# What is "Growl" and why does Firefox keep pestering me to update it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 22, 2011, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335 "2011-04-22T06:51:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/1 "2011-04-22T06:51:57Z")

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I updated my Firefox browser a few weeks ago and have been pestered daily by reminders to update to the newest version of “Growl.” I don’t recall ever downloading an older version of it, and it doesn’t show up in my app folder. What’s going on? Must I switch over to Safari to stop this badgering? At least they stopped trying to get me to download Rhapsody…

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**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/2 "2011-04-22T07:13:17Z")

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One assumes it is harassing you by popping up a window in the top right corner of the screen. Ironically, it is Growl that is doing the harassing. Growl is the utility that does the popup notifications. Just update it.

Like most things, keeping up to date is one of your protections against exploits. Safari has improved, but its lack of proper script blocking makes it a non starter for me and many others. Growl is used by many other utilities to provide easy pop up notifications as well. It is a reasonably neat utility.

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/3 "2011-04-22T07:44:03Z")

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Forget Firefox. It’s a slow, bloated dinosaur well past its prime and now dying a slow death.

Give [Chrome](http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/landing_chrome.html?hl=en) a try and never worry about updates again – for it or its extensions. It all just happens automatically in the background. It also opens like 5x faster than Firefox.

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**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/4 "2011-04-22T08:09:15Z")

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If you have Growl installed, it’ll be in your System Preferences, not Applications.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/5 "2011-04-22T08:17:27Z")

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> [@Reply](#):
>
> Forget Firefox. It’s a slow, bloated dinosaur well past its prime and now dying a slow death.
> 
> Give [Chrome](http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/landing_chrome.html?hl=en) a try and never worry about updates again – for it or its extensions. It all just happens automatically in the background. It also opens like 5x faster than Firefox.

Firefox autoupdates as well. The only real difference is that Firefox won’t do big updates without asking you first, unlike Chrome which will steal your bandwidth to do its updates even when not running. Even Microsoft lets you switch it to just notifications. But, with Chrome, the only notification I get is my security software telling me that an update program is trying to run.

Oh, and [Growl](http://growl.info/about.php) is not a part of Firefox. Firefox will use it if it’s already installed, but it will not install it itself without asking you (and only asking you exactly once). However, some other programs might. Read [here](http://growl.info/thirdpartyinstallations.php) for more information, including how to uninstall Growl if you don’t want it.

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/6 "2011-04-22T08:33:58Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> Firefox autoupdates as well. The only real difference is that Firefox won’t do big updates without asking you first, unlike Chrome which will steal your bandwidth to do its updates even when not running. Even Microsoft lets you switch it to just notifications.

Which essentially means a bunch of old updates sitting in the system tray / dock that go ignored for weeks if not months.

I’ve seen enough computers this way to believe that anything less than fully automatic updates is worthless when dealing when the average user.

Bandwidth is cheap and invisible when smartly allocated. Constant in-your-face update reminders just make people click cancel.

And Firefox extensions don’t autoupdate worth a damn and they require annoying restarts all the god damned time. Oftentimes there’s nothing wrong with the extensions at all and they work just fine if the manifest is manually updated to a newer version.

IMO, Firefox is fine. Chrome is just much better.

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**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/7 "2011-04-22T10:45:52Z")

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Well, we’ve gone off topic with deciding the best browser, but I did a Google search, and learned a bit about Growl. It’s an updating program ( as was mentioned), and more than a few people are ticked off that programs install it without asking the user. Here’s one such webpage, Wikipedia has similar info. Apparently, Dropbox, Zumo, and Adobe are the major culprits.

[http://growl.info/thirdpartyinstallations.php](http://growl.info/thirdpartyinstallations.php)

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**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/8 "2011-04-22T13:04:14Z")

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Yeah, Growl is a freeware notification service that runs in the background and pops up little floater windows when something happens in an application that knows how to talk to Growl. I find it particularly useful for Mail (a notification pops up whenever a new e-mail comes in, with sender, subject & the first few lines of the message) and with IM clients (Adium notifies me whenever a contact signs on or off.) I love it to pieces, personally, but I’ll acknowledge that your perspective might be different if you don’t know how it got there in the first place.

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**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/9 "2011-04-22T14:23:14Z")

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Thanks, folks. I’ve disabled it. If I start to miss those little pop-ups, I’ll go right back and re-enable it.

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**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/10 "2011-04-22T17:27:44Z")

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Does Chrome have all these extensions?

adblock

download helper(or something like it)

mouse gestures

forecastfox(or something like it)

IE Tab

NoSquint(let’s me increase size of images and font easily)

I use those extensions on Firefox all the time and would miss them.

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**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/11 "2011-04-22T17:34:44Z")

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Does Chrome have something like NoScript?

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**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/12 "2011-04-22T17:44:32Z")

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> [@Reply](#):
>
> Forget Firefox. It’s a slow, bloated dinosaur well past its prime and now dying a slow death.

> [@Reply](#):
>
> IMO, Firefox is fine.

