Google has tied a previously unknown spyware operation to a private company in Spain after receiving an anonymous tip-off regarding the malicious activity.

Its Threat Analysis Group (TAG) said the evidence suggests that Barcelona-based Variston IT has developed an exploit framework which leveraged zero days in Windows Defender, Firefox, and Chrome.

Google said the operation tied to Variston IT had developed the Heliconia framework which itself was split into smaller frameworks that exploited different systems and applications, like Windows and Chrome. The product gives customers all the tools needed to deploy a payload to a target device.

The frameworks included mature source code that could deploy the exploits. The first was Heliconia Noise, a web framework used to deploy an exploit for a Chrome renderer bug, followed by a sandbox escape.

Heliconia Soft was a separate web framework that dropped a malicious PDF to exploit a vulnerability in Windows Defender. The third and final framework was called Files - it consisted of a set of exploits targeting Firefox versions on both Windows and Linux systems.

The three companies targeted in the exploit, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google, fixed the vulnerabilities in 2021 and early 2022. Google said it hadn’t detected active exploitation of the now-patched vulnerabilities, but instead predicted that they were used as zero-days in earlier attacks.

The tech giant only became aware of the Heliconia framework when it received an anonymous submission to its Chrome bug reporting programme.

“The submitter filed three bugs, each with instructions and an archive that contained source code,” said Google TAG researchers in a blog post. “They used unique names in the bug reports including, ‘Heliconia Noise,’ ‘Heliconia Soft’, and ‘Files'.

"TAG analysed the submissions and found they contained frameworks for deploying exploits in the wild and a script in the source code included clues pointing to the possible developer of the exploitation frameworks, Variston IT.”

Heliconia Noise, for example, leaked the name of the company in a line of code that prevented the framework from generating binaries containing strings such as 'Variston'.

The same for loop in Heliconia Noise's code also leaked the aliases of the developers who worked on the project: majinbuu, janemba, and freezer - all references to characters in the Dragon Ball manga franchise.

Google said that commercial spyware is used by governments to spy on journalists, human rights activists, and political opposition through its advanced surveillance abilities. The tech giant is aiming to disrupt the threat of these types of companies to protect users and raise awareness of the industry, it said.

IT Pro has contacted Variston for comment. It appears to be registered at an address in Barcelona and was founded by Jayaraman Ramanan and Ralf Dieter Wegener in 2018, according to Datos Cif, a Spanish database containing information about companies. Deloitte is also named as its auditor.

Mozilla is shipping a security technology with Firefox 95 that it hopes will stop zero-day attacks targeting users of the browser.

Called RLBox, the new feature will take a more granular approach to sandboxing, a security approach that runs website code in its own walled-off section of memory to avoid malicious components affecting the rest of the system.

In a blog post announcing the feature, Mozilla distinguished engineer Bobby Holley highlighted a problem with existing browser sandboxing technology, which isolates web site processes in individual sandboxes, and is vulnerable to chained attacks.

Malware developers can compromise the process first, and then escape the sandbox, it warns. It also limits the extent to which code can be separated into different sandboxed processes because of the memory overhead involved.

Developed in conjunction with the University of California San Diego and the University of Texas, RLBox complements process-based isolation with a new approach. It compiles code as native code via WebAssembly, which is a portable compilation format.

This makes each separately compiled piece of native code safer, because it can't access memory outside of a specified region and can't make any unexpected jumps. The new approach makes it possible to run different pieces of trusted and untrusted code in the same process without them affecting each other.

"RLBox is a big win for us on several fronts: it protects our users from accidental defects as well as supply-chain attacks, and it reduces the need for us to scramble when such issues are disclosed upstream," said Holley.

RLBox is a stand-alone project that Mozilla first trialed on macOS and Linux users last year. It is now deploying it across all Firefox platforms, including mobile systems.

Mozilla will begin with RLBox support for the Graphite font rendering system, the Hunspell spell checker, and the Ogg multimedia container format in Firefox 95. It will follow this up in Firefox 96 with support for the Expat XML parser and Woff2, the font compression technology used in the browser.

"Going forward, we can treat these modules as untrusted code, and — assuming we did it right — even a zero-day vulnerability in any of them should pose no threat to Firefox," Holley said. He also hoped that other browsers would adopt the open-source technology.

Mozilla has updated its bug bounty program to reward researchers for escaping the sandbox technology without exploiting vulnerabilities in an isolated component.

Mozilla has announced that its Firefox Lockwise password manager will reach end-of-life on 13 December.

The final versions of the plug-in will be 1.8.1 for iOS and 4.0.3 for Android, after that it will no longer be available for download or reinstallment.

Lockwise joins several defunct projects Mozilla has taken down to try and streamline its business and become more profitable. Over the last few years, the company has shut down the team building the operating system for the failed Firefox phone, as well as binning off a file transfer tool and the Thunderbird email platform. There is, however, an Android replacement for the password manager - Firefox 93 for Android - that was released last month.

Firefox Lockwise was launched in 2018, originally as a small experimental mobile app (named Lockbox at that point) that ended up bringing a way to access saved passwords and perform autofills on iOS, Android, and even desktops. It was later adapted as a Firefox extension, but with only a four-year lifespan.

In a support article posted by Mozilla, users are advised to continue accessing passwords via the native Firefox browser on desktop and mobile. There is also a note on the support site suggesting that the Firefox iOS app will gain the ability to manage Firefox passwords system-wide later in December. This might mean that Mozilla adopts the features of Lockwise and eventually integrates them into the Firefox browser apps for all platforms.

Mozilla laid off around 250 people - roughly a quarter of its workforce - in 2020 to refocus its business on projects that make money. CEO Mitchell Baker wrote in a blog post, at the time, that the company's plans leading up to the outbreak of COVID have become "no longer workable" after it became a pandemic.

As part of the layoffs, Baker laid out a series of new focuses for Mozilla to set a stronger course for the company, such as building new products that "mitigate harms" and "that people love and want" to use, and also to build out new revenue streams.

The Mozilla Foundation has announced that its open source Firefox browser is finally available in the Microsoft Store.

This marks a first for Mozilla. Until recently, it was unable to list its browser on the store because Microsoft required all browsers to use the browser engine it built into its platform, which meant Mozilla's Gecko didn't qualify. Microsoft lifted those restrictions in June.

"Previously, if you were on Windows and wanted to use Firefox, you had to download it from the internet and go through a clunky process from Microsoft," said Mozilla. “Now that Microsoft has changed its Store policies, choosing Firefox as your desktop browser is even more seamless."

The Foundation touted Firefox features including its anti-tracking and anti-cookie technologies, along with DNS over HTTPS, which stops network snoopers from discovering Firefox users' browsing habits.

Microsoft rebooted its online store for Windows 11 last month. It comes with some significant upgrades, including the ability for app developers with their own commerce models to keep all of their app revenue. Game developers pay a cut, but it's only 12% of the revenue (far less than Apple and Google take). It also allowed companies to publish other storefront apps in its store.

The company launched the store for Windows 11 in early October, announcing it would be available for Windows 10 users in the coming months.

Mozilla said it was the first major browser to be available on the Windows Store. Microsoft has also welcomed Opera and the Yandex browser into the web store.

Firefox is one of the few mainstream browsers left using an engine that isn't Chromium-based. Microsoft switched its Edge browser to Chromium in 2019. Apple's Safari, which uses its WebKit engine, is the other holdout.

Google's Chrome holds 64.7% of the browser market according to Statcounter, while Safari has a 19% share. Firefox lags in fourth place, with a 3.7% share, behind Edge with 4%.

Business or pleasure? It’s a question you’ve probably been asked when making a foreign trip (remember those?), but not when deciding which web browser to use on your computer. However, over the past year or so, I’ve found myself – almost by accident – slipping into the habit of using one web browser for personal surfing (no, that’s not a euphemism) and another for work.

This might sound like a tremendous faff, but there are very good reasons for keeping my personal and business surfing separate. For the personal day-to-day stuff, I use Firefox. I returned to the Firefox fold after many years away because I was increasingly impressed with its privacy features.

Firefox on my Mac is set to the browser’s Standard level of Enhanced Tracking Protection, which means that social networks don’t get to stalk me all over the web, cross-site tracking cookies are thwarted and so are resource-hogging cryptocurrency miners and privacy-infringing fingerprinters. What’s more, primed with my email address, Firefox warns me if my password has been stolen because of its convenient tie-in with the excellent HaveIBeenPwned.com.

For work, meanwhile, I’m beavering away in Google Chrome. This is largely a matter of convenience. Certain sites and web services only play ball with Chrome because their lazy developers can only be bothered to make their sites work properly with the world’s biggest browser. And then there’s Google itself, which – artificially or otherwise – makes tools such as Google Docs work better in Chrome than its rivals.

Chrome also has the widest selection of browser extensions, such as the recently released Microsoft Editor – an excellent spelling and grammar checker for the browser, which helps to keep the articles I write online free of typos and split infinitives. That only came about because Microsoft Edge recently moved to the same browser engine as Chrome – the clearest case of ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’ there’s ever been.

There are further advantages to keeping personal and business surfing in separate browsers. For one, this effectively creates two distinct online identities in the different browsers, meaning it’s harder for Google and the like to build a personal profile that covers both my personal life and work. There are practical benefits, too. I have both personal and business accounts with the same bank but, with two browsers, I can have the user ID (not the password!) for the personal account saved in Firefox and the business user ID saved in Chrome. Previously, I had to choose to save one identity or the other, because a browser won’t store two different IDs for the same site.

My bookmarks toolbar for each browser is very different, too. Firefox’s is festooned with links to football, gaming and other leisure sites; Chrome’s is stuffed with tech-news sites and the content-management systems for the various websites I write for. As for passwords, they’re all safely stored in the brilliant Bitwarden password manager, which has add-ons for both browsers, so no matter which one I’m in – Firefox or Chrome, desktop or mobile – I can blag my way into any site.

A browser for work and a browser for play. I never thought leading a double life would be this easy

Mozilla has moved fast to fix two Firefox browser zero-day vulnerabilities being actively exploited in the wild.

The flaws are both "use-after-free" vulnerabilities that could potentially allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or trigger crashes on machines running vulnerable versions of the Firefox browser.

The first bug, tracked as CVE-2020-6819, is tied to the browser component “nsDocShell destructor”, while the second zero-day, CVE-2020-6820, is linked to a race condition in the ReadableStream class, which is used to read a stream of data.

As per Mozilla's security advisory, the Firefox developers "are aware of targeted attacks in the wild abusing" these two critical flaws. However, details about the actual attacks where these two bugs are being exploited are still kept under wraps.

“Successful exploitation of the most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow for arbitrary code execution,” according to a Center for Internet Security bulletin.

“Depending on the privileges associated with the user, an attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than those who operate with administrative user rights.”

The discovery of these vulnerabilities was credited to security researchers Francisco Alonso and Javier Marcos. Alonso tweeted there are “more details to be published (including other browsers),” indicating these flaws likely also affect other web browsers.

Fixes are available in Firefox 74.0.1 and are also available for Firefox 68 users with version 68.6.

Mozilla patched another actively exploited Firefox zero-day with the release of Firefox 72.0.1 in January, which it also warned was being used in targeted attacks. This critical flaw, branded CVE-2019-17026, allowed an attacker to seize control of an affected computer through a mechanism that leads to ‘type confusion’.

Mozilla has begun the rollout of encrypted DNS over HTTPS (DoH) by default for all its US-based Firefox users after working for years to upgrade the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol.

Over the next few weeks, Firefox users will be able to use the DoH protocol by default while surfing the web, meaning their web traffic will be fully encrypted. This technology blocks third-party interception and also prevents Internet Service Providers from maintaining visibility over users’ activity.

DNS, which remains unchanged since the 80s, has been long-considered an insecure protocol that, while fundamental to the internet’s structure, allows for threats such as man-in-the-middle attacks.

The archaic database links a URL to an IP address, with browsers able to identify the websites for users by matching the two when a query is made. Because there is no encryption, however, other devices may intercept these queries and potentially collect this data.

DNS lookups are often sent to servers that can allow third-parties to gain access to users search and browsing history without their knowledge. It’s one of the key methods that ISPs deploy when implementing tools like web blockers.

“Today, we know that unencrypted DNS is not only vulnerable to spying but is being exploited, and so we are helping the internet to make the shift to more secure alternatives,” Mozilla said.

“We do this by performing DNS lookups in an encrypted HTTPS connection.

“This helps hide your browsing history from attackers on the network, helps prevent data collection by third parties on the network that ties your computer to websites you visit.”

Mozilla’s DoH implementation involves routing users’ web traffic to a DNS server hosted by either Cloudflare or NextDNS depending on their preference, instead of DNS servers hosted by ISPs and networking companies.

