23-year-old user resolves 21-year old display glitch in Firefox web browser

A long-standing bug in the Firefox web browser, first reported in 2002, has finally been resolved by a 23-year-old user, Yifan Zhu. The glitch, which was a display error, would occur when users switched their focus to a new app.

The bug was first flagged by Adam Price in June 2002. His report read, “If I mouseover a toolbar link, and wait for a second, a little yellow box with the description of the link appears. If I now use command-tab to move Mozilla to the background, the little yellow box stays there, in the foreground. The only way to get rid of it is to put Mozilla in the foreground again, and move the mouse off the toolbar.”

This bug had remained unresolved for over two decades, becoming something of a 'digital artifact'. On Bugzilla, one user commented, “This 21 year old bug is still open. It is quite annoying, to be frank -- happens to me at least once per day. That said, given its longevity, I'm kinda partial to let it be forever. It feels like a relic from the past.”

The fix to this persistent issue, known as bug 148624, was implemented in early September and appeared in build 119 of the web browser. Following the resolution of this bug, a wave of relief was expressed by users, especially on Mastodon, demonstrating the widespread impact of this long-standing issue.