What's up with Firefox new version everyday??

[Berryracer]

Firefox 13 was just released a couple of days ago and now we have Firefox 14 Beta 6 what the duck? I never even saw beta 1 of Firefox 14!

And Firefox 15 alpha is out!

these version jumps is not funny anymore! :x

 

[airdata]

That's one of the reasons I stopped using firefox. Updated way too frequently. Also seemed to have had flash crash alot more often with firefox.

Have been using Chrome and it works ok most of the time. I'm not happy w\ chrome's resource management though. If I have 20 tabs open, I don't need chrome to be using 2GB of my system memory.

 

[Sephire]

People still use Firefox?

 

[sandorski]

Just stick with the Release candidates and ignore Betas and Alphas.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Yep, tons of people do.

And there's a new update on the official release channel about every 6 weeks, same as chrome.

People still use Firefox?

 

[gmaster456]

And Nightly is on version 16!!!!!

But seriously. It's on the same schedule as chrome. And really? You stopped using Firefox because of updates? Getting updates means they're fixing things. Maybe I should stop using Windows because I get updates every 4 weeks . It's also been like this for, Jee I don't know, well over a year! And why are you even worrying about what builds the beta and alpha channels are on, just stick with the release channel.

 

[mikeymikec]

Chrome changes to a new version number pretty regularly too. It's on version 19 according to wikipedia. Just don't read too much into the version number.

As for Firefox crashing, I can't remember the last time Firefox crashed on my machine... <checking Windows event log, filtering for 'Application Error' and 'Application Hang'> Firefox or plugin-container have never crashed (since I built this machine, May 2010). Anyone saying that Firefox (or Flash on Firefox) crashes a lot ought to look to their own setup rather than blaming it.

One thing I notice about Firefox however is that it gets an awful lot of plug-ins that people are rarely aware of, like a 'Google Update' plug-in when nothing Google-ish (e.g. the google toolbar) has been used in Firefox. Perhaps it's worth checking there as well for crapware. I have a Picasa plug-in disabled in Firefox atm. I ought to track that one down really and kill it.

Getting updates means they're fixing things.

However, one thing that irritates me about Firefox and Thunderbird is the desire of the devs to constantly screw around with the UI, for no good reason most of the time, though admittedly Thunderbird has been more guilty of this in recent years than Firefox. Ooh, shall we have a translucent toolbar to make the buttons difficult to read, then wait a few version numbers, then cave in to people stating the obvious drawback of it, then put the tabs above the toolbar. I think Firefox and Thunderbird dev should have aesthetic UI changes locked for say 3-5 years, so that when the time comes for allowing UI changes, they (hopefully) will consider what to change more carefully.

That and the "let's all copy each other, but mainly Chrome" strategy of pretty much every modern browser maker these days.

 

[Berryracer]

Chrome changes to a new version number pretty regularly too. It's on version 19 according to wikipedia. Just don't read too much into the version number.

As for Firefox crashing, I can't remember the last time Firefox crashed on my machine... <checking Windows event log, filtering for 'Application Error' and 'Application Hang'> Firefox or plugin-container have never crashed (since I built this machine, May 2010). Anyone saying that Firefox (or Flash on Firefox) crashes a lot ought to look to their own setup rather than blaming it.

One thing I notice about Firefox however is that it gets an awful lot of plug-ins that people are rarely aware of, like a 'Google Update' plug-in when nothing Google-ish (e.g. the google toolbar) has been used in Firefox. Perhaps it's worth checking there as well for crapware. I have a Picasa plug-in disabled in Firefox atm. I ought to track that one down really and kill it.



However, one thing that irritates me about Firefox and Thunderbird is the desire of the devs to constantly screw around with the UI, for no good reason most of the time, though admittedly Thunderbird has been more guilty of this in recent years than Firefox. Ooh, shall we have a translucent toolbar to make the buttons difficult to read, then wait a few version numbers, then cave in to people stating the obvious drawback of it, then put the tabs above the toolbar. I think Firefox and Thunderbird dev should have aesthetic UI changes locked for say 3-5 years, so that when the time comes for allowing UI changes, they (hopefully) will consider what to change more carefully.

That and the "let's all copy each other, but mainly Chrome" strategy of pretty much every modern browser maker these days.