The DoH protocol will be configured by default for US users over the next few weeks, although users outside of the US may activate this level of encryption by accessing the settings menu. This is an option in the connection settings menu.

This privacy-focused move typifies the approach Mozilla has taken in recent years to fine-tuning and differentiating its Firefox browser from a host of competing applications, such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Chrome, however, also allows users to adopt DoH, although this will have to be manually configured, unlike for US users in Firefox, and soon across the rest of the world, who will enjoy DoH security by default.

Microsoft, similarly, embraced this protocol in November, announcing it would work to implement more secure technology into its products. This would start with plans to upgrade its servers to use the DoH protocol.

The shift to DoH is expected to anger ISPs, who in the UK previously branded the company an ‘internet villain’ for simply considering implementing the protocol.

Service providers, and regulators like Ofcom, or the FCC in the US, have relied on the DNS protocol for a host of functions, such as implementing content blockers. The mass implementation of DoH would render such tools useless as ISPs would lose all visibility over their customers’ web traffic.

A private browser is an isolated session that helps to conceal a user's data. It's a common feature with most web browsers, sometimes called 'privacy' or 'incognito' mode, that helps to add an extra layer of security.

The Mac OS X Tiger, launched in 2005, was one of the first examples of a private browser and the feature has gained in popularity over the years with versions of it everything from Safari to Chrome, as well as mobile.

There's often confusion around how private these browsers can be, some come with very limited features, and it is important to know just how protected you are.

The basic function of a private browser is to stop it from storing information such as your search history. When using public Wi-Fi, this type of data could be visible to a third-parties, which is a security risk. A good private browser conceals this by masking over your activity.

While VPN's generally offer more protection, good ones are not cheap, whereas private browsing can serve you well for free. There are a number of benefits to it, such as discovering your true Google ranking, or safe shopping. Read on to find out more about going incognito online.

Google Chrome

Incognito Mode, Chrome's version of private browsing, can be accessed from the settings menu at the top right of the browser, or by pushing Ctrl+Shift+N.

There are a few giveaways when using this brand of private browsing, mainly the outline of a 'secret agent' and a message that you've "gone incognito" when you open a new tab, instead of a blank white screen, or one that shows your most frequently visited pages.

Google Chrome won't save your browsing history, store cookies and site data, or any personal information you use to fill out forms. However, your activity won't be completely hidden. Websites you visit, for instance, can still be tracked by your ISP, or employer.

Moreover, although Chrome won't remember what files you have downloaded (a record will not be kept) while using private browsing, the files will remain on your hard drive and you will have to manually delete them if you want them to stay hidden.

Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge

Microsoft's Edge and Internet Explorer both use what is dubbed InPrivate browsing to allow you to surf the web with a heightened sense of anonymity - and can be accessed in the 'More' tab located in the top right corner of the browser, as with Chrome.

The Edge browser doesn't inform you as explicitly that you're using InPrivate browsing, but there are still a few clear indicators.

Your browsing data, such as cookies, form data, temporary files, and web history, won't be saved, as with Google Chrome's offering, while any temporary data stored on your device is deleted after all private browsing tabs and windows are closed.

Meanwhile, any third-party toolbars you have installed will be disabled upon opening an InPrivate tab.

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla's private browsing feature in FireFox is simply called Private Browsing mode' and offers the same privacy tools as Chrome and Edge. However, FireFox offers an additional tool that others browsers don't to make browsing even safer, and that's called Tracking Protection. This is said to prevent companies from tracking your browsing history across multiple sites so they can't record your browsing habits.

There are two ways to open a new Private Window in FireFox.

You can either click the menu button, which is presented as three horizontal bars in the top right corner of the window, and then click New Private Window. Or you can open a link in a new Private Window by right-clicking on any link and choose Open Link in New Private Window from the context menu.

Once in Private Browsing mode, the browser window will have a purple mask at the top.

Safari

To enable Private Browsing in Apple's Safari browser, simply go to File > New Private Window. A window that's using Private Browsing has a dark Smart Search field with white text.

Safari's private browsing mode also removes temporary files when you close the window. Browsing history, form data, and cookies are all wiped by default.

Opera

Opera is a noteworthy browser when it comes to surfing privately on the web because, unlike its rivals, its Private Mode offers a VPN connection to add another layer of secrecy to your browsing activities. It's not a silver bullet in keeping your activities totally private, but it does provide additional protection.

To enable this feature, you can either go through the menu: File > New Private Window. Or, you can use keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+Shift+N for Windows and +Shift+N for Mac.

Like anything else you do on your computer, be it editing documents or productivity tracking, browsing the web should be done with the best tools available. Every computer is shipped with a default browser and each operating system (OS) is preloaded with a proprietary browser, but these may not be the best for each individual’s specific needs. Different browsers will prioritize different features, and some features will be exclusive to each browser itself.

Trying to weigh up Firefox vs Chrome vs Edge can be a daunting challenge, and every major browser will usually offer features that will satisfy the needs of most internet users. Nonetheless, the competition would not be so heavy if slight differences did not matter to users. Choosing the right browser for you is a difficult decision and migrating browsers can be a long and tedious process. As such we recommend carefully considering your decision before committing to any in order to ensure your initial time investment is worth it.

What to look for in a browser

Before you make your choice, we recommend you research the core features of each browser to determine what you are looking for. Many features will be shared across Firefox, Chrome, and Edge, including password managers and private browsing. But other features may be exclusive to the specific browsers and these features require the closest consideration.

Take, for example, Firefox, which uses less RAM than its competitors and is therefore less computationally demanding to run. This might mean it is the better choice for people with hardware with low RAM, or who require RAM for other tasks and do not want their internet browsing to drain this resource.

Microsoft Edge features Copilot integration, one component to Microsoft’s wider push to bring generative AI to all of its major products in order to bring richer, smarter, and quicker user experiences.

Google Chrome is easily the most popular browser on the market and includes a number of helpful features such as offline document editing if you use the Google Workspace on a daily basis.

A number of organizations have their own in-house extensions and web apps that staff rely on to complete their work. Sometimes, these are only compatible with specific browsers, meaning the number of options you can pick from may be restricted to those that support the extension.

The nature of your work is also a factor that will influence your decision. Developers who work with metaverse experiences, for example, may choose the Firefox Reality browser in order to navigate the web using a VR headset.

Finally, regardless of the bold claims made by each browser about their security and privacy credentials, you will want to confirm that your choice is compliant with your employer’s IT policies. When working remotely, you might need to speak with your administrator to ensure your browser is able to join the network. We would be very surprised if any of our choices cause any consternation, but forewarned is forearmed.

Understanding Chrome vs Chromium vs ChromeOS

You’ll see “Chrome” and “Chromium” used a lot in this roundup. It’s not a misprint - they’re two separate browsers... except they’re not. Let us explain. 

Released alongside the flagship browser in 2008, Chromium is a totally open-source, white-lable version of Chrome. Most of the codebase is the same, and although Google curates the project, it is separate from parent company Alphabet LLC. Chromium’s logo is identical to that of Chrome, just with a blue and grey colour scheme, instead of Google’s traditional colors. The UI is completely identical, but Chromium does lack some codecs and syncing technology which is standard in the proprietary version of Chrome. 

Chromium is an important browser to be aware of because of its role as the basis for many of the other browsers on the market, including Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi. Thanks to the open source community, Chromium is available for more unusual machines such as the Raspberry Pi; and creators of browsers based on a ‘forked’ build of Chromium are expected to add their code to the Chromium codebase for the benefit of all. Stock browsers for Android forks such as Samsung (Samsung Internet) and Amazon (Silk) are usually based on chromium.

Chrome is Google’s official build of Chromium and the most popular browser in the world. It has tighter integration with Google accounts and a number of additions “under the hood”. It has three ‘channels’ - Stable, Beta, and Canary - with each updated to a new official build on a four-week cycle.

ChromeOS, meanwhile, is another separate yet related entity. It's an operating system built on the Chrome browser and used in Chromebooks and other Google desktop products; almost identical to the Chrome browser, but with a desktop, settings, and driver support. As of February 2022, you can also install it on PCs and Macs, via ChromeOS Flex.

All three products share the same codebase and are completely compatible with Chrome’s wide range of extensions. Updates to ChromeOS also run on a four-week cycle, but often arrive several days later than the standalone Chrome browser.

Best browsers 2023: Edge vs Chrome vs Firefox

Google Chrome

The growth in market share for Google’s browser since launch has been phenomenal. During 2021, Statcounter reports that 63.84% of devices around the world were running it, and at one point that figure was over 70%. There’s a lot to love about Chrome - most notably its tight integration with Google services making it extremely easy to switch between devices, as well as a huge ‘Chrome Store’ full of extensions, apps and customizations. As the world’s most popular browser, it has almost complete compatibility with any webpage you can throw at it and renders them at speeds unimaginable even a decade ago.

All that speed comes at a cost, though. Chrome is a notorious resource hog, using over a gigabyte of RAM during runtime. Add a few extensions and you could find it monopolizes the bulk of your machine’s memory. Google has worked hard to bring down Chrome’s memory footprint, but it’s still a lot more resource-hungry than any other browser on this list.

Despite this, Chrome is still the people’s choice by a factor of three and if there’s a feature not available natively, the chances are someone has written an extension to add it. Just remember that more extensions equals more RAM usage, so if you’re running a 2GB netbook, you might want to rethink how many you add.

Chrome is available on Windows, macOS, most Linux distros, Android, iOS, and Chromebooks (as part of ChromeOS).

Microsoft Edge

Technically, the current product calling itself Microsoft Edge should be called Edge 2. When it launched back in 2016 it looked very different and owed much of its layout to its predecessor, Internet Explorer. It failed to capture the public’s imagination, so it was completely rebuilt from the ground up using the Chromium codebase, and from April 2021 that became the only version of Edge, pre-installed alongside Windows 10 or 11.

It differs from Google’s Chrome in a number of ways, not least of all that it’s slightly less of a memory hog. It’s compatible with a limited number of extensions originally designed for Chrome, but Microsoft controls which ones. This is supposedly due to security concerns, but ironically it’s the browser that collects the most user telemetry, leading some experts to question its own security. Users still report compatibility issues with extensions, which is a good point to remind ourselves that Edge, in its current form, is only two years old and occasionally shows its relative lack of bug-squashing.

Where Chrome links up nicely with Google products, as you’d expect, Edge syncs with your Microsoft account. Being a Microsoft product, it’s very keen to enforce Bing on you, which takes a certain amount of tweaking to change and in some cases (such as translation) can’t be switched to another provider.

There’s no question that Chromium Edge is a great deal better than the legacy version and yes, for basic tasks, it’s a little less power-hungry than Chrome, but the fact that it uses Bing so liberally whilst having relatively poor extension support means there’s still no reason not to download Chrome at the first opportunity. The fact that in 2021, it only garnered 3.99% of the market, despite being preinstalled on Microsoft products, speaks volumes. It’s a good browser, but it’s young, and it’s not quite there yet.

Mozilla Firefox

An open-source project, originally designed for use by Mozilla’s development team, Firefox is the oldest of the ‘big three’ browsers - in fact in 2022, it’s celebrating its 20th birthday. Before Chrome arrived, it was gaining significant market share. After several years in the relative doldrums, it was retooled in 2017 under a project called ‘Quantum’ which allowed its proprietary Gecko engine to perform at speeds more akin to Chrome.

Firefox was the first browser to offer extensions, which it refers to as 'Add-ons', and as a result, it had a wealth of them to download, but since Quantum it has relaunched the feature and this treasury has been replaced by a new library which is still growing. The new add-ons use the same API as Chromium and as a result, there is now some cross-compatibility.

In recent years, Firefox has focused on its security credentials and in 2021 became the first browser to offer the ability to block cross-site tracking. It also offers DNS over HTTPS (DoH), a feature that makes it almost impossible for hackers to monitor your web traffic, and a feature that blocks any scripts that attempt to mine cryptocurrency from your machine.

Firefox is still a great browser, but with Chromium-based browsers so much the norm now, it has seen its popularity plummet from nearly 30% at one time, down to 3.91% in 2021, putting it almost exactly on par with Edge. Whilst it still has a lot to recommend it both in terms of security and performance, Mozilla has consistently been last to basic features (it only began sandboxing processes in 2018) that are standard in other browsers. However, if you’re looking for a corporate deployment to your whole team, there is a long-term support edition available alongside tools to push itself to multiple machines on a domain, making it a smart choice for business.

Apple Safari

Although we’re focusing on Windows browsers for this round-up, we can’t ignore Apple’s stock Safari browser, which has 19.56% of the market, almost entirely made up of Mac and iPhone/Pad users after Apple ceased updating the Windows version a decade ago. For macOS and iOS users, it offers a more familiar layout and continuity features that let you carry on your surfing from exactly where you left off on another Safari instance, as well as a handful of unique software features built on integrations with the rest of the macOS platform.

