Web Marketing Pro Blog

I have talked before about the advantages of the Firefox Web Browser vs. Internet Explorer. Firefox 2.0 is still better than Internet Explorer 7. But that topic is for another post.

What I want to do here is sound a little alarm about problems that arise when you upgrade Firefox 1.5 to Firefox 2.0.

The worst part, it seems to me, is that the upgrade wizard does not warn you about these problems before you go ahead with the upgrade.

Here’s a WARNING you should see — but you don’t — when you try to upgrade to Firefox 2.0:

FIREFOX 1.5 ADD-ONS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH FIREFOX 2.0
The main problem I encountered was that many of the Firefox Add-ons that I had added to customize my 1.5 version of the browser were not compatible with Firefox 2.0. Unfortunately, Firefox did not let me know about this until after I had installed version 2.0! And, to my knowledge, there is no going back. Sure, I could uninstall 2.0 and reinstall 1.5, but at that point the 1.5 add-ons would be gone. I would have to reinstall each one.

If you have only a few add-ons, or none, it’s no big deal! But, it’s still worth looking into, because your favorite add-on in Firefox 1.5, something you use all the time, may not work in 2.0.

OTHER ISSUES TO CONSIDER BEFORE UPGRADING TO FIREFOX 2.0
For more about this, you can check out the Firefox Discussion Group on Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.feedback.firefox/topics

I notice that some people are complaining here that their bookmarks and passwords are lost when they upgrade from Firefox 1.5 to 2.0. That’s serious! I can’t say whether this is true or not. (I don’t keep bookmarks or passwords in my web browsers.)

There are more comments here:
http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.feedback.firefox.prerelease

Here’s one from July 20 that caught my attention:

It’s a pain in the neck to do all of the downloading only to find that Firefox is not compatible with certain other programs. With forethought and a little courtesy you could have let us know ahead of time. [...] An informed decision can only be made when [you have] all appropriate information first, not last.

Of course, you can also go to the Mozilla Firefox 2.0 upgrade page for more information:
Here’s one example of what you’ll find, however…

If you encounter strange problems relating to bookmarks, downloads, window placement, toolbars, history, or other settings, it is recommended that you try creating a new profile and attempting to reproduce the problem before filing bugs. Create a new profile by running Firefox with the -P command line argument, choose the “Manage Profiles” button and then choose “Create Profile…”. Migrate your settings files (Bookmarks, Saved Passwords, etc) over one by one, checking each time to see if the problems resurface. If you do find a particular profile data file is causing a problem, file a bug and attach the file.

This is written to the Open Source community of programmers and computer whizzes more than to average browser users like you and me. The “-P command line argument”? A “particular profile data file”? I can figure this stuff out, but I also have other more pressing things to do. And it’s not a solution to the problem.

Let me know what you think!

Popularity: 100% [?]