Article by George Norman

On 14 Sep 2009

The moment Mozilla rolled out Firefox 3.5, I immediately downloaded the software application and installed it on my computer. I left Firefox 3.0 behind and never looked back – why would I when version 3.5 comes with such a long list of features and improvements. Other Firefox users on the other hand are not so quick to upgrade - even to Firefox 3.0 (which I also switched to immediatly after it was released). Believe it or not, they continue to use Firefox 2.X.

Just in case you did not already know this, the Mozilla Foundation no longer provides support for Firefox 2.X. Using this software application poses a security risk to the user: no updates, no patches, no phishing protection. So why are people reluctant to upgrade their browser?


According to a survey conducted by Ken Kovash and Eric Hergenrader on about 5,000 respondents, these are the main reasons why Firefox 2.X users refuse to upgrade to version 3.X:

25% - Location Bar (clearing history)
Users say they cannot delete the browsing history from the location bar

13% - Speed/Memory Leak Concerns (real or perceived)
Users are concerned that Firefox 3 will behave sluggishly on their current configuration.

13% - Add-ons Compatibility
Some add-ons that worked with Firefox 2 do not work with Firefox 3.

11% - Look & Feel (general UI)
People are unhappy with the new user interface.

8% - Bookmarks (UI)
Users find the bookmarks UI annoying.

7% - Crashes
Firefox 3 crashes over and over again even after a clean upgrade.

6% - Lost Stuff when Upgrading
Users that lost data in previous upgrades are afraid to take a risk and upgrade to Firefox 3.

4% - Developer for Testing
Developers keep both versions on their machines: Firefox 2 and 3.

4% - Don’t Fix What’s not Broken
Users feel happy with Firefox 2 and do not feel the need to upgrade.

3% - Fonts (size)
Some users find the fonts too large.

2% - U3 Compatibility
U3 devices, said some users, become unusable when Firefox 3 is involved.

2% - Cost?
Users cannot believe the software is provided free of charge, especially in these hard times.

2% - Printing Problems
Test is printed as scrambled ASCII.

1% Enterprise Support
Enterprise users can only install approved software.

According to Ken Kovash, you should be made aware of the following:
"1. Virtually everyone who provided feedback had previously used Fx3 and subsequently reverted back to Fx2.
2. Some of the issues cited have since been resolved. Clearly, many users tried Fx3 when it was initially released, then reverted back to Fx2 shortly thereafter, and now they still won’t consider upgrading because of their initial experience."

If you would like to get Firefox 3.5, you can download it straight from FindMySoft here.
Make sure to check out our review of Mozilla’s Firefox here.



Tags: Mozilla, Firefox, Browser, Upgrade

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