Ithaca College

Have you noticed that Firefox and Thunderbird seem to release a major new version every few months? Version 4 was just released in the spring, version 5 came in June, and version 6 arrived a few days ago.

Recent Mozilla news states that both Firefox and Thunderbird are on a new rapid-release schedule, which will produce a new version approximately every 6 weeks. One reason for the faster release schedule is to allow security and bug fixes to be provided within weeks instead of months.

In the past, ITS has always advised caution when it came to upgrading to a major new browser version, in order to allow for thorough testing of compatibility with our enterprise applications such as Homer, Parnassus and Blackboard. Now, the new versions are coming at such a rapid pace and are being "pushed" to users so quickly after release that there simply isn't time for ITS, let alone the makers of our enterprise applications, to do any testing before the new versions are available to users.

It's important to keep in mind that while the new version numbers may sound like major releases, they really aren't. Users are likely to notice very little in the way of changes as these new versions arrive. One caveat to be aware of is with "add-ons"; if you've installed add-ons for Thunderbird or Firefox, they may not be compatible with the new releases until the developer of the add-on provides an update. As with any upgrade of supported software, please contact the Helpdesk if you experience problems with any new versions.

Information Technology Services
helpdesk@ithaca.edu
4-1000
104 Job Hall