IE cupcake via Mozilla's Damon Sicore on Twitter

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team has made a tradition of sending the Firefox team a big, congratulatory IE cake upon the release of a new version of the rival browser. With today’s debut of Firefox 5, the first in Mozilla’s new rapid release cycle, that tradition has been downsized to reflect the IE team’s view of the Firefox update’s relative significance.

Yep, Microsoft sent Mozilla a cupcake.

“Congratulations on shipping! Love, the IE team,” reads the message inside the tiny box.

Even funnier is this post by Microsoft’s Ari Bixhorn, offering an “in-depth look at what’s new in Firefox 5.”

To be fair, Mozilla writes on its blog that the release “includes more than 1,000 improvements and performance enhancements that make it easier to discover and use all of the innovative features in Firefox. This release adds support for more modern Web technologies that make it easier for developers to build amazing Firefox Add-ons, Web applications and websites.”

That may be so, but a recent PC Magazine piece about the Firefox 5 release candidate captured the general level of excitement: “Firefox 5 RC Updates Version Number and Little Else.”

For the record, the Firefox team is taking it all in good stride. “Just received the congrats cake,” tweeted Damon Sicore, Mozilla VP of engineering, with a link to a picture of the cupcake. “From all at Mozilla, thank you, Microsoft. We love you, too. :)”

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