Firefox 5.0 Final is out!!!

[Kev]

Just had FF auto update to 5.0. They just came out with v4 like 3 months ago. Are they going to be asses like google and release a new version every 3 months now?

 

[Jeff7]

Well this new release model is going to suck, primarily for people like my parents - and me, who has to provide support. The move to FF4 was bad enough. That kind of user needs consistency. If the tabs are suddenly at the top of the window, they're effectively invisible. And useful buttons are suddenly either moved or gone completely. (Also gone is the time-to-download-completion status bar text, now available only as a separate extension. Yay for feature removal.) And now they're moving to this rapid-version-changing model? This sounds like the marketing equivalent of an e-peen competition, and little more.)

 

[Dulanic]

How many versions does it take for Mozilla to program firefox to exit nicely when asked by windows? It's been fucked up since ohhh 2? lol. Instead it freezes firefox, even with 0 addons.

 

[ultimatebob]

Well this new release model is going to suck, primarily for people like my parents - and me, who has to provide support. The move to FF4 was bad enough. That kind of user needs consistency. If the tabs are suddenly at the top of the window, they're effectively invisible. And useful buttons are suddenly either moved or gone completely. (Also gone is the time-to-download-completion status bar text, now available only as a separate extension. Yay for feature removal.) And now they're moving to this rapid-version-changing model? This sounds like the marketing equivalent of an e-peen competition, and little more.)

If you think that's bad, imagine what corporate IT departments think of this crap. Many of them spend months validating that all of their internal web applications work with a browser before releasing it to their users. Hell... most of them probably weren't finished validating Firefox 4 by the time Firefox 5 came out.

Microsoft, on the other hand, is having a field day with this:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...r_over_Firefox_4_s_retirement_to_beat_IE_drum

I'm thinking that Mozilla should do what Ubuntu does, and have a special long term support release for customers don't want a new version every three months.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

really? I've never seen that on my many installs. Although sometimes, if you try to open it up again right away it can take a little while.

How many versions does it take for Mozilla to program firefox to exit nicely when asked by windows? It's been fucked up since ohhh 2? lol. Instead it freezes firefox, even with 0 addons.

 

[Dulanic]

really? I've never seen that on my many installs. Although sometimes, if you try to open it up again right away it can take a little while.

https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/792274

This is the most recent post I could find but with google you can find complaints years old for the same thing. It's not an addon thing either, it does it fresh installs for me too.

 

[pyonir]

Well this new release model is going to suck, primarily for people like my parents - and me, who has to provide support. The move to FF4 was bad enough. That kind of user needs consistency. If the tabs are suddenly at the top of the window, they're effectively invisible. And useful buttons are suddenly either moved or gone completely. (Also gone is the time-to-download-completion status bar text, now available only as a separate extension. Yay for feature removal.) And now they're moving to this rapid-version-changing model? This sounds like the marketing equivalent of an e-peen competition, and little more.)

Agree with you about FF4 since I have to provide support to numerous family members, but the numbering system really isn't as big of a deal as all you guys are making it out to be. FF5 has no visual changes at all that I can notice. It would be the same as if they went with 4.1. So they are going up version numbers rather than decimal places. Is it *really* that big of a deal? It isn't like the program is going to be vastly different from version to version (other than from 3.x to 4). Honestly, I don't care what the numbering system is. If it got to FF38....oh well. I just don't get why so many people are complaining about something as arbitrary as a numbering system.

 

[pyonir]

How many versions does it take for Mozilla to program firefox to exit nicely when asked by windows? It's been fucked up since ohhh 2? lol. Instead it freezes firefox, even with 0 addons.

really? I've never seen that on my many installs. Although sometimes, if you try to open it up again right away it can take a little while.

I've never seen it either. *shrug*

 

[bruceb]

I tend to agree, they should not update major version numbers, unless it is really a major change.
This update from 4.0.1 to 5.0 was not that major. Even the latest Google Toolbar, Firefox 5 think is not compatible, when in fact, it is working just fine with it. All other addons I use, are doing just fine with it.

 

[Kev]

Agree with you about FF4 since I have to provide support to numerous family members, but the numbering system really isn't as big of a deal as all you guys are making it out to be. FF5 has no visual changes at all that I can notice. It would be the same as if they went with 4.1. So they are going up version numbers rather than decimal places. Is it *really* that big of a deal? It isn't like the program is going to be vastly different from version to version (other than from 3.x to 4). Honestly, I don't care what the numbering system is. If it got to FF38....oh well. I just don't get why so many people are complaining about something as arbitrary as a numbering system.

It's just an annoying, pointless marketing ploy and completely unnecessary.

 

[lxskllr]

It's just an annoying, pointless marketing ploy and completely unnecessary.

^^^This

I like logic with software versioning. Either by year a la Ubuntu, or feature based like Firefox used to be. I'm not gonna quit using Firefox because I don't like their numbering, but I'll still bitch about it, and think it's stupid.

