[RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL] Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

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Tom T.
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[RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL] Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by Tom T. »

(Split as O/T from Forum Flashgot Development, "WinGet support?" -- Tom T.)
smaragdus wrote:Thanks for the advice. In fact I knew there were some new security releases of the 3.6+ series but I was too lazy to update my browser which is open almost all the time. In fact the newest release is 3.6.28, available at Mozilla FTP server.
Interesting. Whenever I "check for updates", of course it always tries to push 10.x on me (I have that available, too), but it formerly offered 3.6.x updates as well. I tried again through the Help > Check for Updates menu. No .28 offered, only F10. I know they want to push people off of 3.6.x., despite the number who stay on it, and complain about the rapid-release cycle -- you'd think they'd take the hint and support both, as MS did for extending XP support after the flop of Vista.

I can't find .28 anywhere at the usual MZ sites, but saw this:
Mozilla has just pushed a new Firefox release to the public release ftp server. Firefox 3.6.28 has not been announced officially yet, but it is already available for download at the ftp site and download portals such as Major Geeks. Firefox users running a 3.6 version of the browser currently can upgrade their version of the browser early by downloading the new version from the official site or those downloads sites. While it is usually not problematic to do so, last minute bugs and changes may still be implemented by Mozilla so that a new final release will replace the current available version.

Mozilla’s original plan was to release Firefox 3.6.28 on April 24, the day support ends for all Firefox 3 versions. A release in March is an indicator for a security or stability update for the browser. A changelog has not been posted yet, so that we cannot say with certainty that the release is security or stability related...
Apparently, .28 isn't an official release yet...
Do you have any newer or additional info?
At least, what is the FTP address, and is it any more informative? If it's solid, I can just get it from MajorGeeks.

IMHO, they're handling this very poorly. If there's a security flaw in .27, they need to issue the patch *now*, *officially*, even if it means having to add a .29 version next month. And since I have enabled "Automatically check for updates to Firefox", it should already have popped up as an offer. (I have "notify", not "install", but it should have notified.)

Thanks for the tip-off. And while I sympathize about taking time out for the install, you can d/l in the b/g, then just run it right before you quit for the day/night/whatever. Really, a few minutes to make sure you have the previous flaws patched. ;)

Cheers,
- Tom.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.27) Gecko/20120216 Firefox/3.6.27
smaragdus
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Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by smaragdus »

Hi Tom,

As far as I know there are only official builds at Mozilla FTP Server. In fact I always download Firefox and SeaMonkey releases and add-ons from their FTP server. I will provide some screen-shots below:

Image
Image
Image

I tried to paste the download links for Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28 here but they got shortened so they were useless in this form, so please find below a link to the actual FTP download links:

http://pastebin.com/FDdqHkXv

For some strange reason when I try to open Mozilla FTP through my browser, not all Firefox releases are visible:

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla ... /releases/

If you use any FTP client this is the address of Mozilla FTP:

ftp.mozilla.org

and you can access all releases using this path:

ftp.mozilla.org - pub - firefox - releases

I am so disappointed of Firefox 4+ that is is a matter of time to switch entirely to SeaMonkey, in fact what prevents me from doing it is that not all Firefox add-ons are compatible with SeaMonkey.

I was notified by my RSS Client for this new version (3.6.28) of Firefox, it was announced at MajorGeeks as an official release:

http://majorgeeks.com/Mozilla_Firefox_3.6.28_d7015.html

Firefox release numbering and update policy is a hell of a mess, one of the reasons to plan to switch to SeaMonkey. Of course there are more- the removal of the status bar and the RSS icon from the URL bar, the new Opera/Chrome-like GUI, the instability, the resource usage, etc. It seems Firefox developers try to mimic Chrome removing features and customization options making Firefox a bare-bones Chrome-like browser. For me their logic is weird: they made a survey that showed that only about 10% of the Firefox users used RSS so they decided to remove it. I am not willing to hunt for add-ons that would restore features available before. It is stupid to ruin a browser in order to make it simple- those who like Chrome would not move to Firefox only because it looks like Chrome. And many of those (like me) who have been using Firefox for years will be bitterly disappointed. Software forums teem with negative comments but Firefox developers seem to be deaf and blind.

