I'm still running Firefox 3.6.x and am happy with it. You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Now GMail is nagging me to update my Firefox to 12.x, saying that GMail features may not be compatible with earlier versions.

Do I want to do this? What are the pros and cons?

tanstaafl.

You might not have a choice soon (somehow).
http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/1918/20120430/mozilla-deals-sucker-punch-defiant-firefox-3.htm

EDIT: I guess I skimmed past this bit:

Thats the thing, it is broke in the eyes of Mozilla, and the larger web community. It's now 2 years old, while the implementation of HTML 5 continues to progress. It also stopped seeing any security updates at the end of January.

Why HTML 5 couldn't just be deployed as one solid update to the spec is beyond me though. It is frustrating to watch the W3C, and the browser manufacturers continue to make this transition a messy one.

I'm not a daily Firefox user, so I can't comment on what UI changes occurred between 3.6 and the current 12 version. Mozilla does claim the add ons you have should have upgrades or just work in the new version, they've been putting effort into making them more compatible with a wider range of versions of the browser.

Well, my 3.6.x Firefox was becoming unstable (sometimes it would "semi-freeze", that is the Firefox window would be fully functional, but I couldn't close it without going to Windows Task Manager) so I bit the bullet and upgraded to the 12.x.

"It's different from what I'm used to, so it can't be any good."

Actually, the differences are minor and I can live with them. But why do they have to change things that didn't need changing? The biggest annoyance (and it is totally trivial) is that they moved the "Bookmarks" icon from the left side of the screen over to the far right. I still look for it in the wrong place. Tabs that are currently active are moved to the top of the screen above the URL, instead of below the tab bar icons. Those are about the only user interface changes I have noticed. No doubt there are plenty of others in areas of the browser that I don't use.

All in all, the changes are benign. Lucky for Mozilla... I was all prepared to write them a scathing letter if I had to. THAT would have sure taught them a lesson!

tanstaafl.

View -> Toolbars -> Customize

Move the things around where you like them.

Right click on the home button and de-select "Tabs on Top".

Also check for the Status-4-Evar plugin if you miss the status bar at the bottom.

Doug, have you ever tried Google's Chrome browser? I was a strong supporter of Firefox too and I still use it daily, but I use it combined with Chrome. And I must admit, it's almost better in every repect. It's faster. It doesn't crash nearly as often.

About the only thing I don't like about it, is that there doesn't seem to be a way to have all your bookmarks appear at the left hand side of the browser windows at all time. Call me old-school, but that's the way I've always used every browser before, and that's the reason I still keep using FireFox. If Chrome is ever smart enough to implement this too, or somebody else does this by creating an app for it or something, then I'll ditch FireFox. For now I'll continue to use both browsers simultaneously. I would advise you to give it a try as well.

Spanner / Settings / Basics / Toolbar / Always show the bookmarks bar

It's not the left-hand side, but...

s/spanner/wrench/ for US-based readers.

Now I know why everyone in Belize says spanner though.

I found another completely trivial change... but it makes me crazy.

When I right click on a thread, the usual options of "Open in New Window" and "Open in New Tab" are there, just as before. But they changed the order of them! My muscle memory automatically selects the second one in the list, which is now "Open in New Window".

How will I ever survive this egregious tragedy?

tanstaafl.

Try middle clicking on links

Or Ctrl+Click, if (like me), you don't like using the scroll wheel as a button.

Or Right-Click+T.

tanstaafl.