Firefox 3.6.6 with Crash Protection Now Available

News
By Marcus Yam
published

A more stable Firefox. Always a good thing.

If you noticed that your Firefox asked if it could update your browser to 3.6.4, it has good reason to – it's for crash protection.

UPDATE: The version jumped to 3.6.6 over the weekend. The main new feature is still crash protection, but going from 3.6.4 to 3.6.6 resulted in a single extra bug fix (increase hang detector timeout). If you're really curious to see what makes 3.6.6 the new hotness over 3.6.4, check out the change log here.

This latest build of Firefox isolates third party plug-ins in a separate process, so when they crash, they won't bring the entire browser down with it. This is something that's already done by other browsers, like Chrome. (Isn't competition of free products great?)

Mozilla wrote in its blog post:

Results from our beta testing show Firefox 3.6.4 will significantly reduce the number of Firefox crashes experienced by users who are watching online videos or playing games. When a plugin crashes or freezes while using Firefox, users can enjoy uninterrupted browsing by simply refreshing the page.

The new build and feature is available now for Windows and Linux.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
38 Comments Comment from the forums
  • apache_lives
    adobe pdf plugin always crashed for me, this will definitely help
    Reply
  • sheytan
    Well I guess this is old news since version 3.6.6 is out now...
    Reply
  • TheFace
    Sorry Firefox, you already lost me to Chrome.
    Reply
  • zybch
    apache_livesadobe pdf plugin always crashed for me, this will definitely helpYou are actually using adobe's craptactular PDF reader? What the hell is wrong with you. Go get Foxit or one of the mayh other readers that DON'T chew up 200+Mb, install unwanted crap (photoshop album, adobe downloader, etc) and slow your computer and browser to a crawl.
    Reply
  • Pyroflea
    sheytanWell I guess this is old news since version 3.6.6 is out now...
    I didn't even notice 3.6.4 was out yet, lmao. Time to update.
    Reply
  • xxyyzz
    I'm just glad Adobe don't makes browsers..
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    What is this?You guys are really late calling this news.Just upgraded to 3.6.6 from 3.6.4 which was released on Friday!
    Reply
  • toxxel
    I must have a rare system, but Firefox never crashes on my main system. I've heard about it's frequent crashing but never really ever experienced it. But did on an old system made back in 2002 running windows xp, I did have a select few crashes the few weeks I used it while my main system was down due to an RMA.
    Reply
  • randomizer
    sheytanWell I guess this is old news since version 3.6.6 is out now...3.6.6 is only a minor update I think.
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    Firefox has been unstable with just about every plugin from 3.5.x to about 3.6.4... The instability and sluggishness has caused me to migrate to Chrome. However having gone back to FF with 3.6.4, it has regained some of the stability pre-FF3.5 so I am not totally avoiding FF anymore. But in general FF has lost me. Too unstable for too long coupled with Chrome being faster and having almost as many of the same extensions...
    Reply