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Significant changes coming for Firefox today

wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
Firefox 10 is due out later today. This is a significant release for all platforms, due to the "add-ons are compatible by default, with some exceptions" change. Also worth noting is that Firefox 3.6 reaches its end-of-life today. Its replacement is called Firefox 10 ESR (short for Extended Support Release). Those of you still using PPC Macs cannot update, unfortunately.

Here's how the ESR release train works:
Firefox and Firefox ESR updates will be released in parallel. There will be 8 updates to each initial ESR release, fixing only critical and high-rated security issues as well as the most important bugs. New features will NOT be introduced in these updates. The ESR updates will occur every 6 weeks.

A schedule may help clarify:
Firefox 10 = Firefox 10 ESR
Firefox 11 = Firefox 10.0.1 ESR
Firefox 12 = Firefox 10.0.2 ESR
Firefox 13 = Firefox 10.0.3 ESR
Firefox 14 = Firefox 10.0.4 ESR
Firefox 15 = Firefox 10.0.5 ESR
Firefox 16 = Firefox 10.0.6 ESR
Firefox 17 = Firefox 10.0.7 ESR and Firefox 17 ESR
Firefox 18 = Firefox 10.0.8 ESR and Firefox 17.0.1 ESR
Firefox 19 = Firefox 17.0.2 ESR
Firefox 20 = Firefox 17.0.3 ESR
... this pattern continues, with a new update every 6 weeks.
 
I'd be more willing to use Firefox if it didn't consume a fifth to a third of my CPU power with only two tabs open.
 
I want to keep my stodgy old Firefox

wrldwzrd89 said:
Firefox 10 is due out later today. This is a significant release for all platforms, due to the "add-ons are compatible by default, with some exceptions" change. Also worth noting is that Firefox 3.6 reaches its end-of-life today. Its replacement is called Firefox 10 ESR (short for Extended Support Release). Those of you still using PPC Macs cannot update, unfortunately.

Here's how the ESR release train works:
Firefox and Firefox ESR updates will be released in parallel. There will be 8 updates to each initial ESR release, fixing only critical and high-rated security issues as well as the most important bugs. New features will NOT be introduced in these updates. The ESR updates will occur every 6 weeks.

A schedule may help clarify:
Firefox 10 = Firefox 10 ESR
Firefox 11 = Firefox 10.0.1 ESR
Firefox 12 = Firefox 10.0.2 ESR
Firefox 13 = Firefox 10.0.3 ESR
Firefox 14 = Firefox 10.0.4 ESR
Firefox 15 = Firefox 10.0.5 ESR
Firefox 16 = Firefox 10.0.6 ESR
Firefox 17 = Firefox 10.0.7 ESR and Firefox 17 ESR
Firefox 18 = Firefox 10.0.8 ESR and Firefox 17.0.1 ESR
Firefox 19 = Firefox 17.0.2 ESR
Firefox 20 = Firefox 17.0.3 ESR
... this pattern continues, with a new update every 6 weeks.
Click to expand...

I'm not interested in all the personas or whatever is supposed to make me want to upgrade to the latest version. I like to have it set up the way I like it and try a few add-ons now and then. The developers can't keep up with them at the rate they change it, so if you upgrade, suddenly none of your extensions work any more and you have to re-tool everything. I have kept FF 3.6.19 because I like it and don't feel like messing with it every month or so. I don't quite understand the ESR schedule - they are changing to a new version every six weeks? Does this mean my version will get bumped off the end after a certain number of upgrades?
 
miz-mdk said:
I'm not interested in all the personas or whatever is supposed to make me want to upgrade to the latest version. I like to have it set up the way I like it and try a few add-ons now and then. The developers can't keep up with them at the rate they change it, so if you upgrade, suddenly none of your extensions work any more and you have to re-tool everything. I have kept FF 3.6.19 because I like it and don't feel like messing with it every month or so. I don't quite understand the ESR schedule - they are changing to a new version every six weeks? Does this mean my version will get bumped off the end after a certain number of upgrades?
Click to expand...
Yes, the extensions not working anymore thing is fixed with Firefox 10. However, the "reach" for compatible add-ons only goes back to Firefox 4, which is understandable as that's when the Jetpack restartless add-ons were introduced.

The ESRs are not meant for consumers like us to use - they're there for enterprises, schools, etc.
 
Firefox still uses twenty percent of my CPU – with no pages open. * sigh * Going to try it out under a fresh profile, see if that changes anything. How do you enable telemetry?
 
FF 10 and extensions

wrldwzrd89 said:
Yes, the extensions not working anymore thing is fixed with Firefox 10. However, the "reach" for compatible add-ons only goes back to Firefox 4, which is understandable as that's when the Jetpack restartless add-ons were introduced.

The ESRs are not meant for consumers like us to use - they're there for enterprises, schools, etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. My FF 3.6.19 did stop working on its end-of-life day, but I was able to upgrade to FF 3.6.26 without losing my extensions. Knowing that they've fixed the extensions issue with FF10, I may consider upgrading at some point.

----------
Mackilroy said:
Firefox still uses twenty percent of my CPU – with no pages open. * sigh * Going to try it out under a fresh profile, see if that changes anything. How do you enable telemetry?
Click to expand...

Mine is only using about 8%, with 6 pages open. Sorry, I don't know how to fix what's wrong with yours :^(.
 
I just wish Firefox was better at memory management

I have no troubles running safari or chrome for weeks without a force quit as I sleep/hibernate. But 4 hours of Firefox anhilalates my MBA memory.
 
Peace said:
Firefox 11.0 now uses h.264 and HTML5.
Click to expand...
It has been using HTML5 for quite some time but it doesn't support all of the HTML5 features just yet (try html5test.com; the score will be below 400 which is 75 points of the max score of 475).

Firefox does NOT use/support H.264!!! They are still using Google's WebM and Ogg Theora (again, try html5test.com but also take a look in the changelog: no mention of H.264). Mozilla is debating if they should adopt H.264 or not and playing around with some stuff. They have announced that the mobile version of Firefox will be using the plugin structure from Android and thus the ability to use H.264. They are debating if something similar should happen to the desktop version. So there is only talk about allowing H.264 content but you can't use it yet! Check out the following discussion: hardware-accelerated audio/video decoding in Gecko (bug 714408).

@bp1000: funny, I have the exact opposite: Safari will eat away memory after running 1 day without any extensions whatsoever. Firefox keeps its mem usage at a certain level. When we compare responsiveness Safari will lose by miles because it is very sluggish compared to Firefox. Chrome is something I refuse to run because of the Google stuff in it.
 
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