Mac and iOS users should be aware, however, that all the browsers on this list are rendered using Apple Webkit rather than the standard renderer (usually Blink) in order to comply with Apple’s policies. As such, you’ll find that performance between browsers is much of a muchness, and any desire to switch to something other than Safari should be based on features, rather than any hope of a performance boost.

Best browsers 2023: Head-to-head performance

Just because the majority of the options above share the same Chromium codebase, it doesn’t mean they’ll have identical performance. In our benchmarking tests, we used three tools - Jetstream 2.0 which measures Javascript and WebAssembly performance using advanced web apps, Speedometer, which shows web app responsiveness, and Kraken, which calculates Javascript, but based on what Mozilla calls “more realistic workloads”.

The results were surprising. You may remember a few years ago, all the major browsers claimed that it was theirs that offered the fastest performance. Our results explain why - there simply is no clear winner. While Chrome offered a blistering 62.619 in the Jetstream tests, compared with a pitiful 35.182 for Firefox, Speedometer results were so poor at 19.5 that we reran the test several times to make sure it really was that bad. Compare that to Microsoft Edge at 69.1, with Opera a valiant second at 66.2. Kraken, a tool created by Firefox maker Mozilla, actually proved a problem for its own browser - it gave the slowest result of 3967.1ms. The winner was Vivaldi, which scored 1618.6, more than twice as fast as Firefox - yet scored mid-table on our other benchmarks.

By aggregating the results, we’re declaring that Opera is the best-performing browser by some margin, coming a consistent runner-up in all our benchmarks. Microsoft Edge is next, followed by Vivaldi, Brave and bringing up the rear, Chrome in fifth place, thanks to its perplexingly poor Speedometer performance, and Firefox bringing up the rear.

It’s worth remembering though, that none of these scores indicate a problematic or unusable level of performance, and we found that all our browsers (with the exception of Opera) were better at some tasks than others - so it may be that for your workload, another browser could be the right one for you.

Edge vs Chrome vs Firefox: Which is best?

In the internet’s early days, there was a clear benefit to staying with the default browser on the operating system. These days, however, the essential task of a web browser – to browse the web – is a mostly universal experience regardless of which you choose. As such, before choosing the right browser for you you should pay attention to the feature set of each – whether that be compatibility with other products, a lightweight footprint, or one of the unique features of the smaller browsers.

In the majority of instances, add-ons or extensions will let you gain any features that aren’t natively supported. We can’t say any one browser is the perfect fit for everyone (but if you push us, Chrome is the best of most worlds) so we would recommend trying a few options and creating your ideal surfing environment.

Best browsers 2023: Google Chrome alternatives

If you enjoy Chrome’s user experience, but don’t particularly want to fuel Google’s data-hungry business model, there are various alternatives to the major players of internet browsing that provide some intriguing comparisons.

Opera

Of all the Chromium browsers, Opera is the one that looks most visually distinct from Chrome. As one of the first browsers to switch to Chromium from its own engine, back in 2013, it has had ample time to carve a distinctive path, and has done so in spades. With a free VPN and Ad-Blocker built-in, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d done enough, but with “Speed Dial” access to your favorite sites from a mosaic of thumbnails, a built-in crypto wallet, a sidebar for social media, and a variety of instant messaging platforms, and a one-click eraser for all your cookies and browsing history, Opera is an absolute powerhouse.

Unfortunately, its add-ons aren’t directly compatible with Chrome extensions, but there is an unofficial way to add them. The big turn-off for Google users is that it syncs with other instances of Opera, but not with Google (or Microsoft) accounts. It’s not a dealbreaker, but you’ll notice the lack of this feature if you’re used to it. It’s a shame because in most other ways, Opera is very, very special.

Vivaldi

A relative newcomer, Vivaldi is the product of John Van Teschiner, one of the architects of the original (pre-Chromium) Opera. Originally designed to replace some features retired from his old browser, Vivaldi has blossomed into a distinct product in its own right, offering stackable tabs groups, tracking protection through DuckDuckGo, a pop-out video player, native mail and calendar clients and Chromecasting support, to name but a few. Vivaldi has become more like a dashboard for everything you’re doing, meaning you could, in theory, never leave it for another app all day. It’s also very privacy and safety-minded, with granular controls over blocking of ads and cookies by type, content, or source.

Brave

Brave is a privacy-first browser with a twist - by default it will block ads, but if you switch them on, you can earn cryptocurrency for each one you watch. It has repeatedly come top in “most private browser” testing, but it also has some unique features - for example if you try and surf to a page that doesn’t exist, it will automatically search for a cache from Wayback Machine. If you need further privacy, you can route traffic through the TOR network and it also has its own in-built news aggregator. You can use cryptocurrency earned to offer micropayments to bloggers on certain sites, a reflection of Brave’s attempts to try and find new ways to finance the internet. There’s a lot to love (perhaps too much) and from a business point of view, you might find it a bit “busy”, but as a product in its own right, it’s a promising new alternative.

What about Internet Explorer?

Due to being included with every version of Windows since Windows 95, Internet Explorer is familiar to most computer users. Despite ceasing active development of Internet Explorer in 2016 to focus on its Edge browser, it continued to bundle the final edition IE11 with Windows to allow compatibility with legacy sites. 

This all changed in 2022, when on June 15th, Internet Explorer was put out to pasture, once and for all. Going forward, Microsoft recommends using Edge (of course), which offers an Internet Explorer emulator mode that can be opened in a new tab. This should only be used for web pages that are business-critical, and only as a stopgap until your organization upgrades the page or package in question to be compliant with more modern alternatives.

Some products which already bundle Internet Explorer, such as Windows Server, won’t reach EOL until 2029, so Microsoft will continue to offer IE security updates until that time - but it bears repeating that in 2022, the use of IE really should be a last resort. There’s a joke in the tech industry that 'Internet Explorer is the browser you use to download Chrome'. It’s funny because it’s true.

Firefox has faced backlash over its handling of a Mr Robot-themed plugin that was automatically installed on its browser over the weekend, causing concern among some users that they were being spied on by hackers.

Reddit users reported over the weekend that a mysterious extension called "Looking Glass" had been installed on their browsers without their permission, which added text to certain websites, including phrases such as "My Reality is Different Than Yours".

Unsurprisingly, this alarmed many users who suspected the extension was some type of malicious code, particularly as they were given no indication that it had been installed, nor any information as to its function.

"I just opened my add-ons tab and found an extension called "Looking Glass"," said one Reddit user. "I have no idea what it is or where it came from. I freaked out bit and uninstalled it immediately." [sic]

However, according to Firefox, the "Looking Glass" plugin was actually a collaborative effort with the team behind the Mr Robot TV series, designed as a "shared experience to further your immersion into the Mr Robot universe".

"The Mr. Robot series centres around the theme of online privacy and security," the company added, in a statement explaining the extension. "One of the 10 guiding principles of Mozilla's mission is that individuals' security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional. The more people know about what information they are sharing online, the more they can protect their privacy."

The plugin only appeared for users who had allowed Firefox to install Shield Studies, Mozilla's preferred method for testing new features ahead of a full release. Once installed, the plugin would tweak websites, such as the placement of obscure messages, to act as clues for people playing a Mr Robot-themed puzzle game.

Unfortunately, the plugin hasn't had the desired effect across the board, with some users claiming it's an example of a company abusing its position.

"In the past I was fine with Mozilla's approach to telemetry and studies, making my browser available for occasional testing/experimenting/data collection to track down bugs or measure improvements or whatever is fine," said another Reddit user.

"This is not doing any of those things. This is an advertisement. This is an abuse of the telemetry and shield studies program. If I cannot trust Mozilla to use these tools responsibly I will have to disable them and recommend my friends and coworkers do the same."

The mysterious plugin also seems to have also taken some of Mozilla's employees by surprise, as software Dan Callahan tweeted that the "Looking Glass" plugin is a "fantastic" idea, "so long as it's opt-in".

Firefox has said the extension will now be moved to its add-on store in an effort to make it clear exactly what it does, and will no longer automatically download to browsers.

Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, Mozilla's chief marketing officer, said in a statement to Gizmodo: "Real engagement also means listening to feedback. And so while the web extension/add-on that was sent out to Firefox users never collected any data, and had to be explicitly enabled by users playing the game before it would affect any web content, we heard from some of our users that the experience we created caused confusion."

"As a result we will be moving the Looking Glass add-on to our add-on store within the next 24 hours so Mr Robot fans can continue to solve the puzzle and the source can be viewed in a public repository."

Javvad Malik, security advocate at AlienValut, said that "forcefully installing ads, or enabling plugins is a big no-no" for companies like Mozilla. "While advertising is a given in today's day and age, when it comes to the authority or actions of software, ultimately the user should be able to decide."

Photo by JeanLuz / CC BY 2.0

Mozilla has announced the the latest update to its latest browser, Firefox Quantum, which the company claims is over twice as fast as the previous version of its browser.

While being faster than the release from six months ago, thanks to an overhauled core processor and according to Mozilla, it uses less memory, meaining your computer should run faster if you're using other apps at the same time.

More than 700 developers worked on the creation of Firefox Quantum, making it one of the most resource-intensive builds yet. The company's engineers spent a lot of time looking into how people browse the internet, Mozilla said, to ensure its latest browser addresses all the challenges the average user experiences on a day-to-day basis.

The result is an overhauled interface, named Photon, which aims to bring everything together from the Firefox portfolio, making it easier for people to find what they need, when they need it.

"We looked at real world hardware to make Firefox look great on any display, and we made sure that Firefox looks and works like Firefox regardless of the device you're using," Firefox said. "Our designers created a system that scales to more than just current hardware but lets us expand in the future."

Another major new feature in Firefox Quantum is Pocket recommendations, which will offer up three recommended stories to the user when they open a new tab in the browser. These are curated from the millions of items people are adding to Pocket, to make sure it's a true reflection of the best content available on the internet. There will also be other content presented across popular topics and instant access to Pocket Explore where you can find a greater selection of content according to your favourite topics.

"We made many, many performance improvements in the browser's core and shipped a new CSS engine, Stylo, that takes better advantage of today's hardware with multiple cores that are optimised for low power consumption," Firefox added. "We've also improved Firefox so that the tab you're on gets prioritized over all others, making better use of your valuable system resources."

Firefox Quantum is available immediately for desktop on Windows, Mac and Linux, an on iOS and Android mobile operating systems.

Main image credit: Mozilla

Remember Firefox OS? It's dead.

Developer Mozilla has ended its foray into operating systems, allegedly laying off 50 staff who were working on the Firefox OS project.

Firefox OS was launched in 2013 as a platform for smartphones, with a few phones released from the likes of Alcatel, LG and ZTE. The OS later landed on Panasonic TVs, too.

Beyond that, Firefox OS didn't have much success, and its death isn't much of a surprise, with Mozilla ending support for the smartphone version in February and cutting commercial development in September, leaving the smart TV software in Panasonic's hands.

That left Firefox OS development focused on a few connected devices, such as IoT for the home.

If that wasn't dead enough, CNET is reporting that 50 staff who worked on the project have now been laid off, including senior vice president Ari Jaaksi as well as Bertrand Neveux, director of software.

"We have shifted our internal approach to the Internet-of-Things opportunity to step back from a focus on launching and scaling commercial products to one focused on research and advanced development, dissolving our connected devices initiative and incorporating our Internet-of-Things explorations into an increased focus on emerging technologies," the company said in a statement sent to Ars Technica.

The move leaves Mozilla focused on the Firefox browser, which has yet to make a mark on mobile phones or tablets, though it remains second to Chrome on desktop with about a 15% market share, according to StatCounter.

Mozilla said in a comment sent to IT Pro that it wasn't shut down anything, but "dissolving our connected devices initiative".

"IoT is clearly an emerging technology space, but it's still early," the Mozilla spokesperson said in a statement. "We have shifted our internal approach to the IoT opportunity to step back from a focus on launching and scaling commercial products to one focused on research and advanced development, dissolving our Connected Devices initiative and incorporating our IoT explorations into an increased focus on Emerging Technologies."

Mozilla said it would try to find roles for affected staff inside the company, and was growing its number of employees overall. "However there will be role eliminations as part of these internal changes as we need fewer and different roles as part of this shift in approach," it said. "Although we believe it is the right strategic decision for Mozilla, we recognize that it will impact people's lives and are committed to supporting their well-being. People are the reason why we can get anything done - this isn't lost on us - and we did not make this decision lightly."

Mozilla stressed it wasn't shutting down any effort. "We've changed our investment strategy in Connected Devices to emphasize technology transfer rather than developing products and taking them to market. IoT is clearly an emerging technology and there is market opportunity there for products, and for the software infrastructure that will power the IoT ecosystem. Mozilla made a concentrated effort in this space with Internet of Things, but we were primarily focused on new product development. We created some really interesting early-stage projects but decided that a better strategy lies in creating core technologies that we hope will transfer into the Internet of Things space, more broadly."

