Okay just a plain rant and nothing more, so feel free to ignore it; I just hate being dictated to…esp. since I don’t consider myself to be a complete a**hole.
So what happened? Well it is a fact that I have been using FF 3.5.17 which I have been extremely happy with. It is fast, freezes much less, and is more reliable overall than its successors. Yes I know perhaps a LOT of FF fans won’t agree with me but these threads (not to mention my own personal experience) do not lie, I am sure:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/842113
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/firefox-5-crashes-what-is-causing-them-and-how-to-fix-it/
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/863023
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/862538
http://www.firefoxforum.com/showthread.php?t=4213
I don’t know why, but recently a certain trend has started: lot of big shot companies have started to bug their users by asking them to upgrade their browsers. If I am correct, it all started with Google making its "plus" service available only those who have a ‘hi-fi’ browser like say, FF 5.
Okay, I can live without Google plus. Next youtube started it by asking people to upgrade their browsers because it would no longer support browsers below the ‘xxx’ level. However, since I could still browse videos fine with my browser I ignored that too. I can no longer see that notice on youtube; I guess it was sort of a ‘flop’ so they took it down! ;)
Of late Gmail has started displaying a similar notice every time I would log in to my account, which in turn has made Gmail slower than it was already. Every time I click the "Dismiss" link it vanishes but comes back if I log out and log in again:
Then, it was the turn of PayPal: a big red, in-your face notice in your account’s homepage, once again asking users to upgrade their browsers because of ‘security’ reasons.
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/878740
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25961092-qUpdate-Your-Browserq-Not-a-PayPal-Phishing-Email
Hmm, as a sidenote, almost every new update of software has one or the other security hole, which is solved in yet another future update; yet companies continue to use the same ‘security’ hook over and over to induce people to upgrade their softwares and such other stuff.
I do upgrade what I feel is necessary: like my Windows, anti virus, etc. But if something is working well for me then why would I upgrade it anyway? Besides I did use FF 4 at one point of time and it was so slow I had to revert back to the current 3.5.17 version. I sure as hell ain’t going to upgrade my browser unless I am literally kicked out either by PayPal or Google! Why? I do believe that I know quite well what is good for me and what is not. I am not a 6-year old kid, and I don’t think it is anyone’s business to tell me what browser I should use and what I should not.
I have been using this Firefox version for years without even a silly Trojan affecting my system, and now someone comes up and advises me that…it should have made me chuckle but I really got pissed off – enough to force to me to let off some steam, and I just wrote exactly what I feel.
Am I egoistic? Obstinate? Haughty? Maybe! Feel free to let me know your thoughts on this. Just click here to post your thoughts. :)
BTW, I am actually eager to read what the conspiracy theorists might have to say on this! :D :P
Hi Arindam,
I like your directness, almost like a German. I totally agree with you, because the “Big Boys/Brother” wants more and more control, and therefore manipulate the average user’s usage from marketing perspectives to hidden controls, and more -which we don’t even want to imagine. Regarding upgrades etc. – that’s why I changed this year over 200 blog websites back to old fashion web 2.0 sites. Got tired of constant upgrade notices, and then non-compatible plug/themes problems etc. and guess, my sites rank same or even better and easier to change things around.
IMO: Blogs are overrated/overblown and more thanks to the hype of the top “Gurus” to sell faster and more useless product add-ons…
thanks for letting me get some “steam off” too….
PS: reading all your stuff and found some helpful stuff in and between…
PS2: yes, German, but left 30 some years ago…and left US some 5 yrs ago…
I agree about the wp upgrade notices. Used to hate it at first, but then learned to ignore it LOL. As for ranking, you can rank the same with any type of site, but with a cms you workload might ease up a bit, depending on how you do your stuff. The downside of using wordpress is the ram/cpu usage: too many sql queries even if you only have a small blog with a handful of posts.
I agree. Every time I’ve ever upgraded my browsers, especially FireFox, half of my plugins stopped working. And, like you said, there never seems to be a final upgrade that plugs a security leak for the last time. It’s almost as if they deliberately program another leak just so they have an excuse to force another useless upgrade on us.
Nice post. How do you reinstall an older version of the FF? Just Install it as if it is a new version or no?
Thanks for the tips.
Actually if u are using the installer version then u wud first need to backup your profile folder – bookmarks, settings, etc..
Then delete old Firefox install folder and data folder completely (easier way to do this is just use Revo uninstaller http://www.revouninstaller.com/start_freeware_download.html – download the FREE version only, NOT the FREE TRIAL version), and then install the new one; otherwise it would not work.
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Uninstalling%20Firefox
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing-profiles
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/755395
If you are using the portable version then it is much easier; you simply create a new folder for a new FF version, copy the bookmarks and other data from your old FF’s profile folder to the new one’s profile folder, then drop the new version into the new folder and delete the old folder completely. Nowadays I use the portable FF only. :)
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable
In either case, it is a good idea to keep a backup copy of your profile folder somewhere else so that if you mess up you can at least get your old browser back. :D