Upgrading Firefox 3.6 Under Ubuntu
Posted by isecore on January 29th, 2010
I’ve been avoiding upgrading Firefox from 3.5 since up until just recently I hadn’t found a good way to do it under Ubuntu. The only real option I’d found (apart from installing it manually) was using the mozilla-daily PPA, and that has some negative effects since you’re essentially installing a nightly developer-build of the browser that isn’t adapted to Ubuntu. It’s just a little too bleeding-edge for my taste; having your browsers behavior change on a virtually daily basis because you’re running nightlies of developer-versions is not something I recommend. Additionally it doesn’t install the Firefox-branded version but rather the generic Iceweasel-version instead, which is a minor annoyance.
Until I found this little article detailing a different PPA to use, and it worked flawlessly. A quick tour in aptitude and presto, new version of Firefox.
I’ve been using Firefox as my main browser for many years now, and I see almost no incentive to change that habit. I’ve used it since back before it was Firefox, back when it was Firebird, and it’s still the best browser in most ways. 3.6 has made it better by removing some of the annoyances I had with 3.5, most notably how the browser would often simply “pause” for a second or two. Admittedly a lot of these annoyances could stem from me using about 56954 different extensions but whatever.
It’s a nice improvement, and if you’re using Ubuntu then the abovementioned PPA will be a nice and easy way to upgrade. It won’t blow your socks off, but it’s a nice improvement. Slightly faster and more of the same Firefox-goodness we’ve all come to love over the years.