Competitor Google Chrome has offered automatic updates ever since the browser was released in 2008. According to Mozilla, Firefox will use a better automatic update technology compared to Chrome.
When Chrome automatically updates, the updated files are loaded into the user’s My Files folder. In this way, Chrome can bypass the UAC security feature in Windows that requires updated files downloaded from the Internet to be approved by the user first.
– We have chosen not to go that route as it can create administrative problems for those who want to have control over the updates themselves, writes Brian Bondy at Mozilla in a blog post.
However, the full implementation of automatic updates will not be ready until Firefox 13 which is released this summer. This means that in Firefox 12, users still have to agree to automatic updates before they are installed.
Today is also the last day for Firefox 3.6, which as of now has been retired and will not receive any more security updates.
If you want to download the finished version of Firefox 12 right now, you can go to Mozilla’s ftp server. The Swedish Windows version can be found here, and the Swedish version for Mac can be found here.