Mozilla's new logo, moz://a, is throwing web browsers into a tizzy, with Chrome, Safari and Mozilla's own Firefox having issues with the rebrand.

The Mozilla Foundation this week revealed its new logo, which replaces the 'ill' with '://' in a nod to its developer community, saying "we've designed the language of the internet into our brand identity".

Apparently it hasn't done too good a job of it, as Google Chrome and Firefox both recognise the logo as a search term that yields mixed results, while Safari tries to direct the user to a webpage, before utterly failing.

The issue has generated a fresh comment thread on the non-profit foundation's website, called: Bug 1331968 - (moz://a) Make Firefox support moz://a.

"I'd imagine with the new logo, a lot of people will try typing moz://a in the URL bar. It currently does a search for moz://a," forum member Brian R Bondy wrote. "Easter egg waiting to happen? Or maybe another opportunity?"

Brad Cohen, Mozilla's senior brand strategist, said the company has sent a request to IANA, the organisation that co-ordinates internet protocol numbers and domain names, "[but] it's unclear what the timeline on those requests are".

It's also not clear what moz://a would point to, with Cohen suggesting it send users to Mozilla's blog post about the rebrand.

The free internet foundation came up with the new logo in part to change people's perceptions of the organisation, which found in a survey that 30% of people didn't know it does anything other than make Firefox, while many confuse Mozilla with the browser.

Main image credit: Mozilla

Sick of stumbling across pointless 404 pages when looking for something online? Mozilla's got your back - and the Wayback Machine to help.

The Firefox maker is trialling an add-on that shows an archived version of a webpage rather than a 404 error, which is the message shown if a page has been deleted or is otherwise no longer available, but is still being linked to from other sites or search engines.

The archived pages will be sourced from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, which takes snapshots of websites.

"Tired of dead ends on the web?" Mozilla asked. "We'll let you know when there's a saved version of what you're looking for on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine."

If there's an archived page available, Firefox will give users the option of viewing it, so you won't see an old page and think the information on it is up to date. And as not all websites are archived by the Wayback Machine, you'll still see some 404 pages.

The system works via a Firefox add-on or extension, which scans the text on the page to see if it's showing a 404, and then checks if the Internet Archive has a version to display.

To test the system, you'll need to be running Mozilla's "test pilot" version of Firefox, which trials experimental new features in the browser, before deciding whether they should be rolled out to everyone else. To use the add-on, you'll need to install the Test Pilot extension, and then install the 404 No More trial.

As ghacks notes, there are existing third-party add-ons that do a similar job, notably the Resurrect Pages extension, which checks for cached versions of pages. Google also lets you view cached pages directly from search result pages by clicking the drop down button next to links.

18/05/2016:A US judge has rejected a bid by Mozilla to disclose a vulnerability, connected to its Firefox browser, that was exploited by the FBI to track child predators the dark web.

Mozilla's attempt to intervene in a case against Jay Michaud, a school administrator charged in the investigation, was shot down on Monday by US district judge Robert Bryan in Tacoma, Washington, Reuters reports.

Prior to Mozilla's request, Bryan had instructed prosecutors to disclose to Michaud's lawyers a flaw in the Tor browser, which was allegedly used by the defendant to access images of child abuse.

Tor is partially based on the code for Mozilla's Firefox browser.

The US Department of Justice asked Bryan to reconsider, citing national security, and the judge said last Thursday that prosecutors did not need to make the disclosure to Michaud.

Mozilla had sent a bid to the judge last week requesting that it be briefed on the exploit the FBI used, so that it could close down the loophole, which it said could potentially affect users of its Firefox browser.

Responding to Mozilla's request on Monday, Bryan said its request was unlikely, adding, it "appears that Mozilla's concerns should be addressed to the United States".

Michaud is one of 137 people facing charges in the US after the FBI covertly seized control of a server hosting the website in question and tracked viewers of the site through Tor in February 2015.

13/05/2016:Mozilla wants the US government to disclose Firefox hack

Mozilla has asked the US government to provide it with information about a hack it used to catch an online criminal, saying it has the right to fix any security flaw before anyone else has the opportunity to use it.

Last year, the FBI exploited a zero-day flaw in the Tor browser, which was created partially from the Firefox base code, to catch an online child predator. The government continued to take advantage of the flaw to discover more criminals in the sexual abuse ring.

However, the FBI failed to share the vulnerability with anyone - not even Mozilla - just in case it wanted to use the security hole again. It has not been revealed whether the hole has been patched or not.

"At this point, no one (including us) outside the government knows what vulnerability was exploited and whether it resides in any of our code base,"Denelle Dixon-Thayer, Mozilla chief legal and business officer wrote in a blog post.

"The judge in this case ordered the government to disclose the vulnerability to the defense team but not to any of the entities that could actually fix the vulnerability."

She explained having an unfixed flaw could prove dangerous, because other hackers could get their hands on it and use it to cause damage to individuals and companies.

"We aren't taking sides in the case, but we are on the side of the hundreds of millions of users who could benefit from timely disclosure," she added.

The FBI has also refused to provide details of the security flaw it used to access one of the San Bernadino shooters' iPhones to Apple, which has angered the manufacturer.

Firefox extensions are exposing millions of users to a new bug capable of stealing sensitive data, it has been claimed.

An attacker can create a malicious add-on for Mozilla's web browser, which can then disguise its nature by forcing a legitimate, existing add-on, to do its dirty work for it, reports Ars Technica.

The flaw, dubbed an extension reuse vulnerability by the researchers who revealed it at the Black Hat security conference in Singapore, is able to do this because Mozilla has not isolated add-ons in its browser.

This means the bug can take advantage of vulnerabilities in other add-ons a user has enabled, and route its attacks through them instead.

These buggy add-ons include NoScript, Video DownloadHelper, FlashGot and Firebug, the researchers wrote in the paper.

The extensions send the user to malicious websites, or force them to download malware.

As quoted by Ars Technica, the researchers said: "These vulnerabilities allow a seemingly innocuous extension to reuse security-critical functionality provided by other legitimate, benign extensions to stealthily launch confused deputy-style attacks.

"Malicious extensions that utilise this technique would be significantly more difficult to detect by current static or dynamic analysis techniques, or extension vetting procedures."

However, it does rely on a user first downloading the malicious add-on, as well as having buggy extensions already enabled on their browser.

Mozilla admitted to Ars that such a bug would work in its Firefox browser, adding: "Because risks such as this one exist, we are evolving both our core product and our extensions platform to build in greater security. The new set of browser extension APIs that make up WebExtensions, which are available in Firefox today, are inherently more secure than traditional add-ons, and are not vulnerable to the particular attack outlined in the presentation at Black Hat Asia."

Mozilla has patched several vulnerabilities putting users of its Firefox browser at risk of cyber attacks.

The open source firm released version 44 of its browser on Tuesday, and issued an update listing 12 fixes on its security advisory board.

Three of those are listed as 'critical' vulnerabilities, and concern unsafe memory manipulation, buffer overflow in WebGL, and other memory safety hazards.

Another two were classified as high', which could involve an attack harvesting data from a user during their regular browsing activity. These involved address bar spoofing attacks, by which an attack could create a fake address bar when a user opened a new tab, and some code errors in the browser's Network Security Services.

The remaining vulnerabilities were listed as moderate', and included minor performance delays for file downloads on OS X and a missing delay following user click events.

Earlier this month, Firefox issued a blog update about issues some users have had with devices such as security scanners and antivirus products, after Firefox rejected sites using the SHA-1 certificate, which is in the process of being phased out.

Firefox updated its private browsing functions last year to make it simpler for users to stop companies tracking their browse usage.

Firefox users can control what data they share with others in an improved Private Browsing mode, according to Mozilla.

Dubbed Tracking Protection, the feature is part of the browser's existing Private Browsing mode, and gives users control over the data that third-parties receive from them.

Mozilla, the organisation behind Firefox, said a feature such as this does not appear in similar private browsers offered by Chrome, Safari, Edge or Internet Explorer.

When people browse the web, they can unknowingly share information about themselves with third-parties that are separate from the site they're actually visiting, even in Private Browsing mode on any browser, warned Mozilla.

"Private Browsing with Tracking Protection in Firefox for Windows, Mac, Android and Linux actively blocks content like ads, analytics trackers and social share buttons that may record your behaviour without your knowledge across sites," the firm added in a statement.

Mozilla has also launched a Control Center in its browser that places site security and privacy controls in a single place - the browser address bar.

"Since some web pages may appear broken when elements that track behaviour are blocked, we've made it easy to turn off Tracking Protection in Private Browsing for a particular site using the Control Center," the firm added.

The company also released a number of visual editing tools in Firefox Developer Edition including its Animation Tools, which it said should work the same way animators think.

To coincide with this, Mozilla has created a game called DevTools Challenger to give designers a deep-dive on how to make the most of these new visual editing tools.

"We are addressing the technically challenging aspects of animation with a set of visceral, powerful, interactive tools that are comfortable for designers to use. Visual editing tools should appeal to animators, not just to programmers," said Dave Camp, director of Firefox in a blog post.

Firefox Developer Edition is available at firefox.com/developer.

Mozilla is set to test new private browsing features for Firefox that promise to block websites' abilities to record your behaviour.

The experimental new features are being launched in 'pre-beta' versions of Firefox including Firefox Developer Edition on Windows, Mac and Linux and Firefox Aurora on Android, and could make the browser more secure than rivals' own private browser modes.

"All major browsers offer some form of experience that is labelled 'private' but this is typically intended to solve the 'local' privacy case, namely preventing others on a shared computer from seeing traces of your online activity," Mozilla wrote in a blog post outlining the plans.

"This is a useful solution for many users, but we're experimenting with ways to offer you even more control when they open Private windows.

"Our hypothesis is that when you open a Private Browsing window in Firefox you're sending a signal that you want more control over your privacy than current private browsing experiences actually provide."

Website elements that will be blocked by Mozilla's private Firefox software include those that pull information from social media, analytics and more that collect data surreptitiously from users.

With the new features, Mozilla also wants to make third-party add-ons safer by introducing a verification tool that would put an end to unwanted toolbars, adjusted search settings and malware.

For the future, the blog post mentions plans such as a feature to help parents gain more control of their children's browsing experience, and a full Firefox app for iOS.

A requirement compelling Microsoft to offer users a choice of browsers on its Windows machines has come to an end.

Redmond signed the 'browser ballot' in 2009 giving rival browsers equal footing to Internet Explorer (IE) on Windows PCs, at a time when 70 per cent of Windows users were on IE.

But now Microsoft's own browser is inly used by 20 to 25 per cent of Windows customers, with up to 84 per cent downloading an alternative browser, according to the European Commission.

Google Chrome is the most popular browser on Windows machines, with around 50 per cent marketshare, while Firefox's score matches IE's at around 20 per cent.

The browser ballot applied to all Windows PCs sold in Europe running XP, Vista and Windows 7, or old computers where one of those operating systems was installed as a fresh install.

As part of the deal, Microsoft had to ensure its operating system displayed a ballot screen, offering customers the choice to download an alternative browser.

However, the company was heavily fined when its Windows 7 Service Pack 1 release didn't include the screen and it went unnoticed for 14 months. It also had to tweak the algorithm to ensure it was displayed at regular intervals.

Now the five-year period has ended, Microsoft is advising system administrators to switch off the ballot screen and giving instructions on how this can be done.

Microsoft said on its blog: "Microsoft provided the Browser Choice update in accordance with a decision issued by the European Commission in December 2009. The obligations imposed by that decision have expired and as a result the Browser Choice Update will no longer be delivered to new users."

Mozilla has ditched Google as its default search engine after a 10-year agreement between the companies came to an end.

Firefox will now use Yahoo as its default search engine in the US from December. Under the terms of the five-year deal, Yahoo will support Do Not Track (DNT) within Firefox.

Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, eBay, Amazon, Twitter and Wikipedia will remain as alternate search options for users who want to manually switch.

In Russia, Yandex Search will be the default search provider and Baidu will remain the defacto engine in China.

The global partnership between Google and Mozilla has not been renewed either but the popular search engine will still be pre-installed.

"Google has been the Firefox global search default since 2004. Our agreement came up for renewal this year, and we took this as an opportunity to review our competitive strategy and explore our options," noted Chris Beard, Mozilla CEO in a blog post.

"We are ending our practice of having a single global default search provider. We are adopting a more local and flexible approach to increase choice and innovation on the web, with new and expanded search partnerships by country."

Mozilla claims its Firefox browser accounts for 100 billion web searches per year - so this looks like a significant coup for Yahoo.

