Mozilla upgrade objection.

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Corliss
  • Start date Start date
J

John Corliss

I've been wanting to upgrade to a newer version of Mozilla for some
time, but unless you take certain measures in advance, that's a
tedious process that *can* (note: not necessarily *will*) easily
result in your losing such things as your bookmark collection and any
saved email. There is a dearth of information about upgrading Moz
versions in a way to prevent this kind of loss, but I did find:

http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.0/faq/general.html#1.2

and this:

http://mozilla.gunnars.net/mozfaq_use.html

(scroll down to "Upgrading:")

and this:

http://www.aezula.com/bloggy/archives/000064.html

When I recently upgraded IE from version 5.5 to 6, the process was
effortless and kept all my settings as well as the favorites (note
that I don't use IE unless I absolutely must though.) In contrast, the
upgrading process for Mozilla is a real pain in the neck.

To a certain degree, it's understandable why they're doing this. Total
uninstalls of older versions leads to clean installs of nightly builds
for developers. This prevents spurious bugs.

In that vein, I realize Mozilla is not supposed to be an "end user
product", but because of the forthcoming demise of Netscape, the
people who are running the project need to think about such obstacles
to easy usage of their *final versions*. Their funding could improve
if more new people started using the non-alpha/beta versions of their
program because of easier upgrading.

And yes, I did post this to as well.

--
Regards from John Corliss
alt.comp.freeware F.A.Q.:
http://www.ccountry.net/~jcorliss/F.A.Q./FrameSet1.html
Note that I can't see any of Andy Mabbett's troll posts
because I have him killfiled.
 
And said:
In that vein, I realize Mozilla is not supposed to be an
"end user product", but because of the forthcoming demise
of Netscape, the people who are running the project need to
think about such obstacles to easy usage of their *final
versions*. Their funding could improve if more new people
started using the non-alpha/beta versions of their program
because of easier upgrading.
Click to expand...

Mozilla.org is way ahead of you, John.

1.4.1 and 1.5 RC can be installed without uninstalling the
other versions first.

--
:-) Christopher Jahn
:-(

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/xjahn/Main.html

After a number of decimal places, nobody gives a damn.
 
John Corliss said:
I've been wanting to upgrade to a newer version of Mozilla for some
time, but unless you take certain measures in advance,
Click to expand...
Good Lord; now, you've gone and pushed my paranoia button :-(...
Seems to me that I upgraded from v1.3->v1.4, uneventfully, online. Since
the website's download instructions for the win32 product make no
mention of uninstalling previous versions so I plan to use the online
upgrading dealie again. I have two mozillla (browser-only) profiles on a
single-user wintel (98se) platform. Guess I better follow your links to
determine how paranoid to be, eh?
news:netscape.mozilla.user.win32
Click to expand...
Does this mean that that I should be able to request if group from
my regular newsreading service?
 
Christopher said:
Mozilla.org is way ahead of you, John.

1.4.1 and 1.5 RC can be installed without uninstalling the
other versions first.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That's pretty much what I was told in the
netscape.mozilla.user.win32 group. Think I'm going to wait for 1.5 final.

--
Regards from John Corliss
alt.comp.freeware F.A.Q.:
http://www.ccountry.net/~jcorliss/F.A.Q./FrameSet1.html
Note that I can't see any of Andy Mabbett's troll posts
because I have him killfiled.
 
Derald said:
Good Lord; now, you've gone and pushed my paranoia button :-(...
Seems to me that I upgraded from v1.3->v1.4, uneventfully, online. Since
the website's download instructions for the win32 product make no
mention of uninstalling previous versions so I plan to use the online
upgrading dealie again. I have two mozillla (browser-only) profiles on a
single-user wintel (98se) platform. Guess I better follow your links to
determine how paranoid to be, eh?


Does this mean that that I should be able to request if group from
my regular newsreading service?
Click to expand...

No, that group is on one of Netscape's servers. You should be able to
set up an account for that server though. Try clicking on the link and
see what happens. Shouldn't hurt anything to try. 80)>

However, others have pointed out to me both in that group and here
that there is now easier upgrading since ver. 1.4.

I'm using 1.3, but I'm going to wait for 1.5 final. Still, I regularly
back up my bookmarks and profile, so there isn't much risk except for
losing the tweaks I've made. Not sure if backing up the prefs.js file
does any good.

--
Regards from John Corliss
alt.comp.freeware F.A.Q.:
http://www.ccountry.net/~jcorliss/F.A.Q./FrameSet1.html
Note that I can't see any of Andy Mabbett's troll posts
because I have him killfiled.
 
And said:
No, that group is on one of Netscape's servers. You should
be able to set up an account for that server though. Try
clicking on the link and see what happens. Shouldn't hurt
anything to try. 80)>

However, others have pointed out to me both in that group
and here that there is now easier upgrading since ver. 1.4.

I'm using 1.3, but I'm going to wait for 1.5 final. Still,
I regularly back up my bookmarks and profile, so there
isn't much risk except for losing the tweaks I've made. Not
sure if backing up the prefs.js file does any good.
Click to expand...

1.4.1 is worth the upgrade now - it has the Junk Mail Tool, and
fixes the resource leak found in earlier releases.

--
:-) Christopher Jahn
:-(

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/xjahn/Main.html

Let him who takes the Plunge remember to return it by Tuesday.
 
I'm using 1.3, but I'm going to wait for 1.5 final. Still,
1.4.1 is worth the upgrade now - it has the Junk Mail Tool, and
fixes the resource leak found in earlier releases.
Click to expand...

Plus, it has a spell checker. Someone mentioned that it is the latest
stable version of Mozilla. I tried the RC1 of version 5, but actually
prefer 1.4.1. It's a keeper.
 
Christopher Jahn wrote (regarding upgrading Mozilla):
(clipped)
1.4.1 is worth the upgrade now - it has the Junk Mail Tool, and
fixes the resource leak found in earlier releases.
Click to expand...

Christopher,
Thanks, but my ISP deals nicely with spam by using SpamAssassin:

"SpamAssassin is a wonderful open source product that performs
heuristic spam analysis and RBL lookups, among other tests, to allow
you to block most spam mail. In its default form, it is designed and
written for Unix platforms."

About one spam gets through a month, and I deal with those personally
80(>
Click to expand...

I've never had any resource leak problems with 1.3.

As for a spell checker, I use this one:

http://www.beonex.com/communicator/version/0.8/add-ons/binaries/spellcheck/

It works perfectly for me.

Still gonna wait for 1.5 final.

--
Regards from John Corliss
alt.comp.freeware F.A.Q.:
http://www.ccountry.net/~jcorliss/F.A.Q./FrameSet1.html
Note that I can't see any of Andy Mabbett's troll posts
because I have him killfiled.
 
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