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Like Google's Chrome, Mozilla To Silently Update Firefox 4
CWmike writes "Taking a page from rival Google's playbook, Mozilla plans to introduce silent, behind-the-scenes security updating to Firefox 4. The feature, which has gotten little attention from Mozilla, is currently 'on track' for Firefox 4, slated to ship before the end of the year. Firefox 4's silent update will only be offered on Windows, Mozilla has said. Most updates will be downloaded and installed automatically without asking the user or requiring a confirmation. 'We'll only be using the major update dialog box for changes like [version] 4 to 4.5 or 5," said Alex Faaborg, a principal designer on Firefox, in the 'mozilla.dev.apps.firefox' forum. 'Unfortunately users will still see the updating progress bar on load, but this is an implementation issue as opposed to a [user interface] one; ideally the update could be applied in the background.' Unlike Google, Mozilla will let users change the default silent service to the more traditional mode, where the browser asks permission before downloading and installing any update."
Using a bigger number has got to make the app better, right?
And what if some of your plugins aren't ready for 4? suddenly, websites look different (like maybe a craigslist image laoder stops working), or worse yet your tab extension is borked, and you can't do anything with tabs any more?
Maybe a user doesn't like the new 4.0 look and wants to stay at 3.5?
Give the user a box and ask.
Do not change this behavior!
Don't steal. The government hates competition.
They wouldn't have 2 year old browsers if you turned on "automatic updates" like I did for my brother's machine.
Personally I think Mozilla's silent updates are bullshit. If programmers were perfect, it would be okay, but programmers are human and make mistakes which means sometimes the update will kill a browser (or plugin) and make it unusable. It should be up to ME to decide when to update, not some arrogant asshole saying, "I know what's good for you" and ramming it up my ass.
Opera did this to me - forcing me to upgrade from 10.0 to 10.5, and now 10.5 doesn't run anywhere near as well as 10.0 did. You should not "force" people to do something. In fact if you're using that word - force - then you're automatically doing something wrong. People should be allowed to make their own choices.
C=64_love
----- Pro-Choice on everything.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
You don't see the problem with that? The people that should be using it are the same ones that would likely get that wrong. Whereas the individuals that don't really need to use it would have very little trouble going into the preferences and disabling it.
Opt in isn't always the best choice, especially when the people that most need to opt in are the ones with the least ability to make an informed decision.
as simple as that. i wont upgrade to 4, as long as my software gets updated behind my back. i dont care about the reasons, i dont care about the rationalizations, i dont give a damn about anything else. it is MY computer, MY browser.
Read radical news here
Yes. Silent updates suck. Well at least, for people that want to control their own computer, it does.
But they're only doing this on Windows, so it's for people who've already given up controlling their own computer.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Clutter: too many sub-menus, too many functions, too many shortcuts, too many hidden functions. Hitting something by accident on keyboard or with mouse often is pretty much lethal to the browsing session.
My last problem with Opera was that I was by accident triggering something what was bringing my current tab to the speed dial. Button "->" was active but clicking it was doing nothing. Trying to close tab didn't work. Trying to open a new tab didn't work. The menu button couldn't be pressed. Animations and fancy sh*te was working - but there were no reaction from Opera itself. Mouse gestures are disabled. The only thing I could do was to close the browser. Go figure.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Actually in the case of 10.5, they did. It was impossible to make the "update to 10.5" popup go away. Even when I clicked "no" it just kept coming back again and again.
Probably a programming error, but it nevertheless it left me with no choice.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall