Firefox 5 Update To Fix Mac OS X Crash Bug

By | July 11, 2011 | 3 Comments

Firefox 5 Update To Fix OS X Crash BugFirefox 5.0.1 will arrive shortly going by an announcement made by Mozilla. No release date was given, however. The update isn’t for Windows or Linux operating systems either, just for Mac OS X. This is because Lion i.e. Mac OS X 10.7 possesses a bug that makes Firefox 5 crash when showing websites that utilize downloadable fonts.

We alerted Apple to the problem before the release of 10.7 but they did not fix the problem before 10.7 went to final release. We’ve changed the font APIs that we’re using to newer versions which appear to fix the problem. The bug in Lion will cause severe crash problems for Firefox 5 users if it’s not fixed. - Christopher Blizzard, Mozilla’s Web platform director

According to Apple, Lion is set to release this month but the operating system has not received a ship date yet.

Blizzard also noted that emergency fixes will be issued if necessary regardless of the rapid release schedule where security updates and the like are instead rolled into the next version of the browser.

Firefox 3.6 will be updated at the same time as Firefox 5 to boot, disabling downloadable Web fonts when the browser runs in Lion.

The Mac versions of both Firefox 6 and Firefox 7 have already undergone the required font API changes. Firefox 6 is slated for a release on the 16th of August while Firefox 7 is set to come out on the 27th of September. They are currently in the beta and aurora stage respectively.


About (Author Profile)


Being passionate about software, Armin joined FavBrowser.com in early 2011 and has been actively writing ever since. Having accepted the challenge, he also enjoys watching anime, indulging in good books, staying fit and healthy, and trying new things.

  • IE & Opera FanBoy

    These days bug fixing becomes a new version, atleast in this browser world.

  • Guesty Guest

    I’m a Firefox fan and I don’t understand why people get so wound up about all these version numbers. I don’t care whether the current stable release of Firefox is 5.0 but really it should be 4.0.2. Ultimately it’s all  just numbers. As long as I am using the latest version with all the stability and security fixes in place to keep me protected and my browsing fast and stable, I don’t really give a damn. The content of the update and it’s impact on how the browser functions is VASTLY more important than what number some company decides to assign to it. Performance is everything, numbers are nothing.

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