Firefox 18.0 Final

[DSC]

Mozilla has released Firefox 18.0 Final with IonMonkey compiler.

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/18.0/releasenotes/

 

[Arwin]

I have no idea how good the release really is, but I'm having a huge problem taking it seriously because of the ridiculous version numbering.

 

[Gubbi]

I have no idea how good the release really is, but I'm having a huge problem taking it seriously because of the ridiculous version numbering.

Seconded.

Google started though, Chrome is up to version 23 (and 24 beta and 25 dev).

Cheers

 

[Brad Grenz]

Seconded.

Google started though, Chrome is up to version 23 (and 24 beta and 25 dev).

Cheers

Yeah, but Google barely even surfaces versions anymore. It just updates itself behind the scenes constantly. Mozilla should probably adopt that approach.

 

[Gubbi]

Yeah, but Google barely even surfaces versions anymore. It just updates itself behind the scenes constantly. Mozilla should probably adopt that approach.

Haven't they already ? My FF just upgrades.

The problem with Firefox is that they change the API around regularly with these releases.

A friend of mine, who works at a major anti-virus product vendor, hates them for it.

Cheers

 

[Grall]

Google started though, Chrome is up to version 23 (and 24 beta and 25 dev).

...And in the other extreme of the spectrum, MS is still staunchly refusing to update, period. IE9 is still what's being offered, a million years roughly after release.

 

[Gubbi]

...And in the other extreme of the spectrum, MS is still staunchly refusing to update, period. IE9 is still what's being offered, a million years roughly after release.

So you believe there is a ton of new shit in every update when the major version number changes?

Fell free to detail the major additions made to FF from version 3.5 to 18.

Cheers

 

[I.S.T.]

So you believe there is a ton of new shit in every update when the major version number changes?

Fell free to detail the major additions made to FF from version 3.5 to 18.

Cheers

I don't think he was arguing that...

 

[Arwin]

...And in the other extreme of the spectrum, MS is still staunchly refusing to update, period. IE9 is still what's being offered, a million years roughly after release.

Windows 8 and the 360 use IE10 though? Which was confirmed not to be supported on older platforms I think?

 

[AlexV]

Windows 8 and the 360 use IE10 though? Which was confirmed not to be supported on older platforms I think?

I think that IE10 will be there for Windows 7, they have a release preview of that available.

 

[Grall]

So you believe there is a ton of new shit in every update when the major version number changes?

Who said anything about that? My point was, MS has updated FUCKALL for two years now, and IE9's HTML5 is well documented as deficient. Heck, even 10's isn't class leading from what I seem to recall. So even if mozilla and guggle has only made little in the ways of updating, little > nothing.

Fell free to detail the major additions made to FF from version 3.5 to 18.

I'm gonna pass, especially with that attitude of yours. I don't even use FF, and haven't for quite a few years now.

Windows 8 and the 360 use IE10 though?

Don't really feel like having to buy and install an entirely new OS just to be graced with a new browser version from MS. While they're bringing out 10 for win7 they're taking their bloody sweet time with it, there doesn't even seem to be a public timetable for when they intend to release it, and the preview version worked poorly on my system, so that one isn't an option right now.

Seems like MS is doing all they can to forcibly steer people towards win8 by deliberately holding back features and updates. Hope that shit backfires on them. From what I've read, win8 sales are less than impressive, which makes me happy.

 

[Arwin]

I think that IE10 will be there for Windows 7, they have a release preview of that available.

Yeah, that's true.

They probably had to rush a bit to get it out for Windows 8, especially considering that the RT and Win8 versions are basically two different pieces of software?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Who said anything about that? My point was, MS has updated FUCKALL for two years now, and IE9's HTML5 is well documented as deficient. Heck, even 10's isn't class leading from what I seem to recall. So even if mozilla and guggle has only made little in the ways of updating, little > nothing.

They do update though. Just not any major feature updatres. Some of those FF version upgrades are just security fixes, IIRC, which are basically the same as security updates to IE that you get through Windows update.

Considering I'm still using IE 8 (with a whitelist to protect against security holes) on 2 machines due to the superior interface, IE 9 on another, and IE 10 on my tablet. I'm not really feeling any sort of deficit.

Hell, I still use IE 9 over Chrome which is also installed on 2 machines. Perhaps some sites render better. But I honestly never notice if Chrome is rendering things better than IE9. Though technically better, for all intents and purposes, it basically is the same. IE 8 on the other hand. Yeah at some point I'm going to have to ditch it. But the search field is just too useful for work to stop using it.

Regards,
SB

 

[Blazkowicz]

With Firefox's release scheme, there's a nice side effect if you use Linux.
Given there is zero support for older versions (except ESR versions such as Firefox 10) distros such as ubuntu and mint are forced to upgrade the browser for security. (btw it's up to the distro to upgrade all your software for fixes, so FF never nags you)

So you're not stuck for years with the same 3.0 or 3.6 while the rest of the world moves on.
Using 3.0.x (while x building up to a big number) for years on Ubuntu 8.04 was not particulary pleasant, esp. at the end.
or Debian Squeeze with its Firefox 3.5, in the day it was fashionable to cling to 3.6 instead of using Firefox 4 then 5 and 6..

I was like, "crap, this old bug with middle mouse scrolling again", suffering the slowness and crashes.
On debian stable, you can use Firefox 10 ESR (it's at some version like 10.0.0.8) after adding a backports repository. For Windows there's probably a setup.exe to download somewhere.

Firefox's scheme is not that bad, considering the browser only gets faster and more stable, and the UI never changes (it's even 95% the same as in version 3.0 if you move the buttons around)