Currently in the TESTING phase, however shows a sign of more new advancements in the Firefox Browser. A new feature called a HOTFIX, will have the ability to fix issues and release patches rather than a full browser update. Mozilla’s announced, they are pushing out an automatically downloaded test add-on for Firefox Beta users. The add-on itself does not change the behavior of Firefox in any way, and should be automatically uninstalled in the next week. In the meantime it will, however, be visible in the Add-ons Manager as “Mozilla Firefox hotfix”.
They plan to use this “add-on hotfix” feature to deliver individual fixes to Firefox users between releases. The purpose of this week’s test is to collect metrics that verify the feature is working as expected.
This process has great advantages, Firefox’s update process always involved a hassle and some background overhead that is not justifiable for small issues.
An add-on that can fix the issue for select group of users appears to be a much more efficient method for handling the issue.
Mozilla built the functionality into Firefox 10 and is now testing it before the stable release, which is schedule for January 31, 2012, now just a week away.
The add-on named “Mozilla Firefox hotfix” has been distributed to Beta channel users. At this time the add-on does nothing, Mozilla is just testing it.
The entire process should be invisible to Beta users, they may only notice the new add-on if they open up the Add-on Manager. The add-on will be removed after the test is concluded.
In future releases, Mozilla will use the same system to push small fixed, apply workarounds for various problems or revert a controversial change. The add-on allows Mozilla to issue a hot fix in a matter of hours and will enable the team to fix on the spot issues that would normally not warrant a full browser update, rather than wait for the next scheduled Firefox update.