To upgrade, or not to upgrade.

Hugh · 30 Jul 2005

OK, just to show you how much of a Dinosaur I am, I just recently changed over to Firefox as my default browser. I'd been using IE for years, but when they went to the new version (9 I think) It just got to be a real pain. Slow, clunky, etc etc)
I'm running Firefox 3.6.24.
I know they're many levels past that now, and I'm wondering if I shouldn't bite the bullet and upgrade. I know I know, but I hate change. Every time I go to something different, I end up spending days trying to dial things in the way I like it. I get frustrated easily.

Will it be worth my time and the headaches to go with the latest version of Firefox?
Not Chrome, not Safari, just Firefox. That's all I'm interested in right now.

Li'l Jay · 28 May 2006

[deleted post about Chrome]

James C. Taylor · 16 Aug 2004

Firefox 8 has improved in quickness to combat Chrome and renders pages very well. Its memory consumption is still a little high but a lot better under control. My work computer won't run the upgrade but my XP and 7 computers at home do, so I think it's something my IT at work has screwed up. At work I run 6, which still works pretty well in the improvement department (the real change, IIRC was from 4 to 5). I say go for it.

Steve · 21 Oct 2004

Yes. Always upgrade the browser. Old versions often have severe memory leak issues and security flaws.

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

If you're running 3.6 version, absolutely. There are serious security issues that have been addressed. You'll probably have to update your add-ons, if you have any, but it does this automatically for you in most cases.

Hugh · 30 Jul 2005

I'll go ahead and try it out. If I don't come back for a while, you'll know I screwed it up! :lol:

Li'l Jay · 28 May 2006

Deleted additional plea to use Chrome, with discussion about how Firefox has changed so much since 3.6, that instead of upgrading and fixing everything, may as well try Chrome.

Hugh · 30 Jul 2005

OK, what's so special about chrome?

Hugh · 30 Jul 2005

And I made it. So far so good, but a few extensions I regularly use aren't compatible. I'll live, but it really made things easier for me.

Li'l Jay · 28 May 2006

Hugh wrote:

OK, what's so special about chrome?

Extremely fast on the load times. Extremely simple and robust on how everything works. And once you learn to use the unified search bar, the power multiplies. One search bar does everything -- either intuitively, or with custom codes you can design.

Rafael · 03 Dec 2006

Hugh wrote:

OK, what's so special about chrome?

It's fast, and it loads faster than Firefox, which over the years became a slow behemoth. The new versions of Firefox were supposedly faster and easier on resources, but I didn't notice it. In any case, FF never played well with my computer, so I finally got tired of the constant freezes and made me look elsewhere.

I'd recommend you try it for a couple of weeks to see if you like it.

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

What add-ons didn't work, Hugh? And what add-ons do you use?

Hugh · 30 Jul 2005

A couple of video download addons, and a couple of useless deals. The one I really liked was Snagit, which allowed me to not only get a screen grab, but to grab the whole page.
I can do screen caps, but I really liked the ability to grab an entire page at at time. I own Snagit, and it has an extension for IE automatically. The Firefox extension was only good for 3.xx.

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

Snagit says it's obsolete and not needed:

Quote:

The Firefox extension for Snagit on Windows will stop working in November 2011. At this time there are no plans to update or maintain the extension.

The primary reason for this decision is that the extension is obsolete with the All-in-One capture mode in Snagit 10, as well as the Scrolling Window (web page) profile and OneClick feature in Snagit 8 and 9.

The extension does not add value in terms of whether the webpage capture is successful or not. In fact, in terms of functionality, there is no difference between clicking the extension and clicking the “big red button” or hotkey in Snagit.

Our recommendations are:

Use the All-in-One capture mode (default hotkey is Print Screen) in Snagit 10.
Use Snagit OneClick (and select Scrolling Window) to have access to a convenient “capture menu” on your screen at all times.
Use the Scrolling Window (web page) profile in Snagit 8 or 9.

You could use the imgur addon, which lets you take selective screenshots of Firefox windows and upload them to imgur.
http://feedback.techsmith.com/techsmith ... or_windows

Li'l Jay · 28 May 2006

Yeah, I was going to point out imgur -- picture grab, area grab, and page grab. All with right click.

Hugh · 30 Jul 2005

I have Imgur. Didn't realize It had that feature though.
'course looking at it, I have to upload the capture to the site instead of my computer. I don't like that too much.
Maybe I'll see about upgrading my Snagit.
It's a lot easier to just click on a page and let the program do all the work, and dl it to my computer.

Steve · 21 Oct 2004

I like Zscreen for that purpose. It's free, and it can output to a file, your clipboard, and an image-sharing site, all simultaneously.

http://code.google.com/p/zscreen/

To upgrade, or not to upgrade.

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