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Comment by jhymn | Hacker News Reader

Whenever I start up Firefox it tells me to wait a few moments while it updates. The browser obviously doesn't care about me. It has its own agenda. This is why I won't use it.

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...how often do you start up Firefox? I don't think I've ever seen this.

I generally loath automatic updates, but IMO web browsers are the one place they make sense. If you need something a bit slower, consider switching to Firefox ESR!

I don't use Firefox often because of the constant updating that prevents me from using it right away. Chrome and Brave don't seem to do that, at least not in the same obvious way that Firefox does.

No, they just update. Leaving you dead in the water when stuff goes wrong.

Ironically though, I wonder if not using Firefox much is the cause of that annoyance. In other words, Firefox usually waits for an opportune time to update, but if it's been closed for a long time, it likely decides that it's too out of date, and updating asap is critical for security.

I'll reiterate my recommendation for ESR, it's Firefox but for people who want less frequent updates. :)

Firefox ESR updates on the same frequency as the mainline release, they're just more limited in scope (i.e. mostly just security & stability fixes).

They should be smaller downloads that install more quickly though, shouldn't they?

I'm not on Firefox ESR, but switching to Windows LTSC made Windows updates a lot less painful and less noticeable, even though technically the frequency is the same.

You can use ESR[0] version of firefox the equivalent of LTSB windows. Or use a registry hack[1] to disable updates for regular firefox if you use Windows.

0. https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/68.8.0esr/ 1. https://winaero.com/blog/disable-updates-firefox-63-above/

That's very clearly because you don't open it very often. This is a once a month "issue".

Have you heard of "Check for updates but let me choose when to install them" option under about:preferences > Firefox Updates? I assume you did not.

To be completely fair, reading every option under about:preferences is not part of the average user's workflow.

True, it's probably much easier to search for "disable firefox auto update" using your fav search engine.

Why not put that on the nag screen?

I like how Visual Studio code auto-updates when you close it. It never slