Beta builds necessary?

Discussion about official Mozilla Firefox builds
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PegM_4
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Joined: July 25th, 2008, 4:26 am

Beta builds necessary?

Post by PegM_4 »

Is there a real reason for updating to Beta versions of Firefox? I'm so tired of all the seemingly daily updates. I'm also having trouble with it freezing on both my Windows 7 laptop and my Snow Leopard Mac. I would like to go back to 14.0.1. Is there any reason I shouldn't do that?

Thanks for any input.
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malliz
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Re: Beta builds necessary?

Post by malliz »

If testing Beta's is all too much for you then you should not have installed them in the first place. Why would you go way back to 14?
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pal-moz
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Re: Beta builds necessary?

Post by pal-moz »

why 14.0.1 ?
it's too OLD.
latest release build is 16.0.2.

and did you do http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diag ... Firefox%29 ?
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PegM_4
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Re: Beta builds necessary?

Post by PegM_4 »

malliz wrote:If testing Beta's is all too much for you then you should not have installed them in the first place. Why would you go way back to 14?


I didn't know any way of finding the latest stable version. I was choosing 14.0.1 based on the fact that filehippo.com showed it as being the most recent that wasn't shown as a beta version.
PegM_4
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Re: Beta builds necessary?

Post by PegM_4 »

pal-moz wrote:why 14.0.1 ?
it's too OLD.
latest release build is 16.0.2.

and did you do http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diag ... Firefox%29 ?


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James
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Re: Beta builds necessary?

Post by James »

www.mozilla.org has the latest stable release of Firefox.

No need to get firefox from random unofficial download sites that may not even have the latest releases or could be bundled with something you do not want. Though filehippo does have all of the releases and Betas in last while including the current 16.0.2 release.

The only way you would get daily updates is if you were testing the Aurora (18.0a2) or Nightly (19.0.1) channel builds. There has only been five test Beta builds for 17.0 so far so not close to daily.
Sabardeyn
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Re: Beta builds necessary?

Post by Sabardeyn »

PegM_4,
Testing any software is a completely optional endeavor. If, for any reason you do not, or can not, continue with the effort you can always stop.

All of the Firefox variants install into different directories (if you used the default installation paths). This means you should be able to uninstall Aurora, Beta, or the Nightlies without interfering with the current stable release (version 16.x) or any of your settings. The current stable release can be downloaded from www.Firefox.com or, as stated, through the Mozilla link previously posted (I went directly, they went indirectly - you end up in the same place though).

If you have problems, I think the "Installing Multiple FF Version's" stickied thread tells you how to re-create a default profile. Just in case. (That should reset all variables and get rid of any settings that no longer apply.)

Absolute worse case: Uninstall the Beta you're using. Uninstall the stable Firefox. Re-download and re-install the current stable release. It should remove all traces of the old FF versions, but keep your add-ons, plugins and settings.

(You need to uninstall any Beta's because they automatically change the version of FF that loads via an icon/shortcut.)

Hope this helps.
Sabardeyn
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