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Mozilla retires Firefox 2
Of course, some people don't like the way Firefox 3 handles bookmarks or tabs, which could make them reluctant to upgrade. But I'd recommend upgrading for the security enhancements alone. You can always search for Firefox add-ons that enhance the bookmark manager or tab positions.
[via Mashable]
Comments
23
Subscribe to commentsdpDec 18th 2008 4:33PM
Has anyone come across a website devoted to addressing Firefox annoyances? The list gets longer....
I decided against upgrading to 3 when I discovered that some of my most-used extensions weren't available. I'm happy to use 2.0.0.16 until that changes.
kevjohnDec 18th 2008 4:54PM
I used Firefox 3. For 2 hours. Then I went back to FF 2, where I have been happy ever since. Some of the changes they dished out in FF3 are truly pointless and arbitrary. Half of my plugins died in the FF3 universe, and the look and feel of the browser was awful. They worked hard to get people on board the FF caravan, then say "the hell with what you're used to, use this instead." There's a reason I'm running Vista (which I've never had a single problem with BTW) in "Windows Classic" mode... if it ain't broke (too much), don't fix it.
HalfAznDec 18th 2008 5:47PM
I must respectfully disagree with your decision to run Vista in classic mode. It gives you pretty much the same functionality, except it looks like Windows 98. The sidebar isn't transparent and looks tacked on and the start menu still has the search capabilities but it looks so bland. Maybe you like it for higher contrast, but I know it makes me cringe to look at it.
As for FireFox 3, I like the new "awesome bar" and I've only had one extension (Auto Copy) break on me that hasn't been updated yet.
TscharliDec 18th 2008 5:48PM
FF3 sucks! After 1 week of intense working, I kicked it an downgraded to FF2 !! AddOns which are working great on FF2 either are not available for 3 at all or dont work. Often they even cause the system to hang. To kill FF2 means: Mozilla learned from MS --- same as XP and Vista - no one needs the new system, no one wants it --- so kill the old - and no one even has a chance!
EricDec 18th 2008 6:11PM
I didn't notice a difference between Firefox 2 and Firefox 3.
As for extensions not working, start talking to the developer of the extension. They should be supporting the new version.
RDec 18th 2008 6:16PM
I tried FF3 for a few weeks. I noticed it was a little faster at loading pages. The new URL bar and the bookmarks are kinda annoying, but no biggie.
But my main dislike..
I have a lot of RSS Live Feeds in my bookmarks. Every time I launch FF3, it chokes. The CPU cycles kick in and I see massive network activity as it updates the RSS headlines. FF3 is pretty much frozen during this process. I have to sit there and wait about 2 - 3 minutes until it's done. And it's not like I have a slow/old computer either.
I know I should use Google Reader or something, but it's just convenient for me to use the RSS feature in FF. Maybe I'll wait for FF3.1 and hope it works better. But in the meantime, I'm sticking with FF2.
KikiDec 18th 2008 6:46PM
Stop all your crying people, it's flippin' called change. Deal with it!
SimbaDoggDec 18th 2008 9:58PM
+1 kiki, you actually get it unlike these other people...
i'm really convinced that all you people that are complaining about add ons are stupid. plains stupid. of course the FF2 add ons dont work in FF3, they were designed to work w/ FF2. of course when i upgraded at least 30-40% of my add ons didn't work. but then after no more than 2 weeks, all of them did. Because guess what, the people that wrote the code for the addons upgraded their support to FF3. its not rocket science. this is one of the first times i've been utterly shocked by the stupidity of people on any of the aol blogs.
bossDec 18th 2008 9:58PM
FF3's performance is very bad - thrashes the disk constantly even with all it's attack/forgery checks turned off and is unresponsive for around 5 seconds each time it happens.
Salsa SharkDec 18th 2008 9:59PM
The "All Tabs" function, which used to be a nice, clean, drop-down list has been replaced by a gawdy "thumbnail" page.
And the "Add Tab" button, which used to be a toolbar button you could customize the location of, has been put in a fixed position in a far less useful place than either MSIE or Opera uses.
Now, not only are these two incredibly stupid decisions from a user-centered design perspective, but they also removed the ability to revert to the "old" behaviour in about:config.
I love the community, but the developers making the UI decisions are ignorant boneheads.
EricDec 18th 2008 11:41PM
When I click on the "All Tabs" button, which I'm assuming is the button to the right with a tab and arrow, it shows me a list - not a page of thumbnails.