Mozilla has announced MozVR.com, a virtual reality site for Firefox or "VR website about VR websites", in time for the 10th anniversary of the web browser.

The site requires the user to have a virtual reality-enabled version of Firefox (or VR-enabled Chromium builds) and an Oculus Rift headset in order to work, and is a way for browsers to preview technology demos using VR.

After releasing versions of Firefox with Oculus Rift support earlier in the year, this move sees Mozilla taking advantage of virtual reality and offering users a chance to experience such capabilities for themselves.

"As one of the first websites of it's kind, building it required that we come up with new solutions for the unique challenges of a fully immersive, three-dimensional medium," Mozilla said on the MozVR website.

"It is very important to us that the VR Web captures the feelings of flow that we love about the classic Web. So we designed a Web VR navigation interface that allows users to move from site to site without friction... Clicking a link becomes like teleportation, as one VR world dissolves seamlessly into the next."

One of the demos currently available to use by those with the right browser and headset is a 360-degree documentary on the Arctic and a fly-through of coastal British Columbia.

Developers will also be able to play around with VR for Firefox, with source code and tools and tutorials being provided via MozVR and GitHub.

Mozilla has promised support for devices other than Mac and PC is coming soon.

"This interface is still early in its evolution," it continued. "But we view it as a test bed for experimentation into the future of Web VR interaction, and are very excited to take it further."

Firefox users now have much more control of their web experience on Android phones, thanks to a new beta that brings with it a set of new personalisation and customisation features.

Mozilla announced the arrival of the Firefox for Android beta in a blog post, claiming it will offer not only greater customisation options for users, but more APIs for developers too.

Users will now be able to make their home screen display content from different websites and feeds, including Instagram, Pocket, Vimeo and Wikipedia, with addition options to come. These home screen pages will allow the web browser to be customised to suit each user, with the option to choose, re-order and hide content from the app when opened.

Developers too will benefit from the new browser. They'll have more opportunity to create add-ons for Firefox on Android, which will take pride of place on the home screen. This could lead drove up use of certain add-ons, with users seeing their favourite features as soon as they open up Firefox on their device.

In addition to these new features, Mozilla also announced that the beta will introduce a way to more easily switch between languages while browsing. Previously, multi-lingual users would have to restart their browsers, but now they can switch between the 54 languages on offer from inside the app.

Users are being urged to download and test these two new features before they are rolled out officially.

"Help us test this new home screen experience and our new language switching feature from today. Please remember to share your feedback and file any bugs as we continue to improve performance and features for our users," Mozilla said.

Microsoft has released the Internet Explorer Developer Channel, a new version of the firm's web browser with preview versions of upcoming IE features and capabilities.

Redmond has released betas for Internet Explorer iterations but they have always been restricted to a certain future version when the new version launches the beta browser shut down and stops updating.

With the Developer Channel, Microsoft will be serving up something slightly different for all those who like to test its browsers. It's a far cry from being Internet Explorer 12 beta, and will be updated as an ongoing project, even after future releases of IE.

The move brings Developer Channel closer to Firefox Aurora and Chrome's own developer builds. Microsoft has yet to mention how it will update the new browser, or with what regularity they will release them.

The first version of the Developer Channel features preview support for WebDriver and the Gamepad API , as well as new WebGL capabilities. The new additions bring the browser's conformance test to 97 per cent.

The new browser will also include a sandbox-esque testing environment free from the user's main profiles. It uses App-V virtualisation in order to separate the Developer Channel from the rest of the system meaning it can be made the default browser.

Developer tools are enhanced with new tools, including interface changes, new icons, keyboard shortcuts, better autocomplete and memory usage visualisation. It is compatible with Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 with Internet Explorer 11 and is available immediately.

With Internet Explorer often losing out to competitors Chrome and Firefox, this could be a sign of Microsoft attempting to interact with its userbase and community.

Mozilla has launched Firefox 29 and Firefox for Android - the most customisable versions of the browser ever, according to the developer.

The beta of Firefox 29 was released in March, but now it's available for everyone and users should see the new update alert arriving soon on Mac and PC.

Firefox 29 is for desktop and apparently "reflects how you use the web today" with "an elegant and fun design, new menu, customisation mode and an enhanced Firefox Sync service powered by Firefox Accounts."

The new design includes new tabs with the one you're using at the front and others fading into the background so it's easy to see which one is in use.

The menu has moved to the right corner of the toolbar, allowing users to access all of their controls including adding a new window, saving a page, printing a page, viewing your history, using full screen mode and finding something on the page.

From here, users can also get new Firefox add-ons to customise the Firefox experience. It is also possible to remove buttons that are not in use and add new shortcuts to the items used most.

It is also possible to move many of the settings onto the toolbar, such as print screen or open new window, just by dragging and dropping and it's the same story for add-ons too. Just drag and drop from the Firefox add-ons page to where you want it to go.

The star icon can be used to create a new bookmark next to the URL bar, so when you click it, you'll see the page move into the bookmarks folder with a blue flash. This makes it possible for bookmarks to be managed from the main menu.

Firefox Sync allows end users to create an account and share everything - including passwords, open tabs, form data, history and bookmarks - across devices.

Firefox for Android has also been updated to reflect the changes in Firefox desktop, with tabs disappearing from view if not in use.

Firefox 29 has arrived on beta with a completely new interface, built with user customisation in mind.

The browser's customisation options include the ability to drag and drop features and tools to easily accessible places, whether you want to see your RSS feeds instantly, or want to move the new tab button to somewhere you can always find it.

Customisation options also apply to the Firefox add-ons you can download so whether you want to scrap the default options and use just your Add-ons, that's fine with Firefox.

To enter customisation mode, you can head to the menu, then choose Customize. You can position your favourite shortcuts to the area directly right of the search box or by clicking on the drop down menu, identified by three horizontal lines on the far right of the toolbar.

Another of the big highlights in Firefox 29 is its improved sync option, allowing you to easily set up, manage and sync between devices with a single sign-on, whether you're using the browser on Mac, PC, Android or Linux.

The final big change is how the browser looks. It's the first edition of Firefox to use the Australis interface and this brings with it smaller tabs that have been moved up a little higher to take up less of your screen and those tabs that aren't in use have been visually de-emphasised' so they're not as obvious.

The bookmark manager icon has been moved next to the bookmark star so it's easier to add the current page as a bookmark in one click.

Other new tweaks include an onboard tour to help users navigate through the new interface and a new gamepad API, allowing a gamepad to be used for web gaming.

The Firefox 29 beta launch blog post said, "Firefox is the trusted browser of choice for half a billion people worldwide and we are excited to bring the new Firefox to our audience of beta testers."

The beta version of Firefox 29 is available to download and test from the Firefox website.

The Mozilla Foundation has launched an investigation into claims that Dell had been charging its customers 16 to install Firefox on its PCs.

The browser is open source and free to download and install, however, one Dell customer discovered that the PC maker was running an "installation service" with the browser. The customer alerted the Register and sent them a screen grab of the charge.

The browser is one of the most popular on the internet and boasts around 500 million users worldwide.

Dell said that the charge was not for the software itself but the time and labour involved in installing the browser. The browser typically takes at the most, ten minutes to install.

"In this particular situation, the customer would not be charged for the Mozilla Firefox software download, rather the fee would cover the time and labour involved for factory personnel to load a different image than is provided on the system's standard configuration," said a Dell spokesperson.

"Dell Configuration Services, including the application loading service, ensure customers have a complete, ready to use product when it arrives."

However, in a statement to the press, Mozilla's vice president and general counsel, Denelle Dixon-Thayer said that there was "no agreement between Dell and Mozilla which allows Dell or anyone else to charge for installing Firefox using that brand name."

"Our trademark policy makes clear that this is not permitted and we are investigating this specific report," she said.

The service charge appears not only appears to apply to users in Europe. There are reports of US customers being offered the same service.

Investigations into Dell's practices are in their early stages, according to Mozilla.

Mozilla has announced a 15 ($25) smartphone, as the firm aims to gain traction in the mobile market by targeting emerging markets.

The not-for-profit organisation has teamed up with Spreadtrum, a fabless chip maker based in Shanghai, which specialises in references designs for manufacturers.

The device is powered by a Cortex A5 1GHz processor, has a 3.5in display, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and two megapixel camera. The device will run the Firefox OS and be capable of performing tasks commonly used on smartphones including carrying out calls, browsing the web, receiving texts/emails, playing video.

"We're trying to bring people onlineThere are many people who are going to move from feature phones to smartphones over the next couple of years," said chief operating officer, Jay Sullivan during the launch.

There will be three iterations of the device, with slightly different specifications. No official release date has been announced, but the device is expected to launch in the second half of 2014.

Mozilla has announced it has signed agreements to bring devices to 12 new markets during 2014 bringing the total number of countries where Firefox devices are available to 27. Together with partners, the organisation is keen to break into the African and Asian markets, having debuted in Latin American and Eastern European countries.

Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei and ZTE have all unveiled new Firefox OS devices - with Alcatel also planning to launch a 7in tablet. Firefox OS will also be used by Panasonic in Smart TVs and by Via in PCs, the COO claimed.

Sullivan also debuted Mozilla's first high-end reference, which is specifically for developers. Dubbed the 'Flame' reference device it gives developers a taste of what Firefox OS is capable of with premium components.

Specs of the Flame reference device have been confirmed in full but there is no pricing. Mozilla is expected to make this available around Q2 of 2014 and it will include:

Qualcomm MSM8210 Snapdragon, 1.2GHZz dual-core processor 4.5 in display screen (FWVGA 854 480 pixels) Cameras: Rear: 5MP / Front: 2MP 3G UMTS quad-band (850/900/1900/2100) 8GB memory 256MB -1GB RAM (adjustable by developer) A-GPS, NFC Battery capacity: 1,800 mAh Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, micro USB

Developers will be able to scale-down the RAM so they can build, debug and test applications for lower-end device which are on the market.

The Pirate Bay is to follow up the release of its ISP block-dodging web browser with an updated offering that relies on peer-to-peer technology to operate.

The file sharing site released its PirateBrowser in August 2013 to help internet users "circumvent censorship" in countries such as the UK and Ireland.

The browser featured an adapted version of Mozilla Firefox bundled with Tor client Vidalia, and has reportedly been downloaded more than 2.5 million times since its release.

However, the organisation has revealed that plans are afoot to release an updated version of the browser later this year, designed to make sites even less susceptible to ISP blocks.

"The goal is to create a browser-like client to circumvent censorship, including domain blocking, domain confiscation, IP-blocking," a Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak.

"This will be accomplished by sharing all of the site's indexed data as P2P downloadable packages that are then browsed/rendered locally."

"It's basically a browser-like app that uses webkit to render pages, BitTorrent to download the content while storing everything locally," the insider added.

As such, when users load a site using the client, its data is shared between users and stored locally, which means there is no central IP address that can be blocked by an ISP.

At the moment, there is no confirmed release date, as The Pirate Bay is said to still be looking for software coders, particularly those with Windows skills, to help build it.

However, the TorrentFreak article claims development of the product has been "steady" to date.

Mozilla has released Lightbeam, a tool designed to help users understand how their data is used after they use various web services.

Lightbeam is a refreshed version of the Collusion add-on, which was launched in March last year, with the aim of providing an insight into how "data creates a spider-web of interaction between companies and other trackers".

The tool "brings to light the array of first and third party companies people interact with everyday across the web", said Alex Fowler, head of privacy and public policy at Mozilla.

When a user visits just a handful of websites, they often interact with over 100 other organisations, Fowler noted.

Once downloaded, the tool creates a real-time visualisation of visited websites and all the third parties running on those sites, which often throw cookies onto user machines.

A data map shows how these organisations are connected, whilst allowing users to share their details to help Mozilla "pull back the curtain" to see the inner workings of the Internet.

Outside of giving people more power over their data, Fowler believes Lightbeam offers benefits for publishers too. "Once the open data set has time to mature, we'll continue to explore how publishers can benefit from additional insights into the interaction of third parties on their sites," he added, in a blog post.

"With the Lightbeam for Firefox add-on and open data, we're providing a valuable community research platform to raise awareness, promote analysis and, ultimately, affect change in the areas of tracking and privacy."

The Lightbeam code has been submitted to Github, as Mozilla looks to the community to improve the service.

A security flaw has been uncovered in Google's Chrome web browser that can give anyone unfettered access to users' stored logins, and there are reportedly no plans to fix it.

The bug was discovered by software developer Elliott Kember, who found that in the password section of the browser's settings panel, saved passwords can be revealed in plain text simply by clicking a button labelled show'.

"There's no master password, no security, not even a prompt that these passwords are visible'," said Kember in a blog highlighting the problem.

Kember said while some developers are aware of this flaw, everyday users are not.

"In a world where Google promotes its browser on YouTube, in cinema pre-rolls, and on billboards, the clear audience is not developers. It's the mass market - the users. The overwhelming majority. They don't know it works like this.