:dubious:

> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> Does Chrome have all these extensions?
> 
> adblock
> 
> download helper(or something like it)
> 
> mouse gestures
> 
> forecastfox(or something like it)
> 
> IE Tab
> 
> NoSquint(let’s me increase size of images and font easily)
> 
> I use those extensions on Firefox all the time and would miss them.

Yeah, if Chrome had most of those extensions plus (especially) NoScript, I might use it - but it doesn’t, so I don’t. FireFox’s extension updates work flawlessly enough for me.

With Chrome, I just get a general feeling of lack of control over things.

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**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:** [April 22, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/13 "2011-04-22T17:50:18Z")

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Yes it does. There’s like 2 extensions I’ve run into that chrome doesn’t have an equivalent for and honestly, it takes 30 seconds to search the extension gallery to see what chrome has. I’ll even give you a link: [Chrome Web Store](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/?hl=en)

Next time, be honest and say that you’re not interested in a different browser rather than trying to make it the browser’s fault.

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**Author:** ![badlyburnttoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ad7895/32.png) [@badlyburnttoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badlyburnttoast)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/14 "2011-04-22T20:16:00Z")

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Auto-updates without notification are one of the biggest problems/annoyances I have with Chrome… however that said it really probably is for the best since so many people NEVER update if they have the option to do it manually and that causes problems for everyone. I can live with it if it means less compromised computers being added to botnets because joe sixpack can’t be bothered to wait 30 seconds to update before downloading his porn.

> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> Does Chrome have all these extensions?
> 
> adblock
> 
> download helper(or something like it)
> 
> mouse gestures
> 
> forecastfox(or something like it)
> 
> IE Tab
> 
> NoSquint(let’s me increase size of images and font easily)
> 
> I use those extensions on Firefox all the time and would miss them.

[adblock](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom)

[mouse gestures](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/jpkfjicglakibpenojifdiepckckakgk)

[forecastfox](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ihffmkcfkejomlfnilnmkokcpgclhfeg)

[IE tab](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/fnfnbeppfinmnjnjhedifcfllpcfgeea)

Nosquint, I assume, makes the text larger - that’s built in, just hold control and press +/- or use the mousewheel to zoom in and out on the page.

Download helper, this is to download youtube (etc) videos right? go [here](http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/3285/google-chrome-use-bookmarklets-to-download-YouTube-videos/) to see how to set it up automatically without downloading anything (easy instructions at the bottom)

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**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/15 "2011-04-22T20:22:49Z")

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I’ll stick with Firefox with ABP and NoScript for now. Nothing ever pops up on my screen on any website. In fact, the only thing that ever pops up on this computer is the notification from Avast! that it has updated itself. Oh, and ‘Updates are ready for this computer’ thingy from Microsoft.

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**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/16 "2011-04-22T21:36:15Z")

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> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> Yes it does. There’s like 2 extensions I’ve run into that chrome doesn’t have an equivalent for and honestly, it takes 30 seconds to search the extension gallery to see what chrome has. I’ll even give you a link: [https://chrome.google.com/extensions/?hl=en](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/?hl=en)
> 
> Next time, be honest and say that you’re not interested in a different browser rather than trying to make it the browser’s fault.

Umm, not quite. Next time, don’t make false assumptions of other people’s motivations. I am not a fanboy, and if I thought Chrome was better, I would certainly use it.

NoScript being the most essential extension for me to use Chrome, I’ll use that as the example. I see there is now something called “NotScript” for Chrome - this did not exist last time I evaluated the feasibility of using Chrome. Nice, let’s check it out.

From [the description](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/odjhifogjcknibkahlpidmdajjpkkcfn?hl=en), we have this:

> [@](#):
>
> “NotScripts uses a unique and novel method to provide this “NoScript” like functionality in Google Chrome that was not previously possible.”  
> **\<snip\>**
> 
> “This is one of the key extensions that many people have been waiting for since Google Chrome came out.”  
> Indeed.  
> **\<snip\>**
> 
> “NOTE: When you install NotScripts, you will be required to set a password for it to use to encrypt site specific settings. Please also ensure that you have Google Chrome’s cookies/local storage setting set to it’s default value for NotScripts to perform effective caching or else you will experience higher than normal reloads.”  
> :dubious:  
> **\<snip\>**
> 
> “NotScripts is inspired by the “NoScript” addon for Firefox and **seeks to emulate it within the limitations of the Google Chrome extensions API.** It is not affiliated with “NoScript“, I just happen to like it’s functionality.”  
> :dubious::dubious:  
> **\<snip\>**
> 
> “Everyone, please help eliminate the need to set a password in NotScripts after each update by starring this Chromium bug report and making a comment in it:” (url redacted)
> 
> “ **The bug report is not just for NotScripts, but is also applicable for many other types of**  **extensions that could benefit from a synchronous messaging API.** The more people that comment and starr that bug report, the better NotScripts will become and the faster I can implement features without annoying people with the need to reset their NotScripts password.”  
> :dubious::dubious::dubious:

Ok, already it doesn’t sound quite as simple and effective as FireFox with NoScript, and there is an inkling there that the whole way Chrome implements extensions is sub-par to FireFox. (Also, a quick glimpse at the user reviews further down the page does not exactly engender confidence.)

