Major updates for Firefox 1.5 users rolling out

Firefox 1.5.0.12 users are now being offered a major update to Firefox 2.0.0.4 the most recent, supported Firefox version.

This is the first time a major update is being rolled out since Firefox’s praised update mechanism was introduced with Firefox 1.5 so it can be considered its final test. In fact, the major update was scheduled for about a week ago, but some bugs were found with some specific languages so it was delayed some days.

Firefox 1.5.0.12 users are strongly encouraged to update not only for the additional features Firefox 2 includes: anti phishing, spell checking, improved web feed subscription, search engine manager, tab overflow, better popup blocking, live titles and session restore; but most importantly because it’s no longer supported by Mozilla and there will be no more security updates for the 1.5 branch.

The update process is pretty straightforward. You will be prompted with a dialog window like the one shown here. Press Get the new version. In the next screen, accept the update license terms and the update download will start. Surprisingly the update is larger than a full Firefox 2 download but it is without a doubt the easiest way to get it.

It will take a few minutes for the download to complete and a matter of seconds for the update to take place.