I notice firefox 12 is on the horizon. I'm sure I am not the only one to be irritated by the version numbering game. As Smoothwall's Web Filtering Product Manager, keeping up with which versions of popular browers we need to support is like shooting moving targets with a fairground rifle whilst wearing comedy nose glasses.
Version 12 though has a special place for me, as it's going to save me a job - updating my parents' web browser! Being a fairly security minded type chap, I have had them using Firefox - yeah, I know, there's not a lot of difference between the major browsers any more, but when I set their first PC up, it was night and day. I also never gave them admin rights - there's just no need. Or there shouldn't be. The one thing that's been missing all these years though is background updates. Finally, 12 has Silent Service Update - so they'll be able to have the latest version, and I won't have to scoot round the house with my admin creds when I pop in for Sunday lunch!
Great start by Mozilla - and good to see they're going to offer SSU to other software vendors, I always thought it was a shame other products couldn't use Windows Update. I instinctively uninstall Adobe's bloated PDF reader in favour of Sumatra (which is still an Admin-only update, but a lot less prone to attack), but my arch enemy lives on - Java. Next time I am in Wakefield, I'll be working out whether my folks really need a JVM.
PS. Yes, I know Chrome does this already, but I wasn't up for the support overhead of a new browser!
We all work in the internet security industry, and as such we're involved with a wide range of technologies, markets and people.
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(N.B. The opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors, and not those of Smoothwall ltd or Smoothwall inc.)
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