Firefox 4 EOL no more security fixes for it

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Thuleman

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Mozilla retires Firefox 4 from security support

That's because Firefox 4 has reached what Mozilla calls EOL, for "end of life," for vulnerability patches.

Although the move may have caught users by surprise, the decision to stop supporting Firefox 4 with security updates has been discussed by Mozilla's developers and managers for weeks.

A mozilla.dev.planning mailing list thread that started May 17 evolved into a back-and-forth about the rapid-release schedule and its impact on Firefox 4.

Christian Legnitto, the Firefox release manager, put it most succinctly in a May 25 message. "Firefox 5 will be the security update for Firefox 4," Legnitto said.
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This is especially noteworthy for those who never actually close their browser and would thus not receive the upgrade notice.
 
Thuleman said:
This is especially noteworthy for those who never actually close their browser and would thus not receive the upgrade notice.
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Well when you operate the browser outside of it's limitations, this happens. Considering FF plug-ins have memory issues, closing the browser and/or rebooting your system once in a while is a good idea.

Either way, update to FF5 is automatic for those on 4 if you have AU's enabled. I'd rather Mozilla do this than to continue providing updates for old browsers. Concentrate on the new stuff and get more/better updates in please!
 
I don't see this as a big deal. FF5 is virtually identical to FF4 so I don't see why anybody wouldn't want to upgrade to 5.
 
At first I thought it was retarded that they made FF4 EOL so soon, but FF5 seems more like an incremental update, fairly quick and easy to update.
 
That seems way too soon imo, but as mentioned it's not like FF5 is a huge change.

See this is what I like about open source software, upgrades are often very painless. Now try going from IE6 to IE7 or IE8 or from XP to 7 and you'll see why MS has to hold on to old OSes for so long. It just breaks everything. Speaking more from a corporate environment perspective.

That said, I should probably get on FF5 , I'm still on 4. :D ... errrr 3.6.... yeah, I REALLY need to upgrade.
 
Ouch, been reading up on this a bit. I'm not sure what mozilla is thinking here. They are planning a release cycle of 6 weeks with the previous version being moved to EOL each time. This simply isn't going to fly in most corporate environments where new versions need to be tested and change control procedures need to be followed.

Worse yet, Mozilla responds with what amounts to a "screw you" to enterprises.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/mozilla-to-enterprise-customers-drop-dead/3497

The idea of a rapid development cycle isn't so bad, but to completely stop supporting a 6 week old application, including security updates... Wow.
 
griffinhart said:
Ouch, been reading up on this a bit. I'm not sure what mozilla is thinking here. They are planning a release cycle of 6 weeks with the previous version being moved to EOL each time. This simply isn't going to fly in most corporate environments where new versions need to be tested and change control procedures need to be followed.
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Well, if you're using Firefox in a corporate environment, you're creating your own problems. IE works just fine for businesses. All security updates come through WU.

I do think this is funny though:

At that pace, in June 2014, a mere three years from now, Firefox will be on version 29.
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I think they would be better off naming their browser by months. Rather than Firefox 5, name it Firefox - June 2011, or something.
 
Hated the constant Chrome betas floating out every few days; now Firefox is nearly as bad. :rolleyes: I don't like this "idea".
 
zero2dash said:
Hated the constant Chrome betas floating out every few days; now Firefox is nearly as bad. :rolleyes: I don't like this "idea".
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Well I always griped that they kept old versions of FF around to long. I don't like the idea of a volunteer operation spreading it's resources too thin. I'd rather them EOL something released a few months ago and focus on the newer product, than continually updating security holes in years old applications.
 
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