"They don't expect it to be this easy to see their passwords. Every day, millions of normal, everyday users are saving their passwords in Chrome. This is not okay," he said.

However, Justin Schuch, Chrome browser security tech lead at Google, said this is not a fault and the company is not going to change it.

"The only strong permission boundary for your password storage is the OS user account. So, Chrome uses whatever encrypted storage the system provides to keep your passwords safe for a locked account. Beyond that, however, we've found that boundaries within the OS user account just aren't reliable, and are mostly just theatre," he wrote on Hacker News.

"We've also been repeatedly asked why we don't just support a master password or something similar, even if we don't believe it works. We've debated it over and over again, but the conclusion we always come to is that we don't want to provide users with a false sense of security, and encourage risky behaviour. We want to be very clear that when you grant someone access to your OS user account, that they can get at everything. Because in effect, that's really what they get," he concluded.

While many commenters agreed a master password or other additional security layer would not stop a determined and knowledgeable hacker, they argued it would help prevent crimes of opportunity.

In a Tweet, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, described the flaw as "how to get all [your] big sister's passwords" and said the reply from Schuh was "disappointing".

Another set of security bugs have also been found in the past 48 hours, this time affecting a number of Mozilla products.

The foundation has released updates for Firefox 23.0, Firefox ESRT 17.0.8, Thunderbird 17.0.8 Thunderbird ESR 17.0.8 and Seamonkey 2.20 to address multiple vulnerabilities that could, according to an advisory notice from the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), allow hackers to remotely cause a denial of service condition, conduct a cross-site scripting attack, execute arbitrary code, or bypass restrictions.

Administrators and users of these services are advised to apply the updates in order to avoid falling victim to an attack.

Mozilla's smartphone running Firefox OS will start shipping in September after going up for pre-order in Europe.

A limited amount of devices known as the Peak+ are available to pre-order online from Geekphones, priced at 149 before tax.

The smartphones will ship with Firefox OS (v 1.1) and pack a 4.3in qHD IPS display, 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 1GB of RAM. The Peak+ includes just 4GB of internal storage, but does support micro SD cards.

Other core features include an 8-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel front facing camera as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR connectivity.

The first wave of Firefox devices were expected to debut in emerging markets such as Brazil and Columbia. Mozilla had not yet given any time frame over when device would land in Europe.

It is unclear exactly how many are available to pre-order, but most are likely to be snapped up by developers eager to test out the capabilities of the web-based operating system.

Mozilla claims its Firefox OS is the first smartphone operating system to be built on open web standards, such as HTML 5. This will allow end users to download apps from multiple sources including the Firefox Marketplace and developer websites.

Android, iOS and Windows Phone users are generally restricted to downloading content for their devices from their respective app stores.

Mozilla isn't the only organisation trying to push open source software into the mainstream. Canonical is in the midst of trying to raise $32 million via crowdsourcing so that it can build a batch of 40,000 Ubuntu/Android smartphones.

Users will be able to use Canonical's Ubuntu Edge smartphone as a regular Android device. However, when plugged into a monitor, the handset will switch to the full desktop edition of Ubuntu, essentially acting as thin client.

Update: 26/7/2013

A statement from Mozilla appears to contradict that this will be the first Firefox OS device to land in Europe.

"Geeksphone announced the pre-sale of a new device based on Boot to Gecko technology. We want to clarify that this new phone that was announced is based on Boot to Gecko technology with pre-release software, but is not a certified or supported Firefox OS device," a spokesperson noted in a statement.

Mozilla is said to be working with gadget manufacturer Foxconn to produce a tablet based on the browser company's Firefox OS.

The Firefox OS tablet is slated to be entering the market at the budget end, pitting it against cheaper Android-based devices. A full unveiling is said to be planned for 3 June, with an industry insider telling Taiwanese publication Focus Taiwan the device would most likely be a tablet.

Foxconn or Hon Hai, as it is otherwise known, makes 60 per cent of its revenue from assembling products for Apple, such as its iPhone and iPad. It also produces devices that run Google's Android OS. Foxconn is said to be looking to broaden its client base as Apple's market share decreases, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Mozilla announced a raft of telecoms operators and manufacturers for its Firefox OS project, including Deutsche Telekom, Sprint, SingTel, LG and Huawei at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain in February.

The company has already launched smartphones based on Firefox OS. Its two devices, Keon and Peak, are built by Spanish firm Geeksphone and aimed at developers.

Google is also said to be refreshing its Nexus 7 tablet. According to reports from DigiTimes, Elan Microelectronics has begun shipping touchscreen controllers for Google's new Nexus 7 tablets. Shipments are planned for the next two months, which point to a launch of the revamped device in July. Google has not commented on the veracity of the rumours.

It is likely the new device will sport a higher resolution display, more storage and a faster processor.

Apple is also said to be planning an upgrade of its iPad Mini for the end of the year.

Open source software vendor Mozilla has issued a cease and desist notice to Gamma International for producing spyware that allegedly passes itself off as its flagship web browser Firefox.

In a recent blog post, Alex Fowler, global privacy and public policy leader at Mozilla, stated: "We cannot abide a software company using our name to disguise online surveillance tools that can be and in several cases actually have been used by Gamma's customers to violate citizens' human rights and online privacy.

"As an open source project trusted by hundreds of millions of people around the world, defending Mozilla's trademarks from this type of abuse is vital to our brand, our users and the continued success of our mission," he added.

Spyware is a type of software that tracks and gathers information about users, generally without their consent or knowledge.

Beyond data collection, spyware can also make computers vulnerable to attacks by malware and other infections.

According to Mozilla, Gamma international's software tricks users into thinking they are using the legitimate Firefox program by misrepresenting itself as "Firefox.exe".

"Not only are these activities illegal, but we take them seriously because they are deceptive, harm users, cause consumer confusion, and jeopardise Mozilla's reputation," said Fowler.

However, Mozilla has also stressed that Gamma's Spyware is entirely separate from Firefox, and does not affect the browser itself.

Gamma International had not responded to IT Pro's request for comment at the time of writing.

Smartphones sporting the new Firefox OS have sold out within hours of going on sale to developers.

Spanish manufacturer Geeksphone produced the handsets, called the Peak and the Keon, and both devices are now out of stock on its website.

The Peak is the more powerful phone, sporting a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and an 1800mAh battery. It also has a 4.3-inch qHD IPS touchscreen display, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and 2-megapixel camera in front. It boasts 4GB of internal storage and costs 149 (126).

The Keon, priced at 91 (77), comes with a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, a 3-megapixel camera and 4GB of internal storage that can be expanded using a microSD.

It features a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 processor and a 1580mAh battery, as well as GPS, Wi-Fi and micro USB connectivity.

The devices are not on sale to the general public, but developers had the opportunity to snap them up to create apps for them.

The OS, which made its debut at this year's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, treats HTML5 apps as native, meaning an app developed for the Firefox OS should also work on iOS and Android smartphones, too.

"The Firefox OS Developer Preview Geeksphone devices have development versions of Firefox OS and are unlocked so that developers can use them wherever they are in the world and they are updated regularly with the latest Firefox OS build," said Stormy Peters, Mozilla's director of websites and developer engagement, in a blog post.

Geeksphone said, while both handsets were out of stock, more should be available soon. "Devices will be back on stock in a few hours, thanks for your support!" the company said in a tweet.

The ZTE Open and Alcatel OneTouch Fire have already been confirmed as Firefox OS handsets, while LG and Huawei are also expected to launch devices sporting the OS in the near future.

Sony has extended its partnership with Telefnica by signing a multi-year deal which includes the development of handsets running Mozilla's Firefox OS.

Sony is the latest manufacturer to join those already confirmed to use Firefox OS - Alcatel, LG, Huawei and ZTE. The move is unsurprising as the Japanese manufacturer is keen to diversify its mobile portfolio, which relies solely on the Android platform at this time.

The company's engineers have started working with Firefox OS, according to Bob Ishida, deputy chief executive officer and head of products business group at Sony Mobile.

"At Sony Mobile we continue to evaluate innovative technologies that can help deliver the premium user experiences that Sony's consumers expect," he said a in statement.

"[We] continue to work with our operator partners, including Telefnica, on a development project with an ambition to bring a product to market in 2014."

The Firefox OS differentiates itself from competing platforms as it is built using the HTML5 web standards.

However, it remains to be seen whether it can be anything other than a niche platform. The market already has four major platforms fighting it out for a share of the market.

The Android and iOS operating systems dominate the market, but the revamped BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone platforms are aiming to regain ground in 2013.

The first wave of Firefox devices are set to be launched in emerging markets such as Brazil, Columbia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela. Mozilla has not yet given any time frame over when its OS is expected to launch in the UK.

Mozilla has made good on its pledge to use the power of the web to deliver a unique of smartphone operating system at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The open source software firm took the wraps off the first commercial build of its Firefox OS at the event, and said it is already working with manufacturers Alcatel, LG and ZTE to build the first slew of devices featuring the software.

These devices will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile processers, confirmed Firefox, and Huawei is also expected to join its list of smartphone OEM partners later this year.

The first wave of Firefox OS devices will go on sale in Brazil, Columbia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela. No concrete details have given about when UK consumers can expect to get their hands on one, although reports suggest it may not be until at least 2014.

Mozilla claims the Firefox OS will be the first smartphone operating system to be built on open web standards, such as HTML 5. This will allow end users to download apps from the Firefox Marketplace, as well as directly from developers' websites.

By comparison, Apple iOS, Google Android and Windows Phone users are generally restricted to downloading content for their devices from their respective app stores.

Gary Kovacs, chief executive of Mozilla, said the operating system will allow mobile users to take advantage of everything the web has to offer.

"With the support of our vibrant community and dedicated partners, our goal is to level the playing field and usher in an explosion of content and services that will meet the diverse needs of the next two billion people online," he said in a statement.

As well as OEM support, the firm has also announced a plethora of carriers, including Deutsche Telekom, Telefnica and Three, who have agreed to back the devices in emerging markets.

Tony Cripps, principal device analyst at market watcher Ovum, said Mozilla has done well to win the support of such a wide range of manufacturers and carriers so early on.

However, he described the demonstration handsets on show at MWC as "slow and buggy", suggesting they are some way from being market ready.

"The real acid test for Firefox OS and its long-term prospects is the quality of the software itself and the user and developer experiences that it fosters," said Cripps.

"The [performance issues] must be overcome before Firefox OS devices find their way into consumers' hands.

"Even low-cost smartphones the primary target market for Firefox OS can't afford to hide behind price as a justification for poor performance," he added.

The open nature of the operating system and the apparent low-cost of its devices could prove to be a major differentiator for Mozilla in the crowded mobile space, which is largely dominated by the likes of Android and iOS.

However, the firm will definitely have a fight on its hands to make its presence felt, with Microsoft making a concerted effort on the mobile front of late, and fellow open source player Ubuntu also preparing to ship smartphones and tablets running its own software.

Oracle needs to urgently overhaul its Java software platform to eradicate the risk of further security problems coming to light that could pose a risk to users, it has been claimed.

The software giant has come under fire repeatedly over the last six months following the discovery of several security problems affecting the web browser-based versions of Java.

Oracle should just redesign Java from the ground up before everyone completely loses faith in it.

Earlier this month, Mac and PC users were encouraged to disable Java in their web browsers again after another zero-day vulnerability was found that could let hackers take over users' systems.

Oracle released an emergency patch last week to fix the problem, but security researchers claimed it failed to address several critical flaws.

The same researchers, headed up by Security Explorations' Adam Gowdiak, announced the discovery of two further security vulnerabilities on Friday that affect the patch Oracle rolled out last week.

"We have successfully confirmed that a complete Java security sandbox bypass can be still gained under the recent version of Java 7 Update 11," said Java security researcher Gowdiak.

He said the flaws have been reported to Oracle, along with a working proof of concept code.

Further to this, it has also emerged that a flaw in Java MBeanInstantiator was also not addressed by last week's patch.

This bug is what inspired Gowdiak to dig around and lead to the discovery of these two further vulnerabilities, he revealed.

Andrew Storms, director of security operations at compliance software firm nCircle, said the security problems that have recently blighted Java should prompt Oracle into overhauling the platform.

"Oracle should just redesign Java from the ground up before everyone completely loses faith in it and other Oracle products," said Storms.

"Obviously, there's something broken in Java development or design cycles. Oracle needs to wake up and get serious about secure software development, it's not like there aren't a lot of examples on how to do it right."

PC and Mac users must disable Java in their web browsers following the discovery of another zero-day vulnerability that is reportedly being used by hackers to take over people's computers.

The stark warning was made by the US government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) yesterday in an alert, which claims that all browsers using the Java 7 plug-in are at risk.