Cheers,

Asen
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.28) Gecko/20120306 Firefox/3.6.28 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Tom T.
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Re: Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by Tom T. »

Hi Asen,
smaragdus wrote:I tried to paste the download links for Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28 here but they got shortened so they were useless in this form...
To solve this, wrap the URL in URL tags, either by typing them or by using the toolbar above the Compose box. Like so:

Code: Select all

[url]ftp://ftp.mozilla.org:21/pub/firefox/releases/3.6.28/win32/en-US/Firefox Setup 3.6.28.exe[/url]
I had to use code tags to prevent the URL tags from being parsed, so that they were visible.

You can also use code tags themselves:

Code: Select all

ftp://ftp.mozilla.org:21/pub/firefox/releases/3.6.28/win32/en-US/Firefox Setup 3.6.28.exe
We actually prefer this if the link is to a commercial site, to avoid the slightest suspicion that someone is spamming for a site by sneaking in a live link.
For some strange reason when I try to open Mozilla FTP through my browser, not all Firefox releases are visible:
I saw that. 3.6.27 still shows as "latest release", which sort of implies that .28 isn't official yet.
If you use any FTP client this is the address of Mozilla FTP:....
Thanks, but IMHO, they still should come through the usual channels: auto-notify, and then just click the update link.
I am so disappointed of Firefox 4+ ....
You, me, and a lot of other people ... :(
Firefox release numbering and update policy is a hell of a mess,
Agree.
Of course there are more- the removal of the status bar and the RSS icon from the URL bar, the new Opera/Chrome-like GUI,
Agree.
It seems Firefox developers try to mimic Chrome removing features and customization options making Firefox a bare-bones Chrome-like browser.
Agree, sadly. Once, Firefox was the ground-breaker, and made IE play "catch-up". Now, it seems that Fx is playing catch-up with Chrome, and I don't know why. Those who want Chrome will use it, especially since it finally has an API which will enable Giorgio to start porting NS to Chrome.

*Personally*, I can't understand why anyone would trust a browser made by a company for whom 99% of revenue comes from selling ads and selling user data, and whose invasions of privacy, and misuse of data, have been the target of widespread criticism, including a lawsuit by the EU. But that's just MHO.
It is stupid to ruin a browser in order to make it simple
Or to ruin it to make it complicated. IMHO, the F2 GUI was clean, neat, and functional. They could have added whatever speed optimizations, etc. while still keeping that very functional GUI, in which it is *so* much easier to bookmark, organize bookmarks, update add-ons, etc., etc. And have a Status Bar. Etc.
And many of those (like me) who have been using Firefox for years will be bitterly disappointed. Software forums teem with negative comments but Firefox developers seem to be deaf and blind.
I tried making my views known at MZ forum a few years ago, but the answer was pretty much, "Too bad. This is what we're doing."

And I suppose that if this discussion continues much more, that I should split it off into another topic, as it *is* a bit O/T to the topic of WinGet support. ;)

Cheers,
- Tom
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.27) Gecko/20120216 Firefox/3.6.27
dhouwn
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Re: Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by dhouwn »

smaragdus wrote:For some strange reason when I try to open Mozilla FTP through my browser, not all Firefox releases are visible:

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla ... /releases/
Try ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/, releases.mozilla.org seems to be just some sort or redirection to what has been mirrored on the partner servers.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:11.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/11.0
Alan Baxter
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Re: Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by Alan Baxter »

In this case, the difference is because Fx 3.6.28 hasn't been released yet. As you've observed, some builds which haven't been released to the public appear on the ftp server. That build is only a release candidate which is still being tested and is vulnerable to being replaced with something different before the official release. I don't recommend you install it unless one of the things you like to do is test Firefox builds and report any bugs you find to Mozilla.

If all goes well, Fx 3.6.28 will be released on March 13. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Releases
After it's released, Help > Check for Updates on Fx 3.6.27 will install Fx 3.6.28. Fx 3.6.28 will also be linked from the right side of http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html and http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all-older.html.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/10.0.2
Tom T.
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Re: Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by Tom T. »

And indeed it did. Marking as Resolved.

Alan, Thanks as always for sharing your extensive knowledge of the inner workings of Mozilla. :)
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.28) Gecko/20120306 Firefox/3.6.28
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therube
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[RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL, dead] Mozilla Firefox 3.6

Post by therube »

[RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL, dead, well, close to it] Mozilla Firefox 3.6


"March 23rd, 2012 · Firefox

After two years of regular updates, we’ll end our support for Firefox 3.6 on April 24th. In the years since Firefox 3.6, we’ve make incredible improvements to Firefox, including phenomenal HTML5 capabilities, Firefox Sync, faster JavaScript performance, support for the Do Not Track header, and an easier, quieter update process. Barring any major stability or security issues found over the next few weeks, Firefox 3.6.28 will be our last 3.6 release.