Very well said!

+1

What happened to Firefox 3? it was stable and ran ok for a looooooong time...

I do love updates but I am not happy about updating Firefox every few weeks

At least now most addons are compatible and updates of FF are not breaking them as in the past

 

[gmaster456]

I see what your saying about Thunderbird but the Firefox UI hasn't changed in over a year.

 

[mikeymikec]

Two changes this year, one just happened:

I had Firefox set to ask me on closing whether to save the tabs, just quit or cancel. After a Firefox upgrade, it didn't bother any more and in the end I got the answer about how to fix that on the forums.

Just now with today's new version, it has switched on smooth scrolling, definitely disabled before (I detest it*).

* - I want a UI that responds to my commands as quickly as possible, not as prettily as possible. Smooth scrolling to me just seems sluggish.

 

[Berryracer]

Two changes this year, one just happened:

I had Firefox set to ask me on closing whether to save the tabs, just quit or cancel. After a Firefox upgrade, it didn't bother any more and in the end I got the answer about how to fix that on the forums.

Strange, people have different tastes. I for one, disable that annoying nag to close Firefox if more tabs are open the first thing after I install Firefox! I hate it!

When I want to close Firefox I do it intentionally and want to close all tabs not one at a time or be asked if I want to close them or not.......

 

[mikeymikec]

Strange, people have different tastes. I for one, disable that annoying nag to close Firefox if more tabs are open the first thing after I install Firefox! I hate it!

Yeah, I used to hate it too, but sometimes with my work I like to come back to the tabs I previously had open without bookmarking them.

 

[Berryracer]

Yeah, I used to hate it too, but sometimes with my work I like to come back to the tabs I previously had open without bookmarking them.

I see, guess it suites your working habits more

 

[jkroeder]

You can get better and smoother scrolling via an extension. I don't remember the name off the top of my head.

As for default built in smooth scrolling, Opera has the best.

 

[pyonir]

You guys continue to crack me up...right away the Chrome users have to post about how they switched because of version numbers. Yet Chrome has released 3 new versions within a month.

19.0.1084 - May 15
20.0.1132 - May 20 - A new version number 5 days later!? OMG!
21.0.1163 - June 4

 

[mikeymikec]

I could understand people complaining about version numbers if there was some sort of upgrade procedure they had to go through each time. Admittedly I hardly use any extensions in Firefox:

British English dictionary
NoScript
Status-4-Evar

I can't remember any of these ever breaking with an upgrade.

Back on the point about pointless UI changes though - I used to set up Firefox in a particular way for customers, with large, all-labelled buttons. Then along came Firefox 4 I think and "we want to re-arrange your buttons for you!". Oddly enough though I don't think it changed anything on my home setup (standard FF3 button positions). The other one that got on my nerves is the disappearing forward button. I hated the "recently used menu options" feature in Office 2000 - 2003 and always disabled it.

 

[ninaholic37]

One thing I notice about Firefox however is that it gets an awful lot of plug-ins that people are rarely aware of, like a 'Google Update' plug-in when nothing Google-ish (e.g. the google toolbar) has been used in Firefox. Perhaps it's worth checking there as well for crapware. I have a Picasa plug-in disabled in Firefox atm. I ought to track that one down really and kill it.

My Firefox has the same 4 plug-ins as when I got it (Adobe Acrobat, Shockwave Flash, Silverlight Plug-In, Windows Live Photo Gallery). I keep them all disabled, and only enable Flash when I need to. It never added anything to the list... should I be looking somewhere else in the menu for "hidden plug-ins" or something?

 

[Steltek]

I've been running the Nightly alpha builds (which are presently at v16.01a) on Win7 for about a year now. All told, I have had exactly 4 crashes in the last year, all of which were apparently related to the extensions I'm running. Mozilla has so far been putting out the best alpha release software that I've ever used -- I've by far had better luck with them than with production releases of some other packages.

Now, having said that, I did have a crash tonight after the daily update (about 15 minutes ago, in fact) which is my first one in just over 3 months. Apparently, tonight's Nightly (the 06/06/12 nightly build) has a major issue with at least one of my extensions (it runs fine in safe mode, but not with extensions enabled). So, I just reinstalled the 06/05/12 Nightly build and I'm back up and running with no issues.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't understand it either. I only update every couple versions now, it's kinda rediculous to have so many updates. They're almost as bad as Adobe.

