Google Chrome 4.0 Released to “Stable” Channel

Google has just released its Chrome 4.0 browser to the stable channel. Two major features added to the 4.0 version: bookmark sync and extensions (aka. addons similar to Firefox).

Read more about the latest Google Chrome stable release here.

Download the latest stable release of Google Chrome here.

Firefox 3.6 final released, and NO Firefox is NOT “doomed” at all

Several months since Firefox 3.5 was released back at the end of June 2009, the final release of Firefox 3.6 has just been posted today. Read this Softpedia article on the details of this latest Firefox release.

Firefox 3.6 can be obtained from the official Mozilla Firefox page.

And a few days ago, I stumbled onto this Infoworld.com article speculating Firefox’s imminent demise or “doom”, which many Firefox users find hard to believe.

UPDATE: A blog was published on the Gigaom.com site about the middle of last week in rebuttal to that Infoworld.com article.

Firefox 3.6 RC2 and Google Chrome 4.0 Beta (4.0.249.64) now available

The next generation of Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers are almost ready to be finalized and released to the public.

Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate 2 can be downloaded here while the latest Google Chrome 4.0 Beta build (version 4.0.249.64) can be downloaded here.

Update: The Firefox RC web page now mentions Firefox 3.6 RC2 instead of RC1.

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer quitting

It’s been a slow news week, which is pretty common for the days leading up to Thanksgiving. (Christmas, too, for that matter.) That’s why it’s a good time to drop bombs that people in the US may just ignore while on their way to a turkey dinner.

To-wit: the news that Chris Liddell – the guy who’s been in charge of Microsoft’s Finances for the past four years – is leaving on December 31. Chris has had some very hard times at the financial helm of MS. Mary-Jo Foley has a good synopsis on her ZDNet blog. But this comment from her blog mystifies me:

Some shareholders and company observers — pointing to Microsoft’s continued stalled stock price — have been calling increasingly for CEO Steve Ballmer’s replacement. I wonder whether Liddell’s departure will appease the anti-Ballmer camp, or whether it will give Microsoft watchers even more cause for worry about the company’s future strategic direction.

Microsoft’s stock price has been doing quite well lately. Since May, the stock’s up 50% or so. See for yourself: look at the six-month or one-year results at, e.g., the Google Finance site. Microsoft’s stock is back up to the heady days of 2007 – almost entirely because of the success of Windows 7, in my opinion.

0day reported in Internet Explorer 6 and 7

Of course you use Firefox (or Chrome or Opera), so this shouldn’t concern you too much. But if you use the older versions of Internet Explorer, you should get with the system and start using a different browser.

Symantec reports that they’ve confirmed a 0day attack vector for IE 6 and IE 7, which was posted earlier on BugTraq.

The exploit currently exhibits signs of poor reliability, but we expect that a fully-functional reliable exploit will be available in the near future… The exploit targets a vulnerability in the way Internet Explorer uses cascading style sheet (CSS) information… the attack requires JavaScript to exploit Internet Explorer.

The moral of the story? Get Firefox.

UPDATE: Microsoft has acknowledged the security hole in Security Advisory 977981. The bottom line: get Firefox.

Firefox 3.5.5 and Google Chrome 3.0.195.32 now available

As Microsoft releases KB976749 for Internet Explorer (the patch for the MS09-054/KB974455 security patch), Mozilla has released Firefox 3.5.5 which fixes stability problems with version 3.5.4 (a list of bugs fixed in 3.5.5 mentioned here). Meanwhile, Google has released version 3.0.195.32 of the Google Chrome browser, which contains several security fixes noted on this Google Chrome releases blog page.

Download Firefox 3.5.5 here.
Download Google Chrome 3.0.195.32 from here.

Even when using either Firefox or Chrome instead of Internet Explorer, it would be best to patch either one or even all browsers installed on your computer.

Microsoft Security Essentials is doing well

You all know by now that I’ve thrown away AVG Free and replaced it with Microsoft Security Essentials, on all of my many machines, right?

I wrote about MSE in my Windows Secrets Newsletter column. (Yes, that’s in the paid version, but you can subscribe and pay any amount you choose.)

A small antivirus analyzing group called AV-Comparatives.org has just published a white paper that looks at how well antivirus products handle viruses that are common, in the wild, right now.

MSE scored in the top category “Advanced +” right up there with Symantec, F-Secure and Kaspersky, and ahead of ESET, Sophos, AVG, McAfee, AVAST and Avira.

MSE’s a great product. Free. Fast.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 now available from the Mozilla web site

After many days of delays, Mozilla has finally released Beta 1 of the next generation of the Firefox web browser. Firefox 3.6 beta 1 can be found here.

You can learn more about the Firefox 3.6b1 browser on this Mozilla Developer news page.

A reminder that this is BETA software and NOT the final product. Do not download and install this beta on a computer that has critical data files on there.