The group warned that the Java Deployment Tookit plug-in and Java Web Start can also be used by hackers to attack vulnerable systems.

Everyone running an updated version of Java is at risk right now, until Oracle releases a patch.

"Reports indicate this vulnerability is being actively exploited, and exploit code is publicly available," the US CERT advisory stated.

The vulnerability is understood to affect the Java Security Manager, allowing applets to grant themselves permission to execute arbitrary code.

"An attacker could use social engineering techniques to entice a user to visit a link to a website hosting a malicious Java applet," the alert added.

"An attacker could also compromise a legitimate website and upload a malicious Java applet [known as a drive-by download' attack."

The organisation is urging computer users to disable or uninstall Java in their web browsers, and not to access Java applets from unknown sources, in a further advisory document.

It also claims users could mitigate the risk by using one browser for tasks that require Java.

"If you use a website that requires Java, choose and configure a browser to have Java enabled, and only access that resource with that browser," it stated.

"This helps minimise the exposure of Java to untrusted websites," it added.

Jaime Blasco, head of labs at security vendor AlienVault, said the zero-day vulnerability is similar to the ones that blighted web users last August.

"Everyone running an updated version of Java in Windows and probably in Mac OS X is at risk right now, until Oracle releases a patch," Blasco added.

If you've got an Android, device, there's a good chance it spends a lot of its time browsing the web.

Android's expansive ecosystem of third party developers is a strength, but it can also lead to confusion: with so many alternative browsers available, which one is the best? Do you really need to switch away from the default browser at all?

IT Pro aims to answer the question definitively. To do this we've taken the most popular Android web browsers - Chrome, Dolphin, Firefox, Maxthon, Opera Mobile, and Skyfire - pitted them head-to-head and against the stock Android web browser to see which you should be using to get the most out of your smartphone or tablet.

STOCK BROWSER

The beauty of the stock browser is that you don't have to do anything to get it: there's nothing to download, and you don't have to sacrifice storage space - often at a premium on lower-end Android smartphones - to make use of it. That said, the stock browser is often seen as slow and clunky, especially on tablet devices where the large display isn't used to its full potential.

CHROME

It may seem strange for Google to offer two distinct browsers for Android, but Chrome is a different beast to the stock Android browser. Based on the same open-source Chromium engine as the desktop version, Chrome for Android provides a familiar environment for anyone used to the software on other devices. Better still, it synchronises with Chrome on desktops and laptops, providing access to saved tabs, passwords and browsing history.

The early releases of Chrome for Android were clunky, but Google has done well to get the software up to speed and it's a more than capable replacement for the stock browser. Some compatibility issues still exist, however, and you'll need a device running Android 4.0 'Ice Cream Sandwich' or newer to install Chrome.

DOLPHIN

One of the oldest of the third-party Android browsers, and one of the most popular, Dolphin was one of the first browsers to provide tabbed web browsing on Android-powered devices. With the stock browser now featuring tabs, Dolphin has worked hard to add new features and keep itself current.

The most recent release, Dolphin 9, includes a voice-activated 'assistant' mode which iOS users will find immediately familiar as a Siri-alike. Built directly into the browser, the Dolphin's 'Sonar' assistant isn't as flexible as Apple's version but still provides an interesting way to control the browser without having to use of your hands.

FIREFOX

Developed by the Mozilla Foundation, the open-source Firefox for Android was previously known under its codename of Fennec - and it's come a long way since the early days. Designed to offer a familiar interface to those who use Firefox on the desktop, it's a powerful - but memory-hungry - browser going through a rapid development cycle.

For those who use Firefox already, installing Firefox on an Android device unlocks some handy additional features including support for the same add-on tools and access to a synchronisation system which allows you to access bookmarks and even open tabs from your desktop Firefox install on your mobile. With Chrome the only other browser to offer such impressive cross-platform functionality, Firefox is proving increasingly popular among those with devices capable of meeting its requirements for memory and power.

MAXTHON

Available as a smartphone-oriented standard release and an HD version aimed at larger-screen tablets, Maxthon prides itself on performance. According to the team behind the Maxthon browser, it's the "fastest and smartest internet browser" - but does it really live up to the hype?

Packing cloud synchronisation for bookmarks, gesture control, a private browsing mode and social networking integration for Facebook and Twitter, Maxthon remains popular - but its biggest competitor remains the far more popular Dolphin. That could change, however, with add-ons being released to extend Maxthon's capabilities and adding features like screenshot taking, RSS reader functionality, and even a file manager.

OPERA MOBILE

Opera was originally a paid-for browser, with a free advertising-supported version. The firm made the decision to go completely free some time ago, in the face of dropping market share against the likes of Firefox and Chrome. Its mobile variants have long been popular options for smartphones and featurephones, however, and continue to perform well on Android.

Opera prides itself on compatibility, sticking as close to the HTML5 specification as possible. That's not to say that the company doesn't innovate, however: Opera Mobile includes clever compression technology designed to reduce mobile data charges by routing data through Opera's own servers, although this can be switched off if desired.

SKYFIRE

The first browser to offer Flash support on Android, Skyfire is a novelty: sites not supported by mobile browsers, such as video streaming in esoteric formats, are instead rendered by Skyfire's cloud-based servers and then the content streamed to the mobile browser in a format it can understand.

The result, in theory, is a browser that supports almost all the content the web has to offer - but if you want to take advantage of that support, you'll need to pay for a license as the free Skyfire browser only comes with a three-day trial of the video streaming system.

TEST METHODOLOGY

To test the browsers, we used two popular benchmarking systems: Futuremark's Peacekeeper and the HTML5Test.com test.

Peacekeeper runs through common browser tasks, including JavaScript, WebGL and media streaming tests, to gauge the overall performance of the browser. The higher the browser scores in Peacekeeper, the smoother the browser will be to use. Scores in Peacekeeper are device-dependent, as a change in system performance - running Peacekeeper on a different smartphone or tablet, for example - will affect the final score.

The HTML5Test.com suite, by contrast, ignores performance in favour of checking compatibility with the HTML5 specification. Each browser is given a score out of a possible 500. The higher the score, the more aspects of the HTML5 specification the browser supports. This is important for compatibility: as web developers start to increase their use of some of the more clever portions of the HTML5 specification, browsers which fail to implement these aspects will be left behind.

The tests were carried out on a tablet with a dual-core 1.5GHz ARM processor and 1GB of RAM - roughly the same as a mid-range smartphone - running Android 4.0.4 'Ice Cream Sandwich.' Each time a test was run, all background processes were closed to ensure an accurate result.

PEACEKEEPER RESULTS

So how did they stack up? Maxthon is a clear winner in the performance stakes, beating out a surprisingly strong performance from Android's stock browser to take the crown.

While Maxthon's score of 319 points in the text is impressive, it's only five points higher than the stock browser's 314. Dolphin, meanwhile, sits in third place with 312 points - just slightly slower. In short, performance fans should install either Maxthon or Dolphin, or simply stick with the stock browser which has come a long way since the early days of Android.

For other browsers, the results aren't so good. Users on older or lower-spec devices should avoid Firefox, which sits way at the bottom of the results table with just 189 points in the Peacekeeper test - although it was able to run the gaming portion of the benchmark, something the other browsers were unable to manage, so it could still be a strong option for users on faster hardware.

Opera Mobile's score of 225 is poor, and easily beaten by Chrome's score of 285 - although the latter's performance relative to the stock Android browser shows that there is still a long way to go for Google's secondary browser software before it can ship as the default option.

Skyfire, sadly, did not make it onto the list: the company's clever streaming system, where content is rendered remotely and then provided to the handset in a faster format, threw Peacekeeper completely off and caused the benchmark to crash rather than offer a result. During use, however, Skyfire seemed to offer performance somewhere in the middle of the pack.

HTML5 COMPATIBILITY

Without compatibility, raw performance is useless. In this test, the results are dramatically different: Opera, the second-slowest browser during the Peacekeeper test, tops the chart with an impressive 406 points out of a possible 500. Compatibility with the HTML specifications has always been Opera's strong point, and its Android browser is no exception to that rule.

Just edged out of the top spot is Google's Chrome, which scores 390 points. This is right up there, and significantly better than the stock Android browser's 312 - providing a clear idea of where Google is focusing its efforts with browser development. With Firefox scoring 388, however, Google will have its work cut out not to be surpassed in future releases.

The remainder of the browsers on test proved somewhat middling in their support for the HTML5 standard. Maxthon and the stock Android browser both scored an identical 312 points, while Dolphin slipped behind with 307. Bottom of the table was, again, Skyfire, with its unique approach to rendering content docking a few points with a total of 294 out of 500.

CONCLUSION

If there's one thing to take away from this test, it's this: the stock Android browser is capable, able to hold its head up with the best of them in the performance stakes. While its compatibility with certain less common aspects of the HTML5 specification is somewhat lacking, it's easily able to cope with the majority of websites without complaint.

However, it's a good idea to have a second browser installed. Opera certainly wins in the HTML5 compatibility tests, but its relatively poor performance means that Chrome is the better all-round choice if you're running Android 4.0 or higher. For those lucky enough to own a handset running Android 4.1 or newer out-of-the-box, there's no need to change at all: on everything shipped with 'Jelly Bean' Chrome is the default browser.

If you want to experiment with advanced features, such as voice recognition or customisable gesture support, or you're running an older version of Android that doesn't support Chrome, you can try Maxthon or Dolphin. We're not convinced they offer enough of an improvement over the stock browser to make the switch fulltime though.

Finally, Firefox is one to keep an eye on - but if you're using one of the few Android devices on the market with Intel's Atom chip at its heart, you'll be left out in the cold as only ARM devices are supported at present.

Verdict

We'd recommend sticking with the stock Android browser or using the Chrome browser if your device supports it, as this is the best all-rounder. Opera is also a good choice for users who have a small data allowance as it eats up less data than competitors thanks to compression technology. Firefox was surprisingly sluggish and we wouldn't recommend unless you have a high-end smartphone.

Security researchers have urged users to disable internet browser Java plug-ins, despite concerns about the impact it will have on their line-of-business applications.

As reported by IT Pro earlier this week, the US government has urged internet users to switch off Java in their web browsers following the discovery of two Oracle Java 7 zero-day vulnerabilities.

The issue is understood to affect web browsers that use the Java 7 plug-in, including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Apple Safari.

Removing Java from computers eliminates the attack surface, but it will break browser-based apps.

The bugs allow Java applets to carry out arbitrary operating system commands without permission, which could allow vulnerable systems to be infected with malware.

Despite this, IT security experts claim some enterprise users might be tempted to ignore the US government's advice because of the disruption it could cause to their business.

For instance, Ziv Mador, director of security research at Trustwave SpiderLabs, said companies that use browser-based Java apps would experience problems.

"Removing Java from computers eliminates the attack surface, but it is used in line-of-business and consumer applications and will clearly break [them].

"[It] is an issue administrators will need to take into account before they act on this [advice]," he added.

This is a view backed by Rik Ferguson, director of security research at anti-virus vendor Trend Micro, who said this could put some users off disabling Java.

"Some users, depending on who their security vendor is, might feel confident enough in its ability to detect every single variant of malware [this could expose them to], which is, perhaps, not that sensible," said Ferguson.

"There are some workarounds, though, most of which are pretty clunky," he added.

For instance, IT administrations could tell staff to use a different browser, such as Google Chrome, to run their business applications in and another for general internet use.

"It means having two separate browsers and relying on users to maintain that policy for as long as that alert's in place, which is why it's a bit clunky," he explained.

"The simplest solution would be for Oracle to release a patch, especially as this is a vulnerability that is affecting so many different platforms.

Meanwhile, Tal Be'ery, web research team leader at security vendor Imperva, said it is "nearly impossible" for IT administrators to disable a single software component on every machine they are responsible for.

"The current case of disabling Java components is no different," he said.

"Individual users should turn off Java 7 browser plug-ins and only enable them [for] trusted sites, such as [those hosting] Java-powered line of business applications."

Pressure is growing on Oracle to patch the vulnerabilities ahead of its next Java 7 update, which is due in October, following claims that a Polish IT security research team alerted the software giant to the problem back in April.

The European Commission is to re-investigate Microsoft after it was accused of failing to give customers a choice of alternative web browsers.

A similar trial in 2009 ruled that Microsoft must show a ballot screen when a PC was first used to give customers the option to install alternative browsers, including Opera, Chrome and Firefox.

We take compliance with our decisions very seriously. And I trusted the company's reports were accurate.

This was introduced in February 2010, but it has been claimed that this has not always happened.

The Redmond giant has been accused of not complying with the ruling since February 2011, when Windows 7 Service Pack 1 was launched. Up to 28 million users who bought a PC with the latest patches pre-installed may not have seen the browser ballot window.

