# I Pit Firefox for updating itself twice a week **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 12, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114 "2011-09-12T23:46:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/1 "2011-09-12T23:46:15Z")
Enough is enough! ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/2 "2011-09-12T23:57:15Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > Enough is enough! I wouldn’t mind, except the last couple of updates have rendered Firefox nearly unusable to me. It keeps hanging for 30-60 seconds when I click on bookmarks. Switching to Chrome is becoming more and more likely, but I hate that important add-ons like NoScript don’t work with it. ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/3 "2011-09-13T01:03:49Z")
Yes. Sensing the vibrations of change on the air, Mozilla clearly decided to adopt Google’s policy of frequent Chrome updates — but without seeing to that itty bitty unnecessary detail that such updates should relatively seamless. Who cares if extensions have been rendered unusable due to frequent breakage? Who cares if system administrators can’t keep up? The point is to get those updates out _now_, browser users are waiting with bated breath for the next incremental addition to Firefox’s HTML5 compliance or something. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/4 "2011-09-13T01:09:08Z")
I finally gave up on it 3 weeks ago. Firefox was becoming more and more sluggish with every update and they never did fix that memory leak problem dating back several years. Enough was, as you say, Enough. For the most part, I’ve been happy with my switch to Chrome. It’s a lot snappier and streamlined and has been around long enough now that there are extensions to replace most of the lost functionality I had with Firefox. My one big complaint with Chrome is its shitty tab management and Google’s bloody-minded refusal to allow more user customization of tabs either through extensions or the program itself. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/5 "2011-09-13T02:24:54Z")
Are you guys using FireFox on PCs or Macs? Not having any problems here but I’m on a Mac. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/6 "2011-09-13T02:32:35Z")
> [@Paranoid\_Randroid](#): > > Yes. Sensing the vibrations of change on the air, Mozilla clearly decided to adopt Google’s policy of frequent Chrome updates — but without seeing to that itty bitty unnecessary detail that such updates should relatively seamless. That’s the key, Chrome does it so silently you don’t even know it happens. The version number might be in four digits by now, I have no idea and don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/7 "2011-09-13T02:52:59Z")
Does Chrome have AdBlock Plus? That’s the only FF add-on I really really really won’t do without any more. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/8 "2011-09-13T02:54:47Z")
Yes, it does. ---
**Author:** ![moi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@moi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moi)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/9 "2011-09-13T04:51:21Z")
I’m so glad I’m not the only one. I’ve been mad about Firefox for years, but now it’s just making me mad to use it. The last update did something terrible on my laptop where approx. 40% of web sites just weren’t loading. I eventually did a bunch of tweaks to get it working right again, but it’s never been clear to me what put me in that position in the first place. For my husband, the last update just led to the damn thing crashing and now it won’t load on his PC at all. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/10 "2011-09-13T05:37:13Z")
I tried the update to FF 4, and decided it was too damned annoying. I’m still using 3.6.18, and happily so. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/11 "2011-09-13T05:40:03Z")
Switched to Chrome last week after having Firefox show me that little spinny thing where I sit and wait one time too often. Added adblock plus to Chrome, but it doesn’t work in an incognito window for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/12 "2011-09-13T05:54:47Z")
NoScript isn’t available for Chrome, and that’s important to me. ---
**Author:** ![badlyburnttoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ad7895/32.png) [@badlyburnttoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badlyburnttoast)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/13 "2011-09-13T06:13:01Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > NoScript isn’t available for Chrome, and that’s important to me. I’m not 100% sure what noscript does, but if all it does is block javascript. you don’t need a plugin for that with chrome - it’s right in the options and pretty easy to enable and manage. But, if you insist, there’s a plugin called notscripts you can get here - [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/odjhifogjcknibkahlpidmdajjpkkcfn](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/odjhifogjcknibkahlpidmdajjpkkcfn) which is supposedly very similar to noscript. I’ve never used it myself, though. Edit: IMO, firefox has gotten so bloated, and Microsoft has started to clean up IE enough that I’d rather use IE over FF at this point… but thankfully I don’t have to because chrome is awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/14 "2011-09-13T12:06:48Z")
nevermind. didn’t read closely enough. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/15 "2011-09-13T12:10:44Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > Enough is enough! If you’re satisfied with your current version of FF and want to prevent further automatic updates, go to Tools-\>Options-\>Advanced-\>Update and configure the update settings to your liking. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/16 "2011-09-13T14:30:26Z")
I’ve been using Pale Moon, which is Firefox-ish. Seems to be less of a resource hog, and it uses similar addons like Adblock, etc. Not sure about Noscript. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/17 "2011-09-13T15:35:08Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > Are you guys using FireFox on PCs or Macs? Not having any problems here but I’m on a Mac. I’m on Mac and have gotten tired enough of Firefox to switch to Chrome. (I’d get random hangs and crashes with Firefox, and it seemed like whenever I launched it, I needed yet another update, as the OP complains.) Chrome has given me much fewer problems and annoyances. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/18 "2011-09-13T16:19:03Z")
My Firefox is 3.6.22. I don’t think it’s every _told_ me it’s updating, but I’ve noticed some unexplained and annoying changes recently. Is it updating invisibly? If so, is there a way to disable it from doing so? ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/19 "2011-09-13T16:24:39Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m on Mac and have gotten tired enough of Firefox to switch to Chrome. (I’d get random hangs and crashes with Firefox, and it seemed like whenever I launched it, I needed yet another update, as the OP complains.) Chrome has given me much fewer problems and annoyances. Hmm. I have the occasional issue, but I don’t think any browser can say it’s perfect. Maybe it’s because I’m not using it to do…? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114/20 "2011-09-13T17:26:09Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > Hmm. I have the occasional issue, but I don’t think any browser can say it’s perfect. Maybe it’s because I’m not using it to do…? I’m not using it for anything extreme or odd. It just hangs with certain scripts or maybe Flash content or something. I’ll either get the spinning pinwheel that never resolves or something like an error message that says “a script has become unresponsive,” etc… And, no, it’s not with surfing porn. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-firefox-for-updating-itself-twice-a-week/596114.md?page=2)