Re: XP & malware

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Even apps get their own security updates -- browsers and Adobe
Flash being the most significant examples. These updates
ceased in April for FF 3.6, which (per my vote) may have been
the apogee of browser design. FF after this went on a highly
accelerated development schedule -- seemingly a new version
every 3 or 4 weeks -- in the course of which they drastically
altered the user interface, and very much for the worse in
my opinion. But, as with XyWrite, one of FireFox's great
virtues is its extreme latitude for customization. I found
some tutorials online that showed me how to *revert* much
of the look and feel of post-version-4 Firefox back to a
serviceable semblance of the look and feel and operation of
version 3.6. (I could post some links, if there is sufficient
interest.)

So, I am now using the "Portable" edition of FF-12, and am
still in the process of adding back most of my key Add-Ons
(a.k.a. Extensions) to further customize it. Portable editions
of Windows apps are untethered from the Windows Registry,
standalone, and readily movable, as the name suggests. This
offers several advantages. I have this portable version 12
coexisting alongside my old installed 3.6. They don't conflict
with each other, although only one could be run at a time.
(If there _are_ such things as portable apps in the Mac or
Linux world, I have not heard of them. Such apps were pretty
scarce in OS/2 as well, even though it did not heavily depend
upon a centralized registry. Toolkits exist to convert most
Win apps to this format.)

The Extensions are basically analogous to Robert and Carl's
U2 library: they add great extra functionality that does not
exist in the base product.


 Jordan


--- On Sun, 5/20/12, Lynn Brenner  wrote:

What is the most recent reliable version of Firefox?

I'm still using Firefox 3.6. (I use Chrome, too, but on balance haven't found it as fast or as
reliable as Firefox.)  I've been reluctant to try one of the more recent versions of Firefox
because so many people have had difficulties with them.

Lynn Brenner