Firefox 17 for desktop isn’t due to launch until Tuesday, but the latest version is already available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. You can grab it now from Mozilla’s FTP servers here: FTP.
If you prefer to wait for the official launch, keep your browser pointed to Firefox.com. You may also want to check out the Mozilla blog, which is bound to have an announcement soon. In the meantime, you can also check out Firefox 17 for Android, which was released earlier today.
Update on November 20 – Firefox 17 launches with click-to-play plugin blocks for old Adobe Reader, Flash, and Silverlight
There’s also 17.0 ESR available; ESR, by the way, stands for Extended Support Release. It’s still an official release, but it’s just meant for use by organizations, such as schools, universities, and businesses, that require extended support for mass deployments. The last Firefox ESR release was version 10.0.
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There’s no official Firefox 17 changelog as of yet, but the beta changelog should serve as a decent guideline:
- NEW: Click-to-play blocklisting implemented to prevent vulnerable plugin versions from running without the user’s permission (see blog post).
- NEW: Mac OS X 10.8: Support for Notification Center.
- CHANGED: Updated Awesome Bar experience with larger icons.
- DEVELOPER: JavaScript Maps and Sets are now iterable.
- DEVELOPER: SVG FillPaint and StrokePaint implemented.
- DEVELOPER: Improvements that make the Web Console, Debugger and Developer Toolbar faster and easier to use.
- DEVELOPER: New Markup panel in the Page Inspector allows easy editing of the DOM.
- HTML5: Sandbox attribute for iframes implemented, enabling increased security.
- FIXED: Over twenty performance improvements, including fixes around the New Tab page.
- FIXED: Pointer lock doesn’t work in web apps (769150).
- FIXED: Page scrolling on sites with fixed headers (780345).
We will update you with more information (including the official changelog) when Firefox 17 officially launches tomorrow. In the meantime, if you’re a Web developer, you may want to check out Firefox 17 for developers.
See also – Firefox 16 bug stops add-ons from opening in a new window, Mozilla plans fix for Firefox 17
Update on November 20 – Firefox 17 launches with click-to-play plugin blocks for old Adobe Reader, Flash, and Silverlight
Image credit: Brad Harrison
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