Btw, I like the LTS version someone mentioned above. I run Nightly, so it doesn't matter to me, but it's a good idea for the people it does matter to.

 

[Fayd]

Conflicting reports as always,mind you their website is always slow to update,they were slow updating their site for new beta builds for FF5,anyway these sites say final,

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Browsers/Mozilla-Firefox-Final.shtml


http://www.majorgeeks.com/Mozilla_Firefox_d2248.html .

Mute point really since I have gone back to fast Opera .

moot*

 

[Jeff7]

Agree with you about FF4 since I have to provide support to numerous family members, but the numbering system really isn't as big of a deal as all you guys are making it out to be. FF5 has no visual changes at all that I can notice. It would be the same as if they went with 4.1. So they are going up version numbers rather than decimal places. Is it *really* that big of a deal? It isn't like the program is going to be vastly different from version to version (other than from 3.x to 4). Honestly, I don't care what the numbering system is. If it got to FF38....oh well. I just don't get why so many people are complaining about something as arbitrary as a numbering system.

The numbering system shouldn't be arbitrary though. It's a communication tool, a way of saying, "This new stuff is substantially different than the old stuff, and there are likely to be compatibility concerns."
Version 1.0.1 is a refinement of version 1, just as version 1.3.5 should be. But at the heart, it's still version 1. To move to version 2, it should be a substantially different finished product, as indicated by the change in the integer portion of the version number.

This version numbering choice is their way of saying, "OMG BIG NUMBERS ARE FUN HAHA!!!!", and then leaving everyone else to have to guess as to what exactly changed, and why it was changed.

 

[ultimatebob]

I tend to agree, they should not update major version numbers, unless it is really a major change.
This update from 4.0.1 to 5.0 was not that major. Even the latest Google Toolbar, Firefox 5 think is not compatible, when in fact, it is working just fine with it. All other addons I use, are doing just fine with it.

The changes aren't THAT minor... they did some CSS tweaks that broke compatibility with a few corporate web tools that I have to use for work.

 

[dualsmp]

5.0 is working better on some sites where embedded videos wouldn't play in 4.0.1. Hardware acceleration still seems to render some fonts a bit wonky, but I've turned it off and really don't notice a speed difference. So far I'm happy with 5.0.

 

[M0RPH]

I'm still waiting for Firefox to add basic features from other browsers like a duplicate tab option in the context menu, something useful in new tabs beside empty space. It's ironic that they are so fast to increment versions and so slow to add the most basic features people have asked for for years.

 

[lowrider69]

How many versions does it take for Mozilla to program firefox to exit nicely when asked by windows? It's been fucked up since ohhh 2? lol. Instead it freezes firefox, even with 0 addons.

I've been using it since version 1 and never had that issue, and I use add-ons. Then again I usually close out Firefox or any open windows before I shut the system down but there's times I don't.

 

[videopho]

Going from 3.x to 4.0 was not seamless.
I had glitches with password savings or stuff like that.
Going from 3.x to 5.0 was a breeze.
I'm happy now.

 

[Muse]

You don't really have a choice anymore... Mozilla pushes out version updates to users (whether they want them or not) unless you disable the update feature.

These frequent version changes have to be pissing off web application developers... they probably just finished QA testing their site to insure that it's compatible with Firefox 4, and now they have a new version to worry about.

It is a PITA. I have 4 on some boxes, 3.x on others. On the 3.x machines I get continual messages needling me to upgrade to some other 3.x and of course it always happens when I'm browsing so I don't want to bother and go "Later."

I also seem to be getting repeat Adobe Flash Player upgrade needling and no matter how many times I go through those hoops (says it's installing 10.3 after a while), it happens again and again. :hmm:

 

[Muse]

Going from 3.x to 4.0 was not seamless.
I had glitches with password savings or stuff like that.
Going from 3.x to 5.0 was a breeze.
I'm happy now.

Going to do that. I just clicked a 5.0 upgrade link and was asked if I want to download 4.01... WTF.

 

[oslama]

the in browser update did not work for me either, had to download the file from mozilla website.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

If you are getting a flash upgrade message and it keeps coming up, i would recommend downloading the flash uninstaller from adobe, running it, rebooting and then installing flash player again after downloading it again from their site.

It is a PITA. I have 4 on some boxes, 3.x on others. On the 3.x machines I get continual messages needling me to upgrade to some other 3.x and of course it always happens when I'm browsing so I don't want to bother and go "Later."

I also seem to be getting repeat Adobe Flash Player upgrade needling and no matter how many times I go through those hoops (says it's installing 10.3 after a while), it happens again and again. :hmm:

 

[Miramonti]

n/m

 

[videopho]

latest flash player did not fix the youtube issue or no picture.
Does anyone else have this issue?

 

[karan.digital]

Yeah firefox trying hard to compete with chrome. I.E was never an opponent. Recently a lot of people have switched to chrome from firefox. I am one of them and reports show that firefox is slower than chrome(some milliseconds) Lets see how firefox 5 turns out...