Inadvertent "upgrade" to FF 5

[humpd]

I just inadvertently updated my FF 4.01 to FF 5. I simply hit the update button in the "help" window and suddenly 5 was installed. I lost a great deal of add-ons like McAfee Site Adviser as well as many others and I will now uninstall FF 5 and reinstall 4.01. I did not thing FF 5 was ready for prime time yet as I thought it was still in beta testing. My bad. In any event, I am not impressed with version 5 and will wait until it can handle more extensions and add-ons.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0

[James]

It isn't the fault of version 5 but rather the writers of the various extensions. It will always be an ongoing issue given the fact that Mozilla cannot possibly control the thousands of people writing extensions and add-ons to their browser.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/12.0.742.100 Safari/534.30

[humpd]

Good point. But, I still liked the extensions that worked in version 4 and now I am unable to find a download site for FF 4.01. Any ideas as to where I can find that download?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0

[James]

Surely there must be a Firefox browser archive out there but I can't seem to find it. Mozilla have done quite a job at cleaning out the download sites.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/12.0.742.100 Safari/534.30

[humpd]

I Googled FF 4 and found nothing but FF 5 download sites. You are right: Mozilla did a really good job of cleaning out the old version 4 download sites. When they stop supporting something, they clearly do not kid around. Looks like I will stay with 5 and wait for the extension makers to catch up.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0

[Antony]

This is an excellent example of the result of how Mozilla's dirty tactic on tricking/forcing users upgrading in such unnecessary pace.

I guess I am your unlikely source for Firefox 4.0.1!

You can try this link. My copy of Firefox Setup 4.0.1.exe (for Windows), downloaded for my Windows 7 testbed (under Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac), and I hardly use it.

FTP link:
Firefox Setup 4.0.1.exe (11.9MB)
Just uploaded for you. (hope the link works, if the link does not work, let me know.)

I don't even have Firefox 4.0.x for Mac installer myself.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.18) Gecko/20110614 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.13 Firefox/3.6.18

[humpd]

Thanks Antony. The ftp link worked and it seems to have downloaded successfully.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0

[Don_HH2K]

You are aware that Mozilla still has Firefox 4.0.1 available on their servers, a well as an archive of every Firefox thus far (i.e. not just the latest one as you're trying to make it sound), right?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20110529 Firefox/4.0.7-x64 PaleMoon/4.0.7-x64

[Antony]

You are aware that Mozilla still has Firefox 4.0.1 available on their servers, a well as an archive of every Firefox thus far (i.e. not just the latest one as you're trying to make it sound), right?

No, I couldn't find those. We are not good at digging around Mozilla's website.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.18) Gecko/20110614 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.13 Firefox/3.6.18

[Anonymosity]

The Mozilla ftp site has all the versions of Firefox, including experimental builds. You can disable Firefox's ability to update itself by changing settings in about:config. Checking for updates will still work, but you will have to download the next version and install it yourself if you disable the ability to update itself. I update that way all the time.
I found that all of my extensions except one worked fine, and I extracted the install.rdf file from the .xpi file, changed the max version to 6.* instead of 4.*, put the file into the archive and installed the extension again. It worked. Most of my themes were incompatible, but I did the same thing with the install.rdf files in the .jar files and reinstalled, and they all worked.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:5.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0

[Don_HH2K]

You are aware that Mozilla still has Firefox 4.0.1 available on their servers, a well as an archive of every Firefox thus far (i.e. not just the latest one as you're trying to make it sound), right?

No, I couldn't find those. We are not good at digging around Mozilla's website.

Looking around will save you a lot of time, effort, and bashing.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20110529 Firefox/4.0.7-x64 PaleMoon/4.0.7-x64

[Antony]

Looking around will save you a lot of time, effort, and bashing.

I did, and still unable to find any references to Firefox 4 on Mozilla.com and Mozilla.org websites. Therefore, it further confirms that Mozilla was indeed rushing on killing Firefox 4.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.18) Gecko/20110614 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.13 Firefox/3.6.18

[Amrad]

Looking around will save you a lot of time, effort, and bashing.

I did, and still unable to find any references to Firefox 4 on Mozilla.com and Mozilla.org websites. Therefore, it further confirms that Mozilla was indeed rushing on killing Firefox 4.

Don is, indeed, correct. You can download Firefox 4.0 for Windows (and other releases) from here:

releases.mozilla.org

Regards,

Dave.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20110608 Firefox/4.0.1 SeaMonkey/2.1

[Antony]

You can download Firefox 4.0 for Windows (and other releases) from here:

releases.mozilla.org

Regards,

Dave.

Thank you Dave. I did not know the existence of releases.mozilla.org. And like many average users, I only look into mozilla.org and mozilla.com. (Like I mentioned before, I am not good at digging around Mozilla's websites.)

Still, why does Mozilla remove the references to Firefox 4 from their very well known mozilla.org and mozilla.com websites?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.18) Gecko/20110614 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.13 Firefox/3.6.18

[Fulvio]

I never let a new version spoil my addons. That's why, I install Nightly Tester Tools when I take a look at a new version.
And, of course, I don't allow new versions to replace existing one. I have, presently, three different versions of Firefox, installed in different directories, and with their own profile. They mind their own business, and I will keep them as long as they don't bother me.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1