So what are these limitations that NotScript has due to the inferior implementation of extensions in Chrome? They’ve got a [“Limitations” page](http://optimalcycling.com/other-projects/notscripts/limitations/) for that on the NotScript website, let’s have a look:

> [@](#):
>
> **LIMITATIONS**  
> “Because of the way the Google Chrome extensions API is structured, there are some limitations to NotScript and these instructions will help you understand them. Before NotScripts, it was not possible for a Google Chrome extension to provide a workable method of script/iframe/plugin blocking with whitelisting capabilities on the same level as that of the popular “NoScript” addon that Firefox users have. Even the methods used by adblock type extensions are not good enough to avoid breaking many sites when used in this case. This is due to the asynchronous nature of Google Chrome extensions where synchronous methods are avoided for performance reasons. NotScripts changes this by cleverly using HTML5 storage caching to overcome the timing issues.”
> 
> "Please note that NotScripts is not a guarantee of security and users should always practice secure web surfing habits. **Currently NotScripts does not provide advanced protection for things such as clickjacking and other methods found in the “NoScript” addon for Firefox and a malicious website may still be able to successfully use such techniques.**
> 
> However, there are 3 main issues with NotScripts at the moment in order of importance:
> 
> **[1] Blocking Deprecated \<APPLET\>\</APPLET\> Elements**  
> NotScripts can block plugins like Flash and Silverlight. However, Java applets are a special case. Java applets embedded with the standard \*\<EMBED\>\</EMBED\> or \*_\<OBJECT\>\</OBJECT\>_ tags can be blocked, **but Java applets embedded with the old, deprecated _\<APPLET\>\</APPLET\>_  
> tags cannot be blocked because Google Chrome does not fire load events for this legacy method. The current workaround is to disable Java in your browser until this can be fixed.**
> 
> **[2] Inline Scripts**  
> All scripts loaded from a source location (the vast majority) can be blocked. **However, inline scripts that are directly written into the HTML code of a web page cannot be blocked by NotScripts because Google Chrome does not fire load events for them.**  
> For example: _\<script src=”[http://example.com/aScriptFile.js”&gt;&lt;/script&gt;](http://example.com/aScriptFile.js%E2%80%9D&gt;&lt;/script&gt;)_ can be blocked without any issues. However, _\<script\>alert(“Hello, World!”);\</script\>_ written directly into the HTML code by the site you are visiting cannot be blocked by NotScripts because it is not loaded from anywhere, it is a direct part of the web page you view. However, these inline scripts are usually useful and are often required for a site to function properly.  
> If you want to, you can set Google Chrome to deny javascript for all sites and use NotScripts to selectively pick the scripts to run on sites you enable javascript on.  
> **UPDATE:** As of NotScripts V0.9.2 there is some inline script mitigation as a stop gap measure.  
> \*\*  
> [3] Caching Reloads\*\*  
> When you visit a web site for the first time with scripting enabled, you may see NotScripts quickly reload it once as it caches the whitelist and refreshes. Subsequently, there is no reloading needed unless you happen to change a part of your whitelist that directly affects the site. This is only a minor issue and happens less and less as NotScripts learns your desired whitelist.

So yeah, not quite ready for prime-time in my book. I use FireFox with NoScript for the added security it provides, along with the ease-of-use and convenience. I applaud the developer of NotScript on his noble efforts, but I’m not about to downgrade on any of those features - particularly the security.

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/17 "2011-04-23T01:41:53Z")

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> [@voltaire](#):
>
> :dubious:

Firefox works just fine – and it was my top choice before Chrome – but Chrome now does most of what Firefox did, just much faster.

I’m not sure about all the extensions. I know I miss FF’s Tab Mix Plus and a few other extensions, but not enough to make me switch back. Even FF 4 is slow as a molasses compared to Chrome (unless you like having a lot of tabs open, in which case FF might be faster… I forget).

Anyway, I don’t want to take this thread much more OT than I already have. Sorry.

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**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:** [April 23, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/18 "2011-04-23T01:58:32Z")

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> [@voltaire](#):
>
> Yeah, if Chrome had most of those extensions plus (especially) NoScript, I might use it - but it doesn’t, so I don’t. FireFox’s extension updates work flawlessly enough for me.

This post is inaccurate in its accusations. I’m sorry notscript doesn’t meet your criteria but you clearly did not do your research when you wrote this.

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**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/19 "2011-04-23T03:10:35Z")

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> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> Next time, be honest and say that you’re not interested in a different browser rather than trying to make it the browser’s fault.

Was this aimed at me? Cause, dude, I was just asking about add-ons.

😕

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**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:** [April 23, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335/20 "2011-04-23T03:13:00Z")

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A little bit but mostly it’s voltaire. I am just confused as to why it’s important that other people look up what extensions chrome has. If anything, just because you’ll get a faster result doing it yourself rather than posting here and hoping someone else googles for you.

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-growl-and-why-does-firefox-keep-pestering-me-to-update-it/579335.md?page=2)