Say goodbye to Firefox 3.6

[bill]

Mozilla dispatches Firefox 3.6, fills its chair with version 13 beta [engadget.com]

If you've been defiantly clinging onto Firefox 3.6 by your fingertips, bad news. Mozilla is officially putting it to sleep -- whether you like it or not -- by auto-updating users to version 12. You've still got a few days to bid your emotional farewells, with the switchover being pegged as early May.

[lucy24]

Huh. By weird coincidence I have just this second been looking at browser stats-- an area I normally barely glance at-- in Piwik. I found diehards going all the way back to FF 3.0. And that's not counting Camino, whose UA string says, parenthetically, (like Firefox/3.6.28).

Detour to raw logs tells me that Firefox puts the version number at the very end of the UA string, without parenthesis, so a simple $ will take care of it.

Then again, I also found an MSIE 6 in Piwik. And these are supposed to be humans.

[ken_b]

So this will override having automatic updates turned off?

[Angonasec]

No FF won't over-ride your beloved 3.6 if you switch off auto-update.

As if...

For Mac PPC users like me...

[support.mozilla.org...]

You'll love this...

Q/
Option 2: Continue using Firefox 3.6
If you can't replace your computer, you can continue using Firefox 3.6.
/Q

And to spice you into investing in a new Mac so you can enjoy FF13 they try to frighten you with this warning...

Brace yourselves...

Q/
Warning: You will be using unsupported software on an unsupported operating system which poses a significant security risk.
/Q

Gulp!

[Leosghost]

As opposed to
"You will be using unsupported software on an supported operating system which nevertheless poses a significant security risk depending on what you or various things, websites, scripts etc not under your direct control may do" .

I keep FF 3.6 for some add ons that are not compatible with later versions..I browse in Opera on Linux..and only Fire up FF when I need it for something specific..

Absolutely nothing is ever allowed to "automatically update" ( even on Linux )..<= that way lies a heap of pain and tears..

[Angonasec]

The "Gulp!" was ironic.

I use FF 3.6 on a PPC Mac all the time as my primary browser.

No interest in Intel or Lion or FF 3.6+ at all.

As my set-up ages, it actually becomes more secure, not less.

[dstiles]

As a browser ages its insecurities become subject to more and more exploit attempts. Even if you only visit well-known sites that you think are virus-free you could be in for a nasty shock - bank and government sites, for example, have been infiltrated in recent times.

It may be annoying to have so many version numbers (13 next month?) but several, if not all, of the FF updates have addressed a variety of exploitable bugs in the code. If you treat the version numbers as sub-versions (which some of them admittedly are) then it becomes less annoying.

I'm not particularly distressed by the "force update" option. Version 12 retained my "tell me but don't update" option. I will obviously check V13 but I suspect there would be an outcry if it altered that setting; although altering "do nothing" may be a good idea.

[Angonasec]

You're clearly a victim of scare-mongering.

If you rely on your browser security to protect your system, you will be swayed by such propaganda.

Wiser heads take better precautions to ensure security.

As for "nasty shocks"; the only shocks I've had were from updating the FF browser.

Sticking with FF 3.5.9 until the cows come home :)

[dstiles]

No, not a victim. I know what I'm doing and I have a fair idea of the bugs fixed in various browser updates. Nor is the browser my front-line security.