This display was supposed to be offered to consumers until 2014. This was after European competition authorities claimed the company was trying to maintain its dominance of the browser market.

"We take compliance with our decisions very seriously. And I trusted the company's reports were accurate. But it seems that was not the case, so we have immediately taken action," said EU competition commissioner, Joaquin Almunia.

"If infringements are confirmed, Microsoft should expect sanctions."

In a statement, Microsoft admitted it had fallen "short in its responsibilities" in updating Windows 7 Service Pack 1, blaming the lack of browser choice screen on a "technical error".

"While we believed when we filed our most recent compliance report in December 2011 that we were distributing the BCS [browser choice selection] software to all relevant PCs as required, we learned recently that we've missed roughly 28 million PCs running Windows 7 SP1," said the statement.

"While we have taken immediate steps to remedy this problem, we deeply regret that this error occurred and we apologise," it added.

Microsoft could face a fine of up to 10 per cent of its worldwide revenues (approx. $7 billion) should the case go against the company.

Alan Davis, senior competition partner at legal firm Pinsent Masons, said the EU is likely to take a dim view of Microsoft's oversight.

"Microsoft will have an uphill battle to persuade the Commission that fines shouldn't be imposed as [it] will also want to send out a deterrence message to other companies about how seriously they take compliance with commitments," he said.

"The Commission has also announced that it is going to strengthen the monitoring and enforcement of commitments in these types of cases in the future, including the requirement to have a stronger role for monitoring trustees, something that is already common in merger investigations."

Mozilla has extended its lucrative search deal with Google, ensuring it won't miss out on big money for at least the next three years.

It means Google will remain the default search provider in Firefox. The initial partnership ended this year and without this week's extension Mozilla could have been in financial danger.

Last year, 84 per cent of Mozilla's revenue came from Google.

"Under this multi-year agreement, Google Search will continue to be the default search provider for hundreds of millions of Firefox users around the world," said Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla.

"Mozilla has been a valuable partner to Google over the years and we look forward to continuing this great partnership in the years to come," added Alan Eustace, senior vice president of search at Google.

The deal comes in the same week Firefox 9 was launched, with Mozilla claiming it would deliver a 30 per cent speed boost thanks to improvements in JavaScript.

The speed boost comes thanks to the Type Inference feature in the latest iteration of Firefox.

"TI is a feature in the SpiderMonkey Javascript engine which generates type information about Javascript programs through a combination of analyzing the program's code and monitoring the types of values as the program executes," said Brian Hackett, Firefox engineer, in a blog post.

"This type information is used during JIT compilation to generate more efficient code; Firefox 9 includes modifications to the JaegerMonkey JIT compiler to use inferred type information."

Mozilla has made Firefox 6 available on both desktop and mobile, with a host of new features and security updates.

One significant addition is the Web Developer menu, designed to provide "easy access to tools that help developers build and debug websites directly in the browser."

"Developers will enjoy the new Scratchpad tool, which makes it simple to quickly enter, execute, test and refine JavaScript snippets in Firefox without needing to work in a one-line console," Mozilla said in a blog post.

"The Web Console is improved with an auto-complete feature and the ability to customise the console's location to save developers time."

Mozilla has made some API updates too, including the addition of the Window.matchMedia API, created to help developers "optimise their website or Web app across different devices and platforms."

Seven security updates were announced, five of which were ranked as critical.

One of those related to a number of memory corruption issues. "We presume that with enough effort at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code," Mozilla said.

The release comes as part of a Mozilla commitment to delivering updates to its browser every six weeks.

To get the update, all users need to do is click on "check for update" under the "About Firefox" menu or wait for the prompt from Mozilla when uploading Firefox.

In other browser news, yesterday NSS Labs released a report indicating Internet Explorer was preventing more socially engineered malware attacks than any of its competitors.

The Microsoft browser scored a 96 per cent mean block rate, far ahead of Chrome in second place on 13.2 per cent.

Mozilla has been talking up work it is undertaking to bring multi-process content support to Firefox.

The web software developer said the work would help to prioritise as well as measure when it might be ready to ship a version of its browser that uses a multi-process model.

The details, outlined in a blog posting late last week, have led to observations that Mozilla is following a similar multi-process architecture development path to the one Google took for its Chrome browser.

The Chrome architecture uses a procedure known as 'process isolation' to separate processes allocated to each site instance and plugin.

The blog of Chris Blizzard, Mozilla web platform director, said the company realised it was going to have to invest in a multi-process model.

While multi-process development was not a panacea for further development work on performance, as well as multi-core and memory behaviour areas, "it does give us a leg up on some of the more systemic problems," he wrote.

Although Blizzard stood by the most recent release of Firefox 5 as a "great browser from a responsiveness standpoint."

"We know that if we want to separate chrome and content concerns that we're going to have to go to multi-process," he added.

The posting cited ongoing development work to use separate processes to display the browser user interface (UI), web content, and plugins in project Electrolysis as key to improving levels of responsiveness.

It also pointed to the importance of support for multi-core processors in desktops, laptops and increasingly mobile devices, as an important reason for also moving away from requiring content to have single-threaded domain object model (DOM).

"One of the easiest ways to take advantage of multiple processors is to have each DOM assigned to its own processor, and the easiest way to do that is to have a few processes that can each be assigned to their own CPU," Blizzard wrote.

Mozilla also said it was investing in longer-horizon projects to examine what a multi-threaded DOM and layout engine might look like.

In security terms, Blizzard admitted that having the ability to talk to the "more privileged" chrome process could still result in exploits that have raised permissions.

He admitted it wouldn't protect one website from another malicious website.

"But it is a positive step forward, and is well worth the investment," he added.

Mozilla late yesterday launched a new experimental project, called BrowserID, to make it easier for users and developers to handle the sign-in process for websites.

The project uses existing email addresses to replace the login and password details for all of the sites a user may want to log into, such as Facebook, Google or Twitter.

Described by its development team as a "snazzy passphraseless login flow," the project uses a new Verified Email Protocol' from Mozilla that is based on public key cryptography.

Dan Mills, Mozilla Labs engineer, said in a blog posting that the open source protocol enables the project to offer this new approach to universal login.

"Sites get proof of ownership using public key cryptography," he wrote.

"But don't worry, we have a verification service so you can get started without writing a single line of crypto code."

When a user logs into a website BrowserID intercepts the request, allowing them to choose any one of the email addresses they must have already registered with the service in order to authenticate their login.

The one-time verification of email addresses when a user first registers with BrowserID allows the service to use crypto keys in order to vouch for the user's ownership of them, so the website that the user is signing into does not need to.

The success of the service will be largely reliant on getting email service providers to get involved. In return, they will be able to access the data collected on the sites that users log into using BrowserID.

But Mozilla said this would still be a more secure method of password management, as the data will only reside on BrowserID servers.

While single sign-on systems like OpenID have been around for some time now, Mozilla said BrowserID offered a better alternative to identity token-based protocols because its keys worked with the authentication service already provided with email accessed via the web.

In the wiki documentation describing the Verified Email Protocol, Mozilla stated: "A number of web-scale identity proposals start by creating a new identity token for example a user ID or personal URL and go on to describe how to use that token to authenticate the user."

By using existing email addresses, Mozilla claims its system eliminates the need to register an identity token every time the user wants to log into a new website. It said this would make it easier for users and developers to adopt.

And the prototype uses JavaScript and HTML to enable its use on the latest web and mobile browsers.

The company has launched a new website to host links to the BrowserID source code and specifications, designed to encourage end users and website owners to get involved.

Google Chrome has yet again increased its market share in the browser market, as its two main rivals faltered.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox saw declines in market share in June 2011, according to NetMarketShare figures.

Chrome saw its share rise from 12.52 per cent in May to 13.11 per cent in June.

Firefox had 21.67 per cent share in June, still not even half of IE's 53.68 per cent.

Safari saw its market share rise from 7.28 per cent to 7.48 per cent.

Opera will be disappointed by its performance, with a decline from 2.03 per cent to 1.73 per cent.

Last week it emerged Opera co-founder Jon von Tetzchner was to leave the company. A letter sent to fellow employees revealed there were some disagreements in the upper echelons of the firm.

"The Board, Management and I do not share the same values and we do not have the same opinions on how to keep evolving Opera," Tetzchner said.

"I feel the Board and Management is more quarterly focused than me. I have always worked to build the company for the future."

Microsoft, meanwhile, will be hoping to regain some market share and assert its dominance with IE10. The tech giant unveiled the second platform preview for the browser last week.

Mozilla has sought to address cooled relations with business users by saying focusing on the needs of individuals results in widespread enterprise use by loyal browser fans.

Last week, Mozilla product manager Asa Dotzler stirred up a hornets nest when he said Firefox was aimed primarily at consumers and the company was less interested in business users.

Microsoft then stepped in in to assert just how business-friendly its Internet Explorer browser, actually is and that the software giant sees it as being "about and not or" when it comes to focus on consumers and enterprise users.

Open Source software is well-suited to these challenges, as interested parties can come together to build what is needed.

The latest twist comes from the Mozilla blog, where Jay Sullivan, vice president of products claimed the needs of the individual user have always been a primary focus. However, he added by improving the individual experience the browser has made its way into the enterprise world organically with "loyal" users introducing Firefox to their workplace.

"A key challenge for enterprises is that they need to certify their websites, apps and add-ons each time Firefox is updated," he said.

"This can take weeks or months. Security is also paramount, enterprises need access to a version that includes all known security fixes."

Mozilla also clearly recognises the issues businesses face. Sullivan indicated Mozilla was looking to work with enterprises to counter some of these problems, particularly in relation to the new six-week fast development and rollout cycle.

"We are exploring solutions that balance these needs, with active discussion in our community," he said.

"Open Source software is well-suited to these challenges, as interested parties can come together to build what is needed."

Microsoft has waded into the latest

Firefox debate, saying its Internet Explorer browser is focused on both business users and consumers, rather than one or the other.

Last week, Mozilla courted controversy, after Firefox product manager Asa Dotzler stated the company was more interested in consumers' needs.

We believe that all Windows customers should have a great browsing experience, whether they stay at home, go to school, or work in a large organisation with managed IT resources.

"It's about and not or," said the headline on Microsoft's IEBlog where Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president for the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft, made a post offering an alternative viewpoint to Mozilla's consumer focus.'

"We believe that all Windows customers should have a great browsing experience, whether they stay at home, go to school, or work in a large organisation with managed IT resources. Because all these groups of Windows customers are important to Microsoft," he said.

The circumstances seem ideal from a marketing perspective, although it should be noted Asa Doztler, the Mozilla manager who lit the touchpaper on consultant Mike Kaply's blog, actually spoke favourably of Internet Explorer in his posts.

"IE9 is a fine browser and probably better suited to those who want long-term support," he said.

"It'll always be behind the consumer browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera) but it does offer enterprises a more conservative and slow-moving option."

Hachamovitch was less flattering of the opposition and described Mozilla's outlook as "the tyranny of OR".

"We ship updates to five versions of IE across seven operating systems with 14 Service Pack variations to customers in 96 languages worldwide every eight weeks," he boasted.

"We do this because it's what many customers need to fulfill their missions, safely, reliably, and in compliance with the requirements they have."

A Firefox manager has enraged business users by suggesting they're not as important as consumers when it comes to the popular browser.

The acceleration of Mozilla Firefox's development and release cycle has sparked controversy and amongst the complaints are those from business users lamenting the lack of stability, compatibility and compliance.

One such platform for these views is consultant Mike Kaply's blog, where he described the setbacks of such rapid advancement.

After Firefox 4, which took over a year to release, the browser platform was quickly usurped by Firefox 5 only a few months later and Mozilla officially declared Firefox 4 was at end of life' (EOL), a turn which Kaply described as "a kick in the stomach."

"While the rapid release process sounds great, it's an absolute fail for large deployments of Firefox," he said.

Asa Doztler, community coordinator for Firefox marketing and founder of Mozilla's quality assurance scheme, responded to the comments on the blog saying enterprise had "never been (and I'll argue, shouldn't be) a focus of ours."

"We get about 2 million Firefox downloads per day from regular user types," he said.

"Today, I argue, we shouldn't care even if we do have the resources because of the cost benefit trade," he claimed, "A minute spent making a corporate user happy can better be spent making many regular users happy."

"I'd much rather Mozilla spending its limited resources looking out for the billions of users that don't have enterprise support systems already taking care of them," he said.

Some users responded with concerns about the inconvenience of rapid EOL, even for non-enterprise customers, when Doztler revealed the development cycle would be fast-tracked to six weeks. One commenter asked if there were any assurances Firefox 5 wouldn't reach immediate EOL on the release of Firefox 6, possibly only six weeks later.

"My promise that it will happen," Doztler responded, "Firefox 6 will be the EOL of Firefox 5. And Firefox 7 will be the EOL for Firefox 6."