As for stability, I've never had any issue with Firefox 3. It always works fine for me.
Salsa SharkDec 18th 2008 11:41PM
Both of the functions I mentioned are part of the Minefield v3.2 alpha/trunk. And they blow. I mention them because they will eventually be unleashed to the people who are on FF3 and keep current on updates.
I can't comment on stability because I run the nightly builds and they crash frequently--but that's expected.
I like the AwesomeBar, but I don't understand why they felt the bookmarking/places system needed to use a SQL database. The original flat file approach is actually more efficient for something like this (unless you're talking about thousands of bookmarks to manage).
I am not a Microsoft fan by any means, but if MSIE was more efficient at handling a lot of browser tabs being open at once, I'd dump FF in a heartbeat. It was a great browser that forced Microsoft to get off their duffs, but the current Mozilla team doesn't have a clue about user-centered design. It seems like they are completely resistant to implementing a feature the same way it's been done in another browser, even if it's the best approach. The "New Tab" function is a perfect example--Opera and MSIE have it down right, and I didn't even mind the "old" FF behaviour where it was a customizable toolbar button.
EricDec 18th 2008 11:55PM
I assume the "new tab" feature you're talking about is clicking in the tab bar to open a new one... you can do that, but it's a double-click.
I never noticed the difference, because I generally use Cmd+T.
DamianDec 18th 2008 11:41PM
People who are complaining about extension support: Talk to the extension developers / find equivalent extensions. Times change, code bit rots, Mozilla is not like Microsoft and bends over backwards for backwards compatibility ending up with a piece of software that clearly has large chunks pf code from more than 2 decades.
People who are having massive FF3 performance problems: There is clearly something wrong with your FF3 install, try creating a new profile of try it in Firefox safe mode:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing+profiles
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode
Salsa Shark: Stop complaining about features which don't even exist on the trunk yet in a post about FF2 -> FF3. You presumably know the bug number ( https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=465076 ) discuss user centric difficulties about the design there, if you have anything constructive to add at all which I highly doubt.
Salsa SharkDec 19th 2008 12:23AM
I'm actively involved in the daily discussions about UCD, Damian. I'm not sure why you feel you need to attack me or my opinions here, but these are changes that are coming to the general public. I think it's fair to bring them up here when FF3 is clearly a relevant topic.
And these features are in the trunk, bunky, which is why I mentioned them. I run the nightly trunk builds, not the branch.
DamianDec 19th 2008 8:46AM
I'm on the nightly trunk builds right now and I have the old tab overflow, your referring to a feature on mozilla-central..
I just find your argument to be full of weasel words, with no actual description of why it's a bad thing. It just looked like recently when I was teaching my little brother to write arguments for exam papers and it took a while to realise it required more constructive points than "stupid".
I'm signed up to that bug and mozilla.dev.apps.firefox and I've completely missed the topic about it being a poor design :-/.
markybDec 19th 2008 8:16AM
this makes me sad. I just purchased an eee 900 that came with firefox 2.0.0.14 and im stuck until the eee forums come back up. xandros wont let me goto firefox 3.. if anyone knows the way besides a new os... feel free :-(
Brad LinderDec 19th 2008 8:24AM
You can install FF3 on an Eee PC running Xandros, but it will eat up part of the user data portion of your SSD and it won't overwrite the installation of FF2 that's hanging out in the read-only portion of your hard drive. Just add a list of Xandros repositories using this tutorial:
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/addingxandrosrepos
And then open a terminal and type "sudo apt-get install firefox"
You can also backup your user data and install the XEPC version of Xandros which is based on the Asus version of the operating system but which includes more up to date software:
http://xepc.org/
Ajay DSouzaDec 19th 2008 8:17AM
I don't understand why they can't upgrade from 2.x directly to 3.x like it is within versions
Level 5Dec 19th 2008 8:17AM
I can't believe there are people crying about this. Look guys, plain and simple, every software company believes in advancement. Did you guys honestly expect the Mozilla Team to support 2.x forever? That's an insane waste of resource. Instead, they're dedicated to making a more robust Firefox, et al. When people complain like this, it sends a message out to them that they need to abandon their current platform, and go to a further new version, much like MS is gung-ho about Windown 7 rather than improving the very capable Vista. So instead of the XP fans bitching about Vista, the Vista fans will bitch about 7.