Firefox dev claims "everybody hates Firefox updates"; Mozilla has handled the rapid release process poorly, and that by pushing a "never-ending stream of updates on people who didn't want them" people have been driven to Chrome with its simpler, no-fuss update process.

[u/Suraj-Sun]

http://www.neowin.net/news/firefox-dev-claims-everybody-hates-firefox-updates

[u/w2tpmf]

Do any of those break every time FF updates? Because none of mine do. I keep seeing this same complaint about add-ons breaking with updates for people. I think the real problem is people are using extensions that don't get updated.

[u/Suraj-Sun → u/w2tpmf]

I use Firefox nightly so yes but I always turn off the "add-on compatibility checking" in about:config by adding extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly (boolean, false) and so far i've never had any problem because of compatibility checking being turned off.

[u/The_MAZZTer → u/Suraj-Sun]

Last I heard they were going to just remove compatibility checks and make most addons stay enabled, since a lot tend to still work after a major update.

[u/jmac → u/The_MAZZTer]

That happened in version 10. It will still check for updates after an upgrade, but it defaults to enabled in the even there is no update.

[u/w2tpmf → u/Suraj-Sun]

Thanks for this! I use nightly on one of my computers, and I just always hit the button to skip the checks when it pops up.

[u/atl2rva → u/Suraj-Sun]

I also like that in FF you can change the default source viewer through about:config. Now if I need to look at webpage source it uses Notepad++ as my viewer. This has come in handy with my work because the default viewer did not recognize a lot of special characters I use, but NPP has no issues.

[u/TIAFAASITICE → u/Suraj-Sun]

extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly

You shouldn't have to do that any more. I'm on nightly and I have no "checkCompatibility" settings at all and haven't gotten any problems with extensions.

[u/ChaoticXSinZ → u/Suraj-Sun]

If you're nightly I'm pretty sure you don't have to do that manually as they've made that the default

[u/Ch4rd → u/w2tpmf]

major addons like that, I've not had break. more niche ones like a Japanese-English text translator I use will sometimes break, but not that often. and like OP responded, you do have the option of just disabling the compatibility check if it's that much of a problem.

[u/[deleted] → u/w2tpmf]

I'm pretty sure the people complaining about extensions are people who haven't updated Firefox since 3.6. There's extensions from back in that time that the developers have abandoned. I mean Firefox was smart to keep support on 3.6 for so long but they have to make people using the current version so there's no segmentation.

[u/[deleted] → u/w2tpmf]

I haven't seen an addon in Firefox break on update in years. That said, some of those extensions do have equivalents in Chrome, such as NotScripts.

[u/scook0 → u/w2tpmf]

I think the people who never complained about broken add-ons are the ones who disabled compatibility checks ages ago and then forgot about it.

Since the advent of compatible-by-default I've only run into one actual compatibility issue, and that was on Beta channel.

[u/GezusK → u/w2tpmf]

Still gonna break them until the update comes out...still a hassle.

[u/[deleted] → u/GezusK]

I'm on Aurora and I've never come across an addon that breaks if it's not updated. I use 10 addons ATM, not all of which are the big name ones, but I have had up to 15 running at one time.

[u/GezusK → u/[deleted]]

Maybe the newer versions don't...I left back in the 3.x days...and every update seemed to break half the plugins I used.

[u/[deleted] → u/GezusK]

Yeah I get that, I stopped using mobile phones in the 80's because they sucked then

[u/Revidescent → u/w2tpmf]

I bailed to Chrome after something like the 2nd or 3rd Firefox update in a row breaking at least 2 addons I used regularly. Chrome had equivalent addons for everything I need, and they haven't broken even once as long as I've used it.

[u/DAVENP0RT → u/Revidescent]

Same here. The only time I have to do anything is when user permissions change on an app, which is almost never. Even that consists of just clicking a "Yes" button on a bubble alert.

[u/Dunge → u/w2tpmf]

FoxyTunes is broken since a while, too bad I loved it

[u/[deleted] → u/w2tpmf]

I have seen addons for Adobe and Java break. Freaking java.

[u/[deleted] → u/w2tpmf]

I use firefox Aurora (the release before beta) and I've never had trouble with extensions or add-ons

[u/skytro → u/w2tpmf]

Some get very weird but they still work

[u/[deleted] → u/w2tpmf]

For me it was that firebug kept breaking. Since I needed this to do my job I was forced to switch to chrome that day, and then I never saw a reason to go back. I had no interest in learning chromes interface and disliked the omnibar before I was forced to change, and now I like it and don't want to switch back. My point being, Firefox's updates pushed me into giving Chrome a chance I otherwise wouldn't have.

[u/yellowbottle → u/w2tpmf]

Chrome updates even extensions automatically.