Many Mac users favor Apple's Safari web browser, but Firefox is growing in poularity with the Mac faithful. The latest version of the popular Firefox browser, release 3.0.2, addresses three nagging Mac-related bugs that have been frustrating certain users. The specifics from the Firefox 3.0.2 release notes state:
Fixed Mac-specific issues:
- Keyboard shortcuts would stop working in some cases.
- Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Indic characters can not be entered (using IME) into text fields in Flash objects (bug 357670)
- Firefox 3.0.1 could not be used when the user profile is stored on an AFP directory (bug 417037)
I've personally run into problems with the keyboard shortcuts, so I'm glad to see this getting fixed.
In addition to these Mac-related fixes, this upgrade to Firefox includes five important security fixes. Two of these vulnerabilities that have been found in Firefox 3 are considered "critical" because they could cause either memory corruption or privilege escalation. So there's a good reason to upgrade Firefox, even if you are not effected by the three specific Mac issues.
One of the disadvantages of using a non-Apple browser like Firefox is you won't be able to update it via your system's automatic Software Update process. Thankfully, Firefox makes it very easy to upgrade. Just select "Check for Updates" from the "Help" pull-down menu and you'll be taken to a download link if there is a newer version of Firefox available. You can also set up Firefox to automatically check for updates by going into Firefox's Preferences menu, selecting the "Advanced" tab, and selecting "Update".
Since the 3.0.2. upgrade to Firefox fixes three Mac-specific issues and addresses five important security bugs, there's probably no reason to wait for this upgrade. I don't tend to be an early-adopter when it comes to things like software upgrades -- too many times I've seen bad bugs emerge in that latest "must have" version of a program. But I have seen no complaints anywhere about any problems with Firefox 3.0.2 and it has been running flawlessly on my system since upgrading.