James_A Posted November 6, 2009 Posted November 6, 2009 Firefox 3.5.5 has been released. Firefox 3.5.5 fixes "Several stability issues" including crashes on startup and crashes in the GIF decoder. There is no corresponding change to the Firefox 3.0 branch, which remains at 3.0.15. Firefox (referred to as Fx) is a web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite, managed by the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox is a highly customizable browser that allows you to enhance it using Add-ons. Some examples of Add-ons that you can use to customize Firefox are AdBlock Plus, CuteMenus - Crystal SVG, DownThemAll!, TabMixPlus and many more. Tabbed browsing is one of the many features that helps to make Firefox more secure than most browser. Firefox does not use ActiveX. Firefox does make use of many plugins to enhance your web experience. From Shockwave, Flash, Quicktime and more; your browsing experience reaches new levels with the Firefox browser. Download: Firefox 3.5.5 View: Release notes Homepage: Mozilla Firefox . Quote
Administrator Tarun Posted November 6, 2009 Administrator Posted November 6, 2009 I was surprised to see 3.5.5 out already. Though I admit I'm on 3.6 Beta 1 and Windows 7 now. :P Quote
greenknight Posted November 7, 2009 Posted November 7, 2009 There must have been a lot of crashes with 3.5.4. Didn't get any myself, but I don't use the stable release version that much. As long as the nightly builds are not too unstable, I use them instead. Quote
0_0 Posted November 7, 2009 Posted November 7, 2009 There must have been a lot of crashes with 3.5.4 I can't remember the last time I had any serious issues with Firefox - I guess I've been lucky. The problem I have is being on dialup, it seems all my time is spent downloading the latest update only to turn around and do it again in a week. I downloaded K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 5.40 (23MB) - they wanted a clean install - so I do the usual, now I see they are releasing v5.42 - they will have an update but I would have waited and downloaded 5.42 full (which I will anyway, due to apparent bugs in 5.40). I'm considering adopting an Every Other One policy -> 3.5.4 -> 3.5.6 -> 3.5.8 - (except for major releases). Quote
greenknight Posted November 8, 2009 Posted November 8, 2009 The problem I have is being on dialup, it seems all my time is spent downloading the latest update only to turn around and do it again in a week. I downloaded K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 5.40 (23MB) - they wanted a clean install - so I do the usual, now I see they are releasing v5.42 - they will have an update but I would have waited and downloaded 5.42 full (which I will anyway, due to apparent bugs in 5.40). I'm considering adopting an Every Other One policy -> 3.5.4 -> 3.5.6 -> 3.5.8 - (except for major releases). Most of the Firefox minor updates fix security issues, I wouldn't recommend skipping any. You don't have to install the whole thing, the built-in updater works well downloading and installing patches. I wouldn't be running nightly builds without it. Better to skip a few K-Lite updates. Quote
James_A Posted November 10, 2009 Author Posted November 10, 2009 Most of the Firefox minor updates fix security issues, I wouldn't recommend skipping any. You don't have to install the whole thing, the built-in updater works well downloading and installing patches. .... I agree completely. The built-in updater (click Help -> Check for updates...) really works if you are updating from one build to the next, because the update download size is then just a fraction of the regular 7-8 MB download. Usually the download is only a few 100's of KB, occasionally up to 1-2 MB. This depends, obviously, on how much has changed in the new build. If you skip a build or two, however, the updater doesn't help, because then you are faced with a full product (7-8 MB) download again. . Quote
greenknight Posted November 10, 2009 Posted November 10, 2009 If you skip a build or two, however, the updater doesn't help, because then you are faced with a full product (7-8 MB) download again. Good point, but it's worse than that. The updater files use a weaker compression algorithm; you get a larger file if you get the full build through the updater - more like 9-10 MB. So if you skip a build, you're better off to download the .exe when you next update, instead of using the updater. Another reason to not skip updates. Quote
0_0 Posted November 14, 2009 Posted November 14, 2009 I don't skip updates regardless of their status, my point was more of "wishful thinking". I always like to have the latest full installer on hand of programs I use regularly anyway should I decide to reinstall my OS - so no big deal here, I'm simply tired of the slow IC. To the point of updating Firefox, this is old news for me but I haven't been able to get a partial update going back to FF 3.0.xx, at some point all the updates were the full installer plus 400+KB, I talked with the powers that be and all they could figure out was that it likely was do to the mirroring but had no answer. Quote
greenknight Posted November 14, 2009 Posted November 14, 2009 Bummer. I'm on dialup myself, I know just what you're going through. Where exactly did you go for help with this problem? The official Firefox Help forum, which is relatively new, is not as good (in my opinion) as the forums at Mozillazine, which has been around since before Firefox was called Firefox. I would give them a try. Quote
Eldmannen Posted November 14, 2009 Posted November 14, 2009 Dial-up? Wow, poor bastards. You live in Africa or what? Maybe just a country with a old crappy legacy internet infrastructure almost comparable to that of Africa. I have 100 mbit/s downstreams, 10 mbit/s upstreams. I've had this for years. Prior to that i had 10/10 mbits/s. I download Ubuntu ISO image in like 10 megabyte/s, thats 700 megabyte in a minute or so. People still have dial-up these days? I thought that what was people had in the 70's and 80's when they connected to BBS systems. Perhaps early 90's in poor eastern block countries. Quote
cluberti Posted November 16, 2009 Posted November 16, 2009 Well, I live in the US, near a large city, but where I live it's somewhat rural and have cable internet access which is just about 3Mbps/256K. It'd be nice to have the kind of speed you talk about, but 3Mbps is fast enough to watch netflix and check email. If I had dial-up I'd probably just rent the movies instead of stream them, but I don't think my life would change much. Maybe I'm just older and don't care anymore . Quote
greenknight Posted November 16, 2009 Posted November 16, 2009 Rural areas of the U.S. are a lot like the third world when it comes to broadband access. I'm not too far out in the sticks, so I could get cable internet - but can't afford it (I'd hate to give Comcast my business,anyway, and they're the only choice). DSL is not available, I think the phone lines are too old and crummy. My sister, who runs the town library, is working on getting a grant to extend Wi-Fi coverage to the whole (very small) town. Unless that works out, or there's a big increase in my income, I'm likely to be stuck with dialup for quite some time. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.