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In your opinion, are there recent versions of FF worth trying?

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  • Last reply by StarMan

StarMan
StarMan
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I jumped off the whole "rapid release" bandwagon a while back. (Actually, it wasn't THAT long ago, in terms of actual time, but it was ages ago in terms of version numbers)

After the problems with 4, 6 and 7, I just kept a 5.01 version installed on the computer and have been working with Chrome, primarily, since I feel more confidence it in than with the current direction of Mozilla.

Still, however, just because Mozilla has lost a certain amount of confidence with their ability to put out CONSISTENTLY solid, stable releases, and are probably prone to more bugs and problems, doesn't mean they can't occasionally turn out a great release, even better than the competition.

After all, the idea for "rapid release" seems to come from corporate, but there are still a lot of talented programmers on the Mozilla team, and they used to put out the best browser out there, until a year and a half ago.

So, I pose the question... are there any later releases of Firefox, post-7, which I should really take a look at? Ones without serious problems, with much of the recent technology, and efficient enough?

(I realize there will be many opinions, and all are welcome... just please don't try to sell me on the notion of "always use the latest version", since that's not happening until Mozilla adopts a wiser approach to development)

I jumped off the whole "rapid release" bandwagon a while back. (Actually, it wasn't THAT long ago, in terms of actual time, but it was ages ago in terms of version numbers) After the problems with 4, 6 and 7, I just kept a 5.01 version installed on the computer and have been working with Chrome, primarily, since I feel more confidence it in than with the current direction of Mozilla. Still, however, just because Mozilla has lost a certain amount of confidence with their ability to put out '''CONSISTENTLY '''solid, stable releases, and are probably prone to more bugs and problems, doesn't mean they can't '''''occasionally '''''turn out a great release, even better than the competition. After all, the idea for "rapid release" seems to come from corporate, but there are still a lot of talented programmers on the Mozilla team, and they used to put out the best browser out there, until a year and a half ago. So, I pose the question... are there any later releases of Firefox, post-7, which I should really take a look at? Ones without serious problems, with much of the recent technology, and efficient enough? (I realize there will be many opinions, and all are welcome... just please don't try to sell me on the notion of "always use the latest version", since that's not happening until Mozilla adopts a wiser approach to development)

Modified by StarMan

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the-edmeister
the-edmeister
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Yes. Firefox 15 is vastly improved over Firefox 5.0. And with Firefox 17 or 18, Firefox users won;t even know when a new version is released. It should work much like how Google Chrome updates very 6 weeks work - hidden and unobtrusive.

StarMan
StarMan Question owner
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Hmm. Something you just said really makes my ears prick up:

"Firefox users won;t even know when a new version is released"

Do you meant that simply the upgrade process will then run silently, in the background, without notification, or are you saying that there is no option to learn of the updates we wish to install?

After all, I would never just turn on automatic updates -- ESPECIALLY when they would run silently, without letting me decide when the download process will begin, and when the installation would take place.

While I understand some people may want to just "set it and forget it", I find that I've had plenty of hassle when updating, and choose ONLY to update when a new release is proven to be solid and reasonably bug-free. That, and that they are not going to render my add-ons (or other customizations) inoperable.

I know that if I'd allow auto-updates for FF 6 and FF 7, I would have been throwing my shoe through the computer screen, given the memory leaks and compatibility issues.

But back to FF 15 -- "vastly improved" is nebulous. Yes, I'm sure there are many features it has that 5 does not... but is it SOLID? And would I expect it to run better than Chrome of near-20 or above?

(Yes, I know Chrome has the same problem with rapid updates but when Firefox too the same approach, they lost the edge which made them so much BETTER than Chrome, in the first place)