Firefox 3.5 was released to the masses on June 30th and as usual certain extensions have since come up as incompatible. And as usual the Mozilla blame game is afoot with a number of Firefox users complaining that one or more of the 30 (more or less) extensions they have installed are no longer compatible and why the heck didn’t Mozilla take care of this while 3.5 was still in testing?
Why?
Because Mozilla is not responsible for extension compatibility, that’s why.
Now most Firefox users probably know this but there’s a very vocal group who apparently don’t. While I can understand that finding your favorite extension no longer usable can be very aggravating it’s rather important to make sure you know where you’re aiming before you start shooting flame and blame. As to who’s responsible for what is rather simple really:
Mozilla is responsible for Firefox development, security and bug fixing, that’s it.
Extension authors are responsible for their respective extension(s), even if it’s Google.
Mozilla decided to build an extension framework into their browser long ago but left it up to third party programmers to make use of it. Mozilla was good enough to host these extensions and later provided a set of standards that these extension authors must adhere to in order for their extension to be hosted. But Mozilla is neither responsible for any extension downloaded from the Firefox Add-ons site nor that any given extension is compatible with any particular version of Firefox.
As it stands, the majority of the most popular extensions were already updated before the final release date. Even many of the close seconds haven’t had a problem with 3.5 but for any extension that hasn’t been updated you’ll need to contact the extension’s author directly.
I haven’t posted anything to GMG for quite awhile and for those who may have wondered where I got to suffice to say that one of the disabilities that I mention in my now badly out of date About page above took a turn for the worse and kept me from running 2 blogs at the same time. Had to take a health break in other words.
I’ve recently had surgery on this rather troublesome service related type disability and here’s hoping that I can get back more regular posting here. I really should begin by rewriting the about page to more reflect what this site is really about–a place to vent my technical spleen. Sort of a cross between a tech blog and a semi-personal one. Semi personal meaning semi-subjective tech related rants, opinions, observations and the like.
Looking forward to getting things moving along here in the very near future. Stay tuned.
Tags: disabilities, disability, GMG
In case you haven’t heard by now there is no further support offered for Firefox 2.0.* in the way of updates from Mozilla and, as of January 20th, 2009, Google turned off it’s phishing protection for the browser as well. For those that are still hanging on to the previous version of the browser the time has come to upgrade or be open to future attacks.
The current Firefox 3 series is by far a superior browser to version 2 in just about every way and it’s pretty much a safe bet by now that all of your favorite extensions you’re using in Firefox 2 are now supported for Firefox 3 with the possible exception of extensions no longer supported by the author. If one of your extensions is no longer supported by the author there’s not much the makers of Firefox can do about it.
The Internet has always been a dangerous place to cruise around in unprotected especially these days when phishing attacks and malicious advertisements are in abundance everywhere. Hijacks to innocent looking sites or duplications of well known sites is hardly uncommon in these times as well. And even as careful as I am I’ve found myself saved more than once by the built in protection afforded by Firefox 3.0.* and the Firefox 3.1 nightly builds. Much to my surprise I might add.
You can’t afford to take any chances these days and holding on to the older versions of Firefox or any other browser is just asking for trouble. And as always when upgrading from one major version of software to another, I recommend starting with a clean slate.
You can easily do this by exporting your current bookmarks from Firefox 2 first. Then take the time to check to see if your extensions are still listed on the Mozilla Add-ons site and what versions of Firefox they support. If one of your current extensions in no longer actively supported then chances are there’s a equivalent substitute available. You might also find that Firefox 3 already supports a feature or function natively that was once added by an extension in Firefox 2 so it’s worth checking that as well.
Once you’re satisfied with the availability of extensions then it’s just a matter of uninstalling the old browser and installing the new, importing your bookmarks and reinstalling your extensions. A bit of your time for a clean start is always worthwhile especially in the light that although Firefox 3 may look mostly the same up front, it’s a whole different ballgame underneath.
Note: If you happen to be one of the users that encounter high CPU usage when a site is loaded into a tab in Firefox 3 then you’ll need to take a minute and setup this easy fix. The problem occurs with certain combinations of hardware of any given computer but was not isolated as to which by the time Firefox 3 hit the streets Not all users are affected.
Firefox 3.1 nightly builds and the up and coming Firefox 3.1 beta 3 (in testing now) have this problem fixed thankfully.
WordPress 2.7 has been released to the world and for those of you who are on the brink of upgrading to WordPress 2.7 but are uncertain of getting lost in all the new UI changes, take a look at this new video of what you can expect when you log into the 2.7 Admin for the first time.
And just to put you at ease, everything you are currently used to in your present WordPress Admin is still there and easily found in 2.7. Just expand the left hand menu bar if it’s not already and then expand each section downward. In 5 minutes or less and you’ll be cruising the 2.7 Admin easily.
Also, along with all the new features you’re going to find adorning the different Admin pages there’s a lot of “interconnectedness” in the Admin now that hasn’t been there previously. But you’ll find that out for yourself as you discover all the wonderful new functions and features that 2.7 brings.
Tags: 2.7 UI, WordPress 2.7
I just took a peek into the WordPress roadmap for 2.7 and I was more than surprised that there are only 12 tickets left open for this new version. That has to be the fewest open tickets left for any build of WordPress that I’ve ever seen–by far!
Understanding how the system works here, having a 3 or 4 dozen “non-blocking” tickets left open when a new milestone is released is hardly unusual for any type of software and WordPress is no exception. I’ve seen well over a hundred tickets left open when previous versions of WordPress went “gold”. Some of these tickets are pushed to the next minor update and some to the next milestone and it’s completely normal to do things this way.
In the case of this next milestone of WordPress the developers are obviously not letting this one out on the streets until they’re absolutely satisfied with it. Over 650 tickets will have been closed before 2.7 is released to WordPress users all over the world and it’s well worth the wait, believe me. I’m actually betting certain others that the moment that 2.7 is released, all open tickets will have been closed with zero remaining and that has to be a first in WordPress history.
And for those who have been running the “cutting edge” trunk of 2.7 or 2.7 RC1 on your sites and are not on the wp-testers mailing list, you’ll find a notification to upgrade to the final of 2.7 when you log into your Admin after the final version has been released. You’ll then be able to use the new core auto-upgrade feature in 2.7 to bring you up to the final and off the trunk as far as updates are concerned.
Amazing work by an amazing crew of developers and testers. With 2.7, WordPress will have finally come of age.
Tags: upgrading wordpress, WordPress 2.7
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