We strongly advise our users to upgrade from Firefox 3.6, as they will no longer receive critical security updates as of April 24th. In support of Firefox 3.6 users in organizations, we’ve delivered on our promise to implement the Extended Support Release plan three months ahead of ending support for Firefox 3.6. Enterprises and organizations should complete qualification and deployment of the ESR over the next month.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to announce that our minimum supported Windows version will change from Windows 2000 to Windows XP SP2 in Firefox 13. We never change minimum requirements lightly, but this support change allows us to significantly improve Firefox performance on Windows by using a more modern build system. Windows XP users are advised to update to the latest service pack, and Windows 2000 users should consider upgrading ahead of the June release of Firefox 13."

http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/2012/03/23/upcoming-firefox-support-changes/


Long live SeaMonkey!
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball NoScript FlashGot AdblockPlus
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:13.0) Gecko/20120324 Firefox/13.0a2 SeaMonkey/2.10a2
Tom T.
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Re: [RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL, dead] Mozilla Firefox 3.6

Post by Tom T. »

In the years since Firefox 3.6, we’ve make incredible improvements to Firefox, including phenomenal HTML5 capabilities, Firefox Sync, faster JavaScript performance, support for the Do Not Track header, and an easier, quieter update process.
And totally foobarred the GUI. Only, what, 16,000+ views of the thread for people who can't find their add-on icons, including NS icon/menu?

Compare the Add-ons *box* in F3 to the *entire page* consumed by F11, and that there is no obvious or intuitive way to do a manual update check in the latter. Randomly clicking things like the gear icon eventually revealed a way to do that.

The bookmark management system got worse from F2 to F3, and much worse in F4+.
F2-3 had "Organize bookmarks" in the top of the menu. No such entry in F-Later. Presumably, you're supposed to guess that "Show all bookmarks" is the way to organize, manage, or edit them -- and that process requires far more clicks than it used to.

If they're trying to drive me away from Firefox, they could hardly do a better job.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to announce that our minimum supported Windows version will change from Windows 2000 to Windows XP SP2 in Firefox 13. We never change minimum requirements lightly, but this support change allows us to significantly improve Firefox performance on Windows by using a more modern build system. Windows XP users are advised to update to the latest service pack, and Windows 2000 users should consider upgrading ahead of the June release of Firefox 13."
Throw away more of your user base. So long as an OS is supported by MS, Mozilla (and ideally, all apps) should provide compatibility.
Long live SeaMonkey!
Aren't they essentially Fx 11 (or whatever) as far as the browser goes? If SM would continue support for a Fx3-type version, I might switch.

And MZ will wonder why their market share declines. :(
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.28) Gecko/20120306 Firefox/3.6.28
Tom T.
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Re: [RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL] Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by Tom T. »

[rant, continued]
Plus:
Moving View Page Source to Tools > Web Developer instead of simply under "View" menu.

Worse:
Moving Error Console to Tools > Web Developer instead of simply under Tools menu.

Do they think that more submenus make things easier to find? Better?
We're constantly asking users to visit Error Console -- why make it harder?

Human Factors Engineering: If people are accustomed to something being in a certain place, don't move it unless you have a *very* good reason.

[/rant, for now, not that it'll do any good. But I feel sooo much better! :D ]
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.28) Gecko/20120306 Firefox/3.6.28
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therube
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Re: [RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL] Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by therube »

> 16,000+ views of the thread for people who can't find their add-on icons, including NS icon/menu?

Absolutely.
That should be telling to FF in itself.

> Randomly clicking things like the gear icon

Agreed.

> bookmark

FF doesn't even have a Bookmarks Manager, it can only open in the sidebar (AFAIK).

> SeaMonkey!

SeaMonkey has to follow what FF does, releases & what not, but we still have a "traditional" (Netscape-like) UI. We have more options available through the UI. There is enough where we have gone our own way or retained the old ways. Some parts are not there, like "pinning". Some things we fubar'd on. Data Manager is drek.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball NoScript FlashGot AdblockPlus
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:13.0) Gecko/20120326 Firefox/13.0a2 SeaMonkey/2.10a2
dhouwn
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Re: [RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL, dead] Mozilla Firefox 3.6

Post by dhouwn »

Tom T. wrote:Throw away more of your user base. So long as an OS is supported by MS, Mozilla (and ideally, all apps) should provide compatibility.
Win 2k and pre-SP3 (note SP3, not SP2) XP are unsupported.
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux i686; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0
Tom T.
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Re: [RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL, dead] Mozilla Firefox 3.6

Post by Tom T. »

dhouwn wrote:
Tom T. wrote:Throw away more of your user base. So long as an OS is supported by MS, Mozilla (and ideally, all apps) should provide compatibility.
Win 2k and pre-SP3 (note SP3, not SP2) XP are unsupported.
My mistake on Windows 2000, thank you. However, my OEM (Toshiba) advised customers *NOT* to install SP3, and on their support home page, it continued to read "Toshiba supports Microsoft Windows XP SP2", long after SP3 was released. A call to Tech Support confirmed this advice.

