Firefox Won't be Able to Update Silently Until Version 12

[Guest]

Believe me, knowing Firefox, there will be a way to disable automatic updates. Just look at about:config, you can do almost anything you need to there.

 

[Guest]

There are several components to the silent update story. Some of the features are in the browser today. Firefox 10 is still the target for work to improve the add-on update experience.

These changes will in no way change the control that you have over Firefox updates. You will continue to be able to specify how you want to update...and can opt-out of silent updates if you so choose.

 

[taotao1990]

Its time to get the new cake from IE team~!

 

[Guest]

What exactly is all the hate towards silent updates? Extensions breaking seems to be the only real issue. Chrome handles this well and if Firefox can provide the same I don't see why people would prefer this.

Auto-updates let users get the latest features, security fixes and performance patches as soon as they're released without doing any work.

I've never had a browser update go wrong beyond maybe breaking an extension (which was usually updated within a few days anyway). Definitely doesn't screw up my OS or anything. So much whining for no reason.

 

[jbo5112]

I like silent updates. I want up to date software, and the fewer mindless dialogs I have to jump through the better. FireFox needs to fix their extension system, so you don't have to keep upgrading those, just to have the compatibility adjusted. That's the real problem.

Now if I can just get web designers to stop thinking it's okay to chew through several 100 of MB of RAM to view a single page. With 6GB RAM, I shouldn't start swapping after opening 10 tabs.

 

[secretxax]

[citation][nom]spinfusion[/nom]What exactly is all the hate towards silent updates? Extensions breaking seems to be the only real issue. Chrome handles this well and if Firefox can provide the same I don't see why people would prefer this.Auto-updates let users get the latest features, security fixes and performance patches as soon as they're released without doing any work. I've never had a browser update go wrong beyond maybe breaking an extension (which was usually updated within a few days anyway). Definitely doesn't screw up my OS or anything. So much whining for no reason.[/citation]

I think the ACTUAL problem is that these "users" have another bit of less control over their computers, even if it's just a web browser. This is how I see auto-updates:

GOOD = no need to worry about updates, spent less time, easier.
BAD = less control over your computer (software), occasional (?) add-ons or extensions breaking.

 

[alcalde]

[citation][nom]phatboe[/nom]It's official, I just made Opera my default web browser. I am sick of Mozilla trying to be Chrome. Had I wanted FF to be more like Chrome I would have downloaded Chrome.[/citation]

Good luck with that. I left Opera, which I've used since the beginning when I had to pay for it, because they gave up fixing bugs and improving introduced new features to change the interface to look like Chrome, to engage in pointless speed duels with Chrome, and add unneeded extensions to be like FireFox. Even an Opera dev joked that they should strip out all of their features and reintroduce them as plugins.

Firefox isn't trying to be Chrome. It's trying to deal with all of the people endlessly complaining (see ZDNet, any post about Firefox) about having to manually update Firefox. Now they'll have to deal withh all of the people (see Toms Hardware, this post) complaining about NOT having to manually update Firefox. This is why one dev suggested they simply start hiding the version number (and then both sides complained about that). Meanwhile, Firefox isn't going to be doing anything that Google isn't already doing and Microsoft isn't about to do, but they're still the only ones who catch heat for it. It's insane

If you don't want silent updates, switch to Linux where you have control of everything. That's also what I tell the people who are complaining about needing to manually update, because Linux can also take care of that.

 

[alcalde]

[citation][nom]figgus[/nom]Great! Silent updates to break AdBlock and NoScript and render my technically unsavvy relatives' computers useless until I help them straighten it out.Who are the morons in these project planning discussions who (poorly) decide what is on the software roadmap?Also, STUPID VERSION NUMBERS ARE STUPID. Film at 11.[/citation]

There are no addons breaking every six weeks; this is in people's imaginations. If your addons are so poorly programmed that they break every time Firefox moves a menu item, switch to better-designed addons. If your updates are so old that they only work with Firefox 3, switch to an actively-maintained addon.

 

[Guest]

What is a fairly secure alternative to FF? I've had it with Mozilla and will be dumping them, ESPECIALLY when they decide to pull this crap. I should have done it a long time ago when started forcing updates of FF on my computer. THESE have been silent updates themselves because I did not authorize them and they were already installed before I knew anything about them. Out of nowhere I end up with 8.0 or now today, 9.0. I keep having to install 6.0 over and over again. It has been the only version of FF to not give me any problems. I'm tired of my PREVIOUS and CURRENT silent updates. I don't know what they are talking about when they say they are putting them off until version 12. I know from experience that they are full of crap when they say they aren't forcing silent updates until later in the future.