The Mozilla Foundation has updated Firefox to version 3.5.1 for Windows, Mac, and Linux in a bit to fix security problems. But the new update has stuffed up an important Firebadger update.

Apparently the upgrade was supposed to improve stability, speeds up launch time on Windows and brings peace in our time. However it covers for a huge cock-up at Mozilla. Not only were the performance issues found after the browser left the workshop, a new security flaw in the browser's JavaScript engine came to light just two weeks after the release.

Mozilla rated it "critical" because an attacker could create a Web site that would run malicious code on the computer. The new version which was available from Mozilla's download site or by selecting "Check for Updates" in the Help menu.

However the new update causes a few problems with the recently updated Gears 0.5.29.0 plug-in from Google. Mozilla has officially put this matter into the “doh” category and has promised us that there will be another upgrade fairly soon to fix this problem. (Just upgraded it, hate it already, several minor, but very annoying issues. sub.ed.)