They said the same thing about SP1, which caused massive failures for those as notable as Steve Gibson, minor headaches for others, and worked for maybe 1/3 of the user base. They urged installation of SP2. But urged against SP3.

This is no longer on the support home page, but search Toshiba Support for SP3:
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais ... P3&x=0&y=0
Tons of results for <= SP2, but none for SP3.

So props to MZ for keeping SP2 in the compatibility list. Apparently, they're aware that at least one OEM (IDK how many others) are warning that they will not support SP3 if you install it.

(Yes, that puts Toshiba users in a bit of a quandary as far as MS Updates. The cool thing about supporting an OS for eleven years is that eventually, all the low-and medium-hanging fruit is picked. March Patch Tuesday had *no* Critical updates to the core XP OS, only to Remote Desktop -- yuk! :o -- and one "Important" kernel patch, which could not be exploited remotely by anon users -- local priv escal vuln only. Something to be said for tried-and-vetted; XP was a piece of junk when released in 2001; I waited until 2005 and second SP to buy it. IMHO. YMMV.)
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.28) Gecko/20120306 Firefox/3.6.28
DJ-Leith
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Re: [RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL] Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by DJ-Leith »

I transitioned from Fx 3.6.28 to Fx 11 on 20-April-2012.

The main reason I left it so late was that I have very old hardware. Laptop purchased in 5 years ago, in early 2007, with only 1GB RAM. Fx 4, when it first came out, did not use RAM nearly as well as 3.6.xx.

I started to read the excellent MemShrink blog postings by Nicholas Nethercote (njn) in July 2011.

http://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/201 ... screaming/
There has been a post nearly every week since June 2011.

There is a wiki for MemShrink
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Performance/MemShrink

Since September 2011 I have been using Aurora and 3.6.xx. This has allowed me to gradually try the new features without 'burning my boats'.

The improvements in about:memory have been vital in measuring memory usage and then fixing leaks. IMHO the whole MemShrink project has been excellent.

The current version of Firefox (11) is usable on my old hardware.

DJ-Leith
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:11.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/11.0
Tom T.
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Re: [RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL] Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by Tom T. »

I still have the .pdf of one of his major papers on Fx memory usage. No, I didn't like F4 either. It does seem that considerable progress has been made since then on the memory issue.
DJ-Leith wrote:The main reason I left it so late was that I have very old hardware. Laptop purchased in 5 years ago, in early 2007, with only 1GB RAM. Fx 4, when it first came out, did not use RAM nearly as well as 3.6.xx.
I'm writing this on one purchased in 2005, with 512 MB RAM. An inexpensive 1 GB RAM stick was put in the second slot. With 1.5 GB, it's very fast for a cheap, low-end laptop, and there is no need for a paging file. (swap-to-disk, swapfile, whatever). You might see if there is an inexpensive RAM upgrade for yours. Most do have a second slot available, so that you can keep the factory one and add a RAM module later.

We had a thread with a user whose machine, even older, would not support past F3 at all.

You might (or might not) be interested in this slightly O/T digression about users wanting to stay on F3, and how long NS will support it.

Cheers.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.28) Gecko/20120306 Firefox/3.6.28
DJ-Leith
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Re: [RESOLVED - NOW OFFICIAL] Mozilla Firefox 3.6.28

Post by DJ-Leith »

Re: RAM in Laptop - I had investigated, not cost effective in my case. Soon will have budget for Laptop with 6GB RAM, i5 CPU for less cash than the 2007 one (above).
Tom T. wrote: You might (or might not) be interested in this slightly O/T digression about users wanting to stay on F3, and how long NS will support it.

Cheers.
Yes, I am interested. Like you, I'm curious. :) Had read it before you linked to it here. However, I think it is good to point out to all readers. Giorgio does an amazing job keeping us safe!

DJ-Leith
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0
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