Firefox upgrade a risky proposition
- TAGS:browser, Firefox, Mozilla
- IT TOPICS:Applications, Desktop Apps, Internet, Windows
How many times has this happened to you? You're working away, doing your thing, when suddenly a message pops up telling you that a new and improved version of this or that program is just a click away. What do you do?
In my case, after several notifications and alerts, I finally relented and let Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1 onto my machine. Sigh. For the past week and a half the upgrade has been freezing in odd ways.
I like to open multiple tabs. Sometimes all of the tabs freeze up except for the original, left-most one. At other times the entire Firefox application freezes. Also, several plug ins no longer work and updates aren't available yet.
For a few days I switched to Google's new browser, Chrome, but that had its own weirdness. For example, when I attempted to create a new blog posting here, a pop-up that lets you add a URL came up as an empty box.
The night before last I finally got around to cleaning up my machine. I removed unnecessary programs, then removed Firefox, rebooted and reinstalled it from scratch. So far so good.
Nothing ever seems to just work out of the box on a Windows PC, so I have to wonder: Are upgrades like Firefox 3.0.1 really worth the bother? The new features are nice, but if it ain't in need of fixin' why break it? Next time I think I'll just pass and go for stability.
Free Insider Guide