And yeah don't bother with betas and alphas or you'll be updating every couple hours.

What I wonder is how they have the man power to do updates this often. I guess the good news is if an exploit is found it will be fixed pretty fast but you don't need to do a full major release just for that.

Extension writers are probably getting frustrated with this and calling it quits as well. I know I would.

 

[lxskllr]

I update my O/S every day, and sometimes a couple times per day. Mozilla's pace is glacial in comparison.

 

[mikeymikec]

My Firefox has the same 4 plug-ins as when I got it (Adobe Acrobat, Shockwave Flash, Silverlight Plug-In, Windows Live Photo Gallery). I keep them all disabled, and only enable Flash when I need to. It never added anything to the list... should I be looking somewhere else in the menu for "hidden plug-ins" or something?

No, it sounds like you've got the right place. The other thing to check is your add-ons list. Do you actually have a problem with Firefox's stability/performance?

I don't understand it either. I only update every couple versions now, it's kinda rediculous to have so many updates. They're almost as bad as Adobe.

You realise that Firefox updates automatically unless you disable that behaviour?

As for Adobe, I can't speak for their paid-for products, but their update systems for Flash Player and Adobe Reader are some of the worst I've ever seen.

The Flash player update prompt on Windows is set to appear as a scheduled task. It isn't the result of actually finding an update. On Vista/7, you then have to 'agree to their licence', click next, confirm the UAC prompt, click yes you'd really like to install that update, yes you want to receive automatic updates (which aren't) in future, then finish. Can you imagine the angry mob that Microsoft would have to handle if people had to go through all that to update something as miniscule and insignificant as a browser plug-in?

Adobe Reader's update system is crap in a different way. Say you have Adobe Reader 9. The update check will automatically download and prompt you to install the latest version of 9, but if 10 is available, it doesn't inform you of that.

 

[lamedude]

Mozilla should slow so MS will send them cakes again.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Agree about adobe's bad system but now after 11.2 came out and you have the option to have it check automatically for flash updates, it has worked seamlessly in the background for me.

What you said about reader is absolutely true, that is pretty lame!!

No, it sounds like you've got the right place. The other thing to check is your add-ons list. Do you actually have a problem with Firefox's stability/performance?

You realise that Firefox updates automatically unless you disable that behaviour?

As for Adobe, I can't speak for their paid-for products, but their update systems for Flash Player and Adobe Reader are some of the worst I've ever seen.

The Flash player update prompt on Windows is set to appear as a scheduled task. It isn't the result of actually finding an update. On Vista/7, you then have to 'agree to their licence', click next, confirm the UAC prompt, click yes you'd really like to install that update, yes you want to receive automatic updates (which aren't) in future, then finish. Can you imagine the angry mob that Microsoft would have to handle if people had to go through all that to update something as miniscule and insignificant as a browser plug-in?

Adobe Reader's update system is crap in a different way. Say you have Adobe Reader 9. The update check will automatically download and prompt you to install the latest version of 9, but if 10 is available, it doesn't inform you of that.

 

[mikeymikec]

Agree about adobe's bad system but now after 11.2 came out and you have the option to have it check automatically for flash updates, it has worked seamlessly in the background for me.

I rejoiced on behalf of Internet users everywhere who say "well, I wasn't too sure about the update prompt, so I cancelled it", until I noticed the prompt again on a machine that had already had the 'automatic' option picked, so I'll withhold judgement on that one until I'm absolutely sure that Adobe haven't cocked up an update system again.

 

[dawks]

I think the update thing and version numbers has people confused and its blown out of proportion.

What they've essentially done is change the scope of what is considered a version number. Instead of making 1,000 changes and adding 100+ feature per release, they've dropped it down to several changes and a few new features per release. Its just smaller updates more frequently.

It worked well for Chrome because it was a new browser, with few features, and there was no established procedure/paradigm. They needed to add all the features to get them up to par. Firefox users had become used to waiting 2 years between updates.

If you're not comfortable with all the updates, disable auto updating, and enjoy. I personally think Chrome is the browser to use now. So fast, stable, reliable, secure, and great features (built in Flash and PDF).