SillyDog701

[Antony]

Firefox 4 was only released two months ago, Mozilla has released the first official beta release of Firefox 5.

Beta releases of Firefox 5 can be downloaded at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/channel/

According to reports, the final shipping version of Firefox 5 should be available in late June, and Firefox 6 is already scheduled in August.

Perhaps Firefox thinks that more frequent major releases would force more Firefox downloads. Apart from some (including extremists) who can't live without the latest of whatsoever software, I believe many users will learn to ignore the "major version" update etc. I still haven't downloaded Firefox 4 myself yet.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110420 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.11 Firefox/3.6.17

[James]

Antony, I had Aurora for a few weeks and found it to be troublesome to say the least. It crashed on me several times, it refused to load pages on a number of occasions and frankly I became impatient with it and finally dumped it. It was my fault for wanting the latest and greatest and only then realizing that I was one of their test guinea pigs. No more. I'll stick with a final release that has had most of the bugs and glitches worked out. When the final version of FF 5 becomes available, that is the only time I'll download and install it. Until then, FF 4 is just fine.

As for this rush up the version ladder (4, 5, 6... ) I have no idea what their thinking process is but I entirely disagree with it. It certainly doesn't make FF any more attractive to me.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1

[Antony]

Well, the thing is that, at such planned fast pace, the difference/advantages of (say) version 5 to version 3.6 may just like (or likely even less than) the difference between version 3.5 and version 3.

However, people would feel that version 3.6.x is old once version 5 is released. Thus, making people feel that they have a need to rush to the new version despite no (or hardly any) actual practical benefits. bumping up version number is a type of dirty tactic in my humble opinion.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5

[James]

I see what you mean. I wonder if Mozilla has felt forced into this ridiculous naming pace by Google Chrome?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1

[Fulvio]

I like FF5.0 b2, and so far it has given me fewer troubles than Aurora. I am using it with a discarded profile from FF3.x days, and the add-on compatibility reporter add-on, which allows me to use as many incompatible add-ons which I want. I am using the Permanent Private Browsing mode, and I discovered that it is necessary to select to view the Add-on Bar, formerly known as Status Bar, I believe.

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

[Fulvio]

I am taking it back. This Firefox is as much of a nuisance as Aurora. I remember when Aurora, though at the alpha level did its darnest to take over Mozilla Firefox.
I don't know what it has been trying to do, but, when I tried to install this 5.0 b2, it tried to install in the default location where 3.6.17 is located. I succeeded in installing it in a folder of its own, call Firefox 5.0. When I looked at the Desktop, I saw three Firefox shortcuts, two of which were not valid, and could not be deleted, and the old Mozilla Firefox shortcut, which had been 3.6.17's shortcut. In addition, I had to create a shortcut for the new installation, which I renamed from firefox.exe to Firefox 5. A few minutes ago, when I clicked on the Mozilla Firefox shortcut, it brought up FF 5. The Mozilla Firefox shortcut had become a shortcut for Firefox 5. I deleted that shortcut, and Secunia PSI told me that a Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Zombie file had been removed.
I went to the Mozilla Firefox folder in the default location, and it seems to have been left intact. Only the shortcut was messed with. I created another shortcut from that folder's firefox.exe. Now it tells me that it is 3.6.17's shortcut.What in the world is being done is beyond me. If the developers want only one version, and want to make a beta the default, they should say so. I am not going to allow them to mess with my way of doing things.
And, they will know about it.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110420 Firefox/3.6.17