[Ask dotTechies] Have you been able to successfully update to Firefox 8?
November 12, 2011 45
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I love Firefox. I first tasted Firefox via Firefox 2 and have been a loyalist since then, even with many of my friends and family defecting to the competition such as Chrome. However, Firefox is really starting to piss me off. Whereas Firefox used to be the standard in Internet browser excellence, it has now become a bloated, poorly coded piece of crap. I hate to say this but I find Firefox crashing on me as much, if not more, than Internet Explorer; not to mention how it bleeds memory like RAM grows on trees. My most recent run-in with Firefox failure is updating to Firefox 8, the latest version of Firefox.
Earlier today I updated to Firefox 8 from Firefox 7.0.1 after being prompted by the auto-update feature. Initially all went well. I was able to update just fine and all addons worked (I did have to update a couple). Then a few hours of bliss the crashing started. Out of the blue Firefox 8 just crashed every damn time I opened it. I was baffled as to why this is happening seeing as I had not changed anything (no settings modified nor new addons added). I tried everything to get it to work: Restarting my computer, using a new profile, uninstalling/reinstalling, etc. The bloody thing just wouldn’t stop crashing. Eventually, after using Internet Explorer 9 for a bit (which was painful but at least it worked), I ended up down grading to Firefox 7.0.1, which works just fine (except when I try to clear browsing history — then it crashes, ugh).
I am not sure what is going on but I sent Mozilla bug reports so hopefully they can fix the issue. Whatever the case may be, I have almost had it with Firefox. Mozilla is lucky KeyScrambler Free is only available on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Flock otherwise I would have jumped ship to another browser a long time ago. Has anyone been able to successfully update to Firefox 8? Cast your vote in the poll below.
[poll id="21"]
Just update to firefox 8 for a while ago. Coz mediafire can’t be opened by mozilla version i have before(forgot which version). For now nothing goes wrong. Oh well, i’m just reguler surfer on the net.
I am using 3.6.3 and I am Happy :-)
Been updated for a while with the Beta channel. Just uninstall/reinstall. Usually all issues caused by browser updates are fixed this way.
Seems to freeze on me quite often. Every day or every few hours of intense use(goes light grey .. with app window freezing)
- By the way I have like 65 tabs open during research and common work. I use session manager addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/session-manager/ because I can open 65 tabs without loading everything at once. It loads all 65 tabs, but only fully loads tabs when I click on them to use.
I’m wondering if it isn’t java script related, as it happens after I load certain things more often. My primary suspect is the NEW Gmail webmail interface update. Most likely Java intensive, and there is a natural reason to mess up Firefox browsers :) so we switch to Chrome.
Gabriel
no problems here-I still use Memory Fox,but rarely have more than 10 tabs open,and run @ 8 extensions and plug-ins each.If I were you,I’d rip the whole thing out with Revo in advanced mode,run CCleaner (and/or whatever your preference), reboot and get a fresh DL
OS is win xp pro sp3 and I have had zero problems.
I use a firefox variant called Pale Moon. It works great for my needs.
Working fine for me. Do you have Roboform installed. Some people are finding they need to update to the latest version.
Firefox 8 working great for me. With 29 add-ons (22 activated), seems to use less memory and a little speedier than previous versions.Have you made any changes in the “about:config” Ash? Got to be careful there! FF8 seems to be the best of the heap so far.
Had a few times with version 7.x where I would get a (Firefox not responding) notification at the top of the Firefox window. However, if left alone, that is no action taken at all, the ‘problem’ always seemed to resolve itself. Don’t recall that I have had that happen since the upgrade to version 8. Although with my luck, I’ll have nothing but problems with it now!! :)
I wish I could upgrade to the latest version but nothing above Firefox 3.6 or Internet Explorer 8.0 is supported by my online classes (I can use Chrome but it can get funky after a while well I’m in the course room) . So, I’m stuck at 3.6.12 for now. Only good thing is my add-ons still work with this version.
@jgriego: I use Pale Moon too! I like it a lot, it seems to open a bit faster than Firefox did. That said, however, it is slightly annoying because I can’t update as soon as a new FF version is released. :(
@jgriego:
Thanks for the recommendation! The Author seems to be releasing the new 8.o Firefox version this Monday. (I’ll give it a try, since it appears to utilize all the firefox addons without problem.
http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=272#p1010
“This will be fixed in v8 to be released this coming Monday, and if you can’t wait you can grab 7.0.2 (unreleased) from the Archived versions page which also has this fixed as it’s based on a slightly later version of the source code.”
The solution is…… Pale Moon! I repeat……. Pale Moon!
(Firefox the way it SHOULD be!!!!)
