I recognize that the following _may_ as easily be general FF problems, rather than specifically belonging to your portable version. But then, I normally only use these portable editions, so I can't be sure.
1) Occasional, intermittent crashes (in the last few versions -- since maybe v. 31 or so, but I haven't really seen much like these before), also not like the ones mentioned somewhat further down on the thread titles page. These crashes happen suddenly, for no apparent reason, and often not even while doing anything particularly "challenging." In the one this morning, I was just starting to read a short, plain-text-only email. (I use dedicated web-mail.) Under \DATA\Profile\Crashes, I have found one file named store.json.mozlz4, which looks to have the right timestamp. If there's a good way and it might help, I could post the contents here.
2) Can you tell me what changes, if any, were made to the way the FF cache is handled ? After awhile, I was getting this rather annoying structure of accumulated cache folders that seemed to go on forever. Clearing the cache did not seem to get rid of them. Recent versions seem to have streamlined this tremendously.
3) The following Printing issue has been going on for quite awhile now
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=956178
Is there anyone in particular to contact about this ?
Thanks.
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There are no changes made to Firefox itself in the portable version. A completely unmodified copy is included within FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox.
There are two changes made to the default profile settings: cache is set to zero (since cache on a USB drive will actually make Firefox slower), and automatic updating is set to notify only but not apply. Neither of these changes would have anything to do with the three issues you are seeing.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I Have found from following the Mozilla FF support forum that there are some real problems with FF 32 and above. Many many people are having issues with FF constantly hanging and crashing. I have not used FF in many years, however I do use a FF port called Pale Moon. I have never had a crash or a hang. Give it a try.
http://www.palemoon.org/palemoon-portable.shtml
Bill
Thanks for you reply. I actually heard of this offshoot (apparently not the only one out there) some time ago. Tell me -- how often is this updated ? Did they get off the merry-go-round of a new release every few weeks, which quickly became rather annoying, along with the constant, forced UI changes that few users welcomed. It's been a constant, exhausting battle, using extensions to "turn back the clock" on how we wanted the browser to look and to work. Does PM accept most of the available add-ons ? (Seamonkey seems to do so, although often there is an alternate version of a particular extension offered for it.)
I guess the other side of the frequent new versions is security: there have been like three security-fix updates on FF in the last 10 days.
IMO, users just want reliability and stability. Exhibit 'A' would be the fiasco of Win 8. Unless you were new to Windows **and** just used a tablet, this "we know better than the users" paradigm shift on the part of MS probably sent more former Win users over to the Mac or Linux than anything else that has come down the pike. Sometimes it seems like companies and software developers can only see themselves in the mirror.
If Pale Moon doesn't update as often as Firefox, then it would have unpatched security issues. Firefox and Firefox ESR (on which Pale Moon is based) update just as often, as they should. Chrome and Opera update as frequently. Firefox proper gets more features, ESR just gets the security updates. As Pale Moon is based on Firefox ESR 24.x, it is slower than Firefox and uses the old UI. Not quite sure what will happen with Pale Moon when the Firefox ESR 24 branch is abandoned in a few weeks.
The vast majority of users have no issues with the new UI. There is a vocal minority that dislikes it. The same thing happened with Firefox 4's changes from Firefox 3, and that was more of a change than this one. It's now just a small footnote.
It's important to note that some of the extensions that attempt to 'turn back the clock' will introduce crashing issues.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!