http://blog.ffextensionguru.com/2015/05/13/firefox-37-0-2-38-0-in-browser-updates-disabled/

Automatic updates are disabled for a few days after a new Major Release.

This time however Fx 38.0 has been pulled from updates as some users encountered crashes. Updates will resume when Fx 38.0.1 is available.

I've already downloaded and installed FF38.0 from the Mozilla website. I will look for 38.x when it is released.

The problem has occured before and again this time Secunia PSI warned of an out-of-date FF so naturally went looking for the update. When it wasn't shown in the About Firefox dialog I was concerned - again. So thanks for the responses, we at least know what is happening.

But it is seriously worth making sure the testing is completed properly before announcing the release to the likes of Secunia. I used to work in specialist software (EDA) before retiring so know quite a bit about testing and that UAT seems to be largely ignored these days, replaced with the poor 'scripted' testing that doesn't check that it works properly, only looking for predictable coding slip-ups.

Hi Mike, I think the crashes in 38.0 are related to certain Nvidia graphics card drivers, and it may be that the population of testers is simply not broad or diverse enough to pick up problems with particular device drivers during the six week beta test period. Do you want to join the beta program and take a few bullets for the benefit of other Firefox users?

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/beta

They do do testing with Beta, Release candidates, automated and QA however on the rare case something can crop up when there is a larger audience of users when it comes out as Release.

By the way the Firefox 38.0.1 is now out and have seen reports that users are getting updates to 38.0.1 and it can also be downloaded from www.mozilla.org/firefox/all

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/38.0.1/releasenotes/

The testing you mention is the scripted testing that does NOT find any user or usage issues! Human factors UAT is what is now lacking in so much software development processes. A script can only find what it was written to find, usually written by the developer who coded the software so it likely misses the aspect they didn't appreciate when deciding what and how to code, misses the variability of how users will actually use and want to use the software. Too many development teams rely on the restricted nature of the 'testing' offered by scripted test. Hence so many 'real world' issues.

Mike,

Many of us test the pre-release versions of Firefox - so "human" testing is involved. Basically there are three 6 week development stages for each new version of Firefox. Nightly (Central_ - then Aurora (aka Developer) - and then Beta stage - before hitting Release. I think Mozilla needs more Beta tester users. Are you up to the task? https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/

As far as the issue that brought about the shutdown of Firefox 38.0 and brought us to 38.0.1 - https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/38.0.1/releasenotes/ - one of three issues that were lacking in 38.0. "Systems with first generation NVidia Optimus graphics cards may crash on start-up" - from what I read as case of dyslexia with one Nvidia DLL name, it was spelt wrong and none of the Beta testers caught it or reported it. Fortunately Mozilla had throttled Firefox 38.0 to 25% on the first few days after release (a common practice) and shut it off when they realized there was a problem.

Personally, I ran Nightly versions as my primary browser from like 2004 up thru 2010, reporting Bugs as I found them and confirming Bugs when the Bug had already been reported, but not yet confirmed. I took a "hiatus" from testing from like Firefox 4 thru Firefox 10 - too many changes that I didn't like. I used Opera until they went WebKit, along with a couple different Gecko browsers that were built from Firefox code, along with using Firefox 3.6.28 until long after support had ended. With Firefox 10 I got back into "testing" - all three pre-release versions Beta, Aurora, and Nightly until Firefox 29 hit each of the 4 stages. My old PC just couldn't handle the Australis versions, in addition to my not liking the new UI; so I stuck with Firefox 28 until just last month when I built a new PC.

MikeP_UK said

The testing you mention is the scripted testing that does NOT find any user or usage issues! Human factors UAT is what is now lacking in so much software development processes. A script can only find what it was written to find, usually written by the developer who coded the software so it likely misses the aspect they didn't appreciate when deciding what and how to code, misses the variability of how users will actually use and want to use the software. Too many development teams rely on the restricted nature of the 'testing' offered by scripted test. Hence so many 'real world' issues.

I did not say no humans are involved in testing. The Beta, Release Candidates and the QA steps are by human users whether it be regular Firefox users or those involved with Mozilla. The automated is a extra step.