Firefox 3.6.4 Released But Only For Some

The newest version of Mozilla’s Firefox, version 3.6.4 has been released after much delay. Many will be pleased that the new version’s major update is added protection against  crashing due to third-party plugins such as Adobe Flash, which was one of the main culprits. This new feature is called OOPP, “out-of-process plugins”.

There are many other bug fixes and stability upgrades included in the new version but OOPP is the most welcome. Crash protection utilizes out-of-process plugins technology to run third-party plugins (specifically Flash, Quicktime, and Silverlight) in a separate process. In the past, a plugin crash would take down your entire Firefox browser. With crash protection however, “the browser will stay running while the portions of websites controlled by the plugin will be disabled.” It only takes a refresh to restart the plugin.

Google Chrome already offers such crash protection although it can be annoying when the little dude shows up with a frown, reminiscent of the old Macintosh computer screen of death. Looks as if Firefox followed Google with its own little dude. The disturbing difference is that Firefox will  provide Linux and Windows users crash protection but not for its Mac users claiming it would “would require major changes to Firefox’s infrastructure.” Anyone who has been in close proximity to hear me curse Firefox’s existence when it crashes unexpectedly and often will have to wait until the end of this year when Firefox 4 is released with crash protection for the Mac.
Here is a link to the full release notes.
Let us know what you think about this.