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Fred
Firefox 3.6 is still fully supported, and may be supported
longer than many think, because Firefox 7 and higher
are problematic in various older systems, which are
still supported and used by many.
Using a K-Meleon based on Firefox 3.6 is probably
much safer than using a Firefox 11 Nightly, whose
Gecko has not been tested at all by a wider user group.
Fred
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Fred
Firefox 3.6 is still fully supported, and may be supported
longer than many think, because Firefox 7 and higher
are problematic in various older systems, which are
still supported and used by many.
Using a K-Meleon based on Firefox 3.6 is probably
much safer than using a Firefox 11 Nightly, whose
Gecko has not been tested at all by a wider user group.
Fred
Quote
Fred
Firefox 3.6 is still fully supported, and may be supported
longer than many think, because Firefox 7 and higher
are problematic in various older systems, which are
still supported and used by many.
Fred
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bksening
I would just like to ask which are these various older systems which Firefox 7 and higher are problematic with?
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Type Inference
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/109707-firefox-9-released-javascript-performance-improved-by-20-30
Firefox 9.0 Final released, much much faster than outdated and obsolete Firefox 3.6 and K-Meleon.
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Type Inference
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/109707-firefox-9-released-javascript-performance-improved-by-20-30
Firefox 9.0 Final released, much much faster than outdated and obsolete Firefox 3.6 and K-Meleon.
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bksening
Thanks for the replies rodocop and Fred.
I have already previously read the link rodocop referenced. The only system I see mentioned there is Windows XP SP2 on a Compaq, ie. a non-official system that is running past EOL (ie. End of Life), which for XPSP2 is July 13, 2010.
The other systems mentioned by Fred are Linux Hardy (ie. v.8 series). Wow, I did not know official support for Desktop Hardy has stopped. Does that include official support for all Hardy LTS (long-term support) Desktop versions?
But it gives me more thought to one of your comments just a few back about "Firefox 3.6 is still fully supported". The Windows requirements for Firefox 3.6 vs. FF 7/8 have not changed. It's still Win2k, XP, 2k3, Vista, and Seven (and I would not try an EOL version). I do not know of any specific issues where FF 7/8 are critically problematic on any officially supported Windows platform.
The Linux requirements between Firefox 3.6 and FF 7/8 are almost identical.
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/3.6/system-requirements/
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/7.0/system-requirements/
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/8.0/system-requirements/
(In fact, the Linux requirements for FF 4/5/6/7/8 are all identical.)
The only extra requirement for FF 4/5/6/7/8 is libstdc++ 4.3 or higher. Do some of the older Linux systems have an older version of libstdc++ ? Unfortunately, such older Linux systems are no longer officially supported. Other than that, I'm not sure of any specific issues where FF 7/8 are critically problematic on any officially supported Linux platform either.
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rodocop
It's not about OFFICIAL support for OSes. Mozilla must take care of really existing consumer's system configs even after official EOL - because they are widely used in real life.
Drop supporting your old customers may lead to massive lost of market share of product so Mozilla would support older FF for some time.
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4td8s
well rodocop, you better hope Mozilla doesn't compile/make future versions of Firefox using MS Visual Studio 2010, which requires WinXP SP2 or better. there is some talk that Mozilla may plan to switch to MS VS 2010.
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rodocop
But KM hadn't mastered even GRE 2.0 so it has 'improvement space' at least up to Gecko 8-9 without losing compatibility :-)
More thoughts I'll keep to myself as I'm not a programmer...
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bksening
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rodocop
But KM hadn't mastered even GRE 2.0 so it has 'improvement space' at least up to Gecko 8-9 without losing compatibility :-)
More thoughts I'll keep to myself as I'm not a programmer...
Because KM should really "improve" for GRE 2.0, an outdated and slow rendering engine???? Is that something actually desired? Will it even be practical?
My other post was responding to the previous comment "Firefox 3.6 is still fully supported", which is talking about official support for FF versions, which actually is all about official support for the OSes they run on. I actually find it funny that Mozilla lists Win2K as a supported version, because that is end-of-life as well. Microsoft won't be providing support if any issues are found with Win2K.
And now FF3.6 is slated for EOL in April 2012, and an Extended Support Release (ESR) will be created based on FF10. At that point there will no longer be any Mozilla support for FF3.6.
roposal" rel="nofollow" >https://wiki.mozilla.org/Enterprise/Firefox/ExtendedSupportroposal
What kind of development will KM see in the next 4 months? Where will KM be headed after that? Hopefully KM will at least move to code based on FF10, instead of trying to work with FF3.6 code which is outdated and soon will not be supported anymore.
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bksening
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rodocop
But KM hadn't mastered even GRE 2.0 so it has 'improvement space' at least up to Gecko 8-9 without losing compatibility :-)
More thoughts I'll keep to myself as I'm not a programmer...
Because KM should really "improve" for GRE 2.0, an outdated and slow rendering engine???? Is that something actually desired? Will it even be practical?
My other post was responding to the previous comment "Firefox 3.6 is still fully supported", which is talking about official support for FF versions, which actually is all about official support for the OSes they run on. I actually find it funny that Mozilla lists Win2K as a supported version, because that is end-of-life as well. Microsoft won't be providing support if any issues are found with Win2K.
And now FF3.6 is slated for EOL in April 2012, and an Extended Support Release (ESR) will be created based on FF10. At that point there will no longer be any Mozilla support for FF3.6.
roposal" rel="nofollow" >https://wiki.mozilla.org/Enterprise/Firefox/ExtendedSupportroposal
What kind of development will KM see in the next 4 months? Where will KM be headed after that? Hopefully KM will at least move to code based on FF10, instead of trying to work with FF3.6 code which is outdated and soon will not be supported anymore.
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ndebord
As Mozilla Corp. is really no longer as committed to open source as it was in the past, they have made it harder for 3rd party offshoots to survive. Embed, for all its problems, was a good thing for Mozilla Org's open source reputation
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bksening
@guenter, are you sure KM 1.6 can be finished without changing C code? Isn't that what desga2 is working on in the Beta version thread? Isn't C/C++ coding required to fix the setdefault stuff? Isn't the lack of a coder the whole reason 1.6/1.7 have been in Beta/Alpha for years?
By the way, there is no such thing as GRE 3.5. If I am correct, KM 1.6 uses Gecko 1.9.1, and KM 1.7 uses Gecko 1.9.2. FF4 is based on GRE 2.0, and the next version of GRE after that is v.5, and then onwards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko_(layout_engine)#Usage
Regarding EOL software, that's just the way life is. I agree older EOL versions that no longer receive security patches are at risk for newer found vulnerabilities, but the EOL announcements are publicly made and users have to deal with it, each in their own ways. This applies to the EOL Windows OS'es and to the EOL Firefox versions and their associated GRE's, which in 4 months will be anything less than FF/GRE10.