I have been using it exclusively for a few months now….. with…. NO problems!
Learn more about it HERE—-> http://www.palemoon.org/
Download from HERE—-> http://majorgeeks.com/Pale_Moon_d6613.html
And I QUOTE:
“Why settle for a basic build of your Firefox browser on Windows Operating Systems when you can have one that performs 25% faster? Mozilla does not provide optimized browser packages for Windows, while many Linux (“from scratch”) users get the advantage of a browser built specifically for their system. That needs to change! So, here is the Pale Moon project: Custom-built and optimized Firefox browsers for Windows Operating Systems. Make sure to get the most speed out of your browser!
Of course, getting a faster browser is not just about optimizing the compilation process (building a program from its source code), but also about carefully choosing features and how to choose the best setup. This means that this browser, however extremely close to Firefox, does not have all the functions that Firefox has. A few, carefully selected, features have been disabled that are not in high demand, and that do not interfere with the way web pages are displayed or function; all to maximize speed and efficiency of the browser. Please see the page with technical details to learn exactly what the browser supports, and what it doesn’t support. In short, if you need accessibility features or parental controls, then please visit the Firefox homepage and get the official, non-optimized build.”
@BLACKBIRD:
I did not mean to make all of the rest in BOLD…… I never used the…. HTML tags and attributes before.
Sorry………
Pale Moon is great for speed, but it not compatible with some specialized extensions like the one for Sticky Password. Otherwise I would be using it now.
Firefox 8 works quite well but I found one thing that helped with my extensions and themes. I use the Add-on Compatibility Reporter extension to help make the extensions compatible with the newer versions. This helped Sticky Password to work without issue. It also made many older extensions like Aardvark work which has not been updated in quite some time yet works great in all the newer versions including the nightlies.
I upgraded to FF 8 and the only ‘problem’ I have is that some of the icons for bookmarks are not always showing.
Although, in my case, I’m using the portable version of FF (via PortableApps.com) and as such, didn’t upgrade in the usual manner (basically, it downloads the full version and uses that to update instead of using the Firefox upgrade feature).
I do still use have (and occasionally use) a 3.6 version of Firefox (now updated to 3.6.24) because of *one* addon that doesn’t work past FF 3 (FirefoxThrottle … yes, I must be about the only Firefox user that likes to ***Slow_Down*** their internet speed :-p … but it is very handy for sharing a slow internet connection and not worry about ‘taking’ 100% of the download speed)
now, using both a 3.6 and a 8 version of Firefox, I find that FF8 is better/faster/more stable, but then, when I had problems with FF 7, 6, 5, 4or 3, it seemed to be more a case of the extensions/addons causing the problem, not Firefox itself.
Been a fan since Firefox 2..it crashes from time to time, but the reason i like FX so much is the addons..IE 9 is good as well but addons are spartan compared to Firefox..i use Palemoon which is a Firefox Clone.
I updated to Firefox 8 on my laptop at work, and from very beginning I’ve got only problems with this c***. At home I’m using Opera and for now it seems to be nothing change.
No problem at all… but i’ve used the installer.
I had problems with page rendering (colors of your site) from time to time with the previous version.
I haven’t had any problems with it although I use it almost “bare” – just a couple of plugins. I’ve used it since the beginning (when firefox was just a cub) and have been disappointed over the years because it seems to be getting slower and slower. I have tried Pale Moon and like it very much but some things I use (Roboform, etc.) all the time don’t seem to work well, if at all. I’ve been through the worst with them so I’m stickin, but hopefully soon I’ll be through the best with them.
@Grantwhy: For your favicon problem,go to about:config > searchbar> enter ” icons” (without “”) > insure that “browser.chrome.favicons” and “browser.chrome.site_icons” are set to true.Note-this change may revert to false if you run any FF tweaking programs-fx. Firetune or similar.Cheers!
I have upgraded to v8 on my desktop with no problems at all, and have been running the Aurora and UX versions on my laptop for several weeks now with not a single crash. Pale Moon, as mentioned, is an excellent Firefox variant, and a couple months ago I stumbled across another called Waterfox. Better yet, both offer a 64 bit option.
Hi Ashraf,
I just updated due to your email notice (thanks!), because I only had v. 7 on my XP/VM, which I don’t fire up that often. (Linux Mint is my sweety!) I disconnected 1 of 2 addons before FF 8 came up, and it looks ok so far. My Linux Mint 9 has FF v. 3.* due to the updating in the repos.
I’ll only know more as I use it more in XP/VM. Thanks again.
Joe
I updated via your email notice on DotTech. i use LastPass and it works fine too. I have no problems and it was neat to choose what to keep. I actually had to go back and include one add-on afterwards. Still no problem.