It is just Firefox that freezes/stops responding. (I'm not too sure exactly what X is but nothing else appears to be affected.) As to the version of ubuntu I use, well it is the long term support version and I don't fancy the hassle of changing to something newer just yet. And why not? :¬) Bev.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Brett Parker" iDunno@sommitrealweird.co.uk To: main@lists.alug.org.uk Subject: Re: [ALUG] Firefox Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:06:10 +0000
On 22 Dec 12:33, Bev Nicolson wrote:
I'm opening myself up to many people who will say 'well use this browser instead' but hey.:¬) I use Firefox version 1.5.0.13pre (and Ubuntu 6.06 LTS) and when I have a webmail application open a bit too long (an hour or so say - I've not timed it) it will freeze when I try to sign out. I have looked for information that is specific to this version but while 2.0 is covered this one isn't it seems. Has anyone found a work around that works?
Well, the obvious immediate question would be "why are you using a version of Ubuntu that's over a year old".
The second obviousy question would be: what plugins/extensions have you got installed in firefox? Have you tried disabling them all? Does that make a difference?
And when you say "freeze", is it just firefox that freezes or does it take out X while it's at it? Glancing around it appears that the issue might have been fixed in 6.10, but being a debian user (and mostly unstable on my own machines and etch on the workstations at work), I haven't got an ubuntu machine to test on (or, infact, a gmail account... why would I want my e-mail indexed by a large company that already indexes the things that I want public anyways?).
Thanks,
Brett Parker
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On Sun, 2007-12-23 at 15:54 +0100, Bev Nicolson wrote:
It is just Firefox that freezes/stops responding. (I'm not too sure exactly what X is but nothing else appears to be affected.) As to the version of ubuntu I use, well it is the long term support version and I don't fancy the hassle of changing to something newer just yet. And why not? :¬) Bev.
If you really don't want the (to be fair 95% of the time relatively minor) hassle of upgrading Ubuntu every 6 months then the LTS version is a fair choice. I use it on my home media server PC because given the very limited set of functions that machine performs it wouldn't really benefit from being on something newer.
Unfortunately what you don't get on LTS is bug fixes that come as part of new versions of key packages like firefox. A lot of compatibility/security/stability fixes have been made to Firefox since 1.5 and unless you want to manually update your copy or find a more recent version in a backports repository somewhere then you may be stuck with some bugs.
My personal view is that the only time I would consider LTS versions for desktop computing over more recent versions is if I was supporting a whole office full of Ubuntu and a 6 month upgrade cycle was impractical. In that event I would probably be creating my own packages to apply more recent versions of things like Firefox (if they don't exist already). That or some business critical system that I daren't touch unless there is a specific benefit to justify my tampering (but in all fairness I probably wouldn't be running mission critical business systems on Ubuntu)
The main problem you have now is your upgrade path is pretty complicated because the supported path would be Dapper>Edgy>Feisty>Gutsy which is a lot of effort (in reality it may be possible to skip some of those but the official upgrade instructions are pretty clear in stating that only an upgrade from the previous version is supported). I am hoping that there will be a direct upgrade path between LTS versions so you would be able to do Dapper>Hardy next April..But I wouldn't hold your breath on that being the case.
Also there have been some significant improvements to not only the applications but the core systems since Dapper. Gnome has been improved in places and now feels faster than it ever has done to me, faster boot times, Some magic foo in Feisty/Gutsy that gives a similar performance gain to prelinking stuff but without the hassle factor (short version some apps start much faster), the list of application improvements is almost endless, not to mention better hardware support etc.
Wayne Stallwood wrote:
The main problem you have now is your upgrade path is pretty complicated because the supported path would be Dapper>Edgy>Feisty>Gutsy which is a lot of effort (in reality it may be possible to skip some of those but the official upgrade instructions are pretty clear in stating that only an upgrade from the previous version is supported). I am hoping that there will be a direct upgrade path between LTS versions so you would be able to do Dapper>Hardy next April..But I wouldn't hold your breath on that being the case.
My understanding is that this is indeed the case - 6.06LTS -> 8.04LTS will be supported in a single step.
I couldn't find anything "official" in a quick Google but this is a start: http://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-server@lists.ubuntu.com/msg00756.html
"Hardy will be a special release in this respect since we'll be support upgrading from both 7.10 and 6.06. It is not trivial, but it's a high priority for us."
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Bev Nicolson -
Mark Rogers -
Wayne Stallwood