could prevent people from using Firefox entirely, we feel it was best to get a fix out quickly," he added.