Firefox 16 taken offline

The latest version of Mozilla's Firefox browser has been taken offline after a security vulnerability was discovered:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19909106

 

I knew I should have waited for the usual FX.0.1 release.

Honestly, this is the price that Mozilla are paying for their Chrome-style rapid release cycle. Could Firefox be getting any more Chrome-like? Unfortunately it also affects SeaMonkey.

I'm writing this in Chrome, now the default browser on my notebook. If I'm using my x64 machine I'm normally in Opera.

 

That's good to know. Either way I'll wait for the fix.

 

I got turned off of IE 7/8 after its poor performance on my slightly underpowered notebook. Firefox 2 was a revelation in speed & efficiency. Then Fx 3 was nothing but trouble for me so I looked at alternatives. I've never gone back to IE. IE 9 x64 is pretty fast on my desktop, but it's been so long since I've really used IE I just fell out of the habit.

 

Just gone from 15.0.1 to 16.0.1 without any dramas. I obviously didn't have to worry about version 16.0.0.

I've had a preference for Mozilla for quite some time. Started with late version 1 I think and have progressed with them right through.
Used in Windows 98 / SE ME, XP Home & Pro and Vista.
We (wife & I) had to change recently to gmail and couldn't get used to their email setup as we were so used to Thunderbird - now gmail is our server and Thunderbird is our client and it all works very smoothly. Neil.

 

Why is it that Mozilla has to patch the browser to x.1 immediately after only a few days of x.0 ? Has been happening repeatedly since ver 14 I think.

So I just don't bother about x.0 & go for the latest beta. At least I know that its a beta.

 

Yeah, I kept saying that, but I still updated before the now obligatory x.1. It's not even a joke any more. Mozilla should stop trying to emulate Chrome. I think that they are actually alienating users because of this 'Chromification' of Firefox.

 

I've used FF since its inception, but I do NOT like the way it now looks and behaves "out of the box ". It's true beauty, though, is that it's almost infinitely configurable, unlike most of the other browsers out there.

I use the release version (16.0.1), Aurora (the alpha build, 18.0a2), and Waterfox (15.0, the 64-bit version) interchangeably. Despite its being an alpha build, I've found Aurora to be as stable and reliable as the release version, and if Waterfox offers any real advantages over the others, I haven't found them.

I still must use IE for certain sites (even though I'd prefer not to) and, despite Microsoft's current advertising, IE seems no faster and is, in many cases, slower than FF. That's purely subjective, of course. FF is, and will remain, my browser of choice.

 

To be honest, I think that aesthetically it (the GUI) has improved 'out of the box'. There certainly isn't anything else that comes close for sheer customisation. I'm a little concerned about security these days, but WOT & NoScript are de rigueur IMO.

I ran Waterfox for a while on my desktop PC, I agree that there doesn't seem to be any real advantages over Fx, excepting maybe some security issues perhaps. I think that it was the novelty of a 64 bit browser that attracted me to it. I uninstalled it for a variety of reasons, notwithstanding that it isn't really that AMD friendly any more. I replaced it with a clean install of Firefox. I tend to use Opera x64 on my desktop if I want to surf in 64 bit now.

I hardly ever use IE 9 x64. It seems responsive enough. I guess I was just a bit 'spoiled' by Firefox four years ago & I have never really found an alternative. Ironically, I'm writing this in Chrome LOL!

 

I just tried to downgrade from FF 16 to 15.0.1 and did so successfully. But when I close FF and reopen it, I am automatically updated to 16 again.
How can I stop that from happening?

 

Leave it alone. They have fixed it. This thread is 2 weeks old and all is well now until the next time.

 

Maybe faster, but it is more unsecure than the first release of 16. It was all patched except for a couple of things.

 

Still haven't experienced any problems and we're on 16.0.2 Cheers Neil.

 

Unfortunately, any security problems in Firefox will usually be in SeaMonkey as well, as they use the same rendering engine (Gecko).

 

thanks