Firefox 2.0 Update To Remove Phishing Detection 351
An anonymous reader writes "Computerworld and others are reporting that Firefox 2.0.0.19, the last security update to be released before 2.0 goes end-of-life, will remove the phishing detection at the request of Google. The browser is using an older version of the Safe Browsing protocol that Google will discontinue. According to the latest NetApplications report, about 25% of all Firefox users were still on version 2.0. This move ought to result in an increased adoption of Firefox 3.0 and other browsers, unless it goes unnoticed by most users."
Re:Why bother? (Score:4, Informative)
Have you checked back to see if your extensions/scripts have been updated to work with FF3? I could see that being the case right around when it was released, but hopefully they should be updated by now (assuming that they are still actively developed).
There are a variety of themes that you can use to make FF less ugly - I don't like the default theme myself on Windows (the default Mac one is fine; I'm not sure about the default Linux theme). Personally, I like Qute [mozilla.org] when running on Windows (it was the default theme during the pre-1.0 days, if you were using FF back then). I'm sure there are other themes that make FF less ugly, as well.
Personally, on OS X at least, I've found FF3 to be much, much better than FF2. It's very stable, and uses a lot less memory. I only have about 5 extensions installed, but I haven't had any problems with it at all since its release (aside from some extension oddness, but that is hardly Mozilla's fault).
Re:Why would anyone use FF2? (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, you have a point there, I can't say you are wrong, but I don't get why wouldn't you give up for something that is newer and works on your older machine (and is supported too) than use what you are used to, but get significantly slower browsing.
I certainly would give up from something that I am used to, to something that works better.
Re:If it wasn't for the Awful Bar (Score:3, Informative)
I don't mind the Awesomebar, but those are just my two cents. Then again, I'm still with Safari, holding out for a Mac version of Chrome.
Re:Ridiculous (Score:3, Informative)
Because contrary to your notion, it's an end-user's right not to upgrade.
Yet another example of the following aphorism:
Open Source != Socialism
People on older distros (Score:5, Informative)
can't upgrade.
On Linux Firefox doesn't distribute RPM's or DEB's for the various major platforms, and most vendor's don't provide new software for distros once they've been released.
Also, getting firefox 3 compiled from source on older distros is incredibly difficult due to version skew of various libraries. I got most of the way there, and gave up.
People who use linux for work are often stuck on older distros due to long corporate maintanance cycle's. It costs them a lot of money to roll out a major update to thousands of machines, especially if you are developing software on top of them.
Thus, it really sucks that there is no way to put newer software on older linux OS's without running into library version hell. Especially since this is so easy on other platforms. After all, who has trouble getting software working on XP?
Re:A security update that reduces security (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Well, at least it's clear (Score:3, Informative)
Re:People on older distros (Score:4, Informative)
Yep same problem here. Running SLES 10 sp1 and FF 3 requires GTK 7.x and GTK 7.x requires a whole host of lib updates. I tried valiantly to get them all updated and totally crapped my system. I had backed up everything so it was simple enough to boot from CD and restore back, but man what a PITA!
Re:A security update that reduces security (Score:3, Informative)
It's not really, is it - the scanner is the crucial part of the AV program, the phishing filter is just one small feature of Firefox. Also the replacement product is free. Nobody would complain if a free AV package forced you to upgrade. In fact they (Clam, AVG) do it on a regular basis. Really not "somewhat akin" at all.
Re:Why would anyone use FF2? (Score:1, Informative)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6227
You didn't try too hard, did you?
Personally, though, I love the new bar.
It Makes Sense (Score:3, Informative)
Firefox 2 uses an older version of the anti-phishing that will no longer be supported by Google (the provider of the database). So, whether Mozilla removes it or not, v1 is giong away.
2.0.0.19 is the final release of Firefox 2. As soon as it is released, Firefox 2 has reached its end of life and will no longer be updated or supported (no new features, no bug fixes, no security updates). So, it doesn't make much sense to worry about the anti-phishing feature being updated when the browser itself can no longer be assured of being secure due to possible bugs, etc.
Re:A security update that reduces security (Score:5, Informative)
I still don't see why they're pushing people so hard to upgrade to 3.0.
Because they won't work on 2.0 anymore. It will not be supported and will no longer receive security updates. How hard is that to understand?
The version 3.0 still seems slower and more buggy than the version of 2.0 I have been using for some time.
Except it's faster. Java Script improvements, less memory leaks, a garbage collector of sorts, etc. FF 3.0 requires less resources.
I would argue that FF 2.0 is not and obsolete product
By definition, it is. It will reach End of Life.
Re:People on older distros (Score:3, Informative)
Firefox 3 relies on the Cairo (svg) and Pango (typesetting) libraries, which are included with and used by newer versions of the GTK (I thought it was >= 2.8, but meh). Especially when using older linux systems (like RHEL4) to which you do not have root access, trying to build all of the updated libraries in a little bottle just to run firefox 3 is a pretty tall order. IIRC, when I tried, I had to start at glibc and work my way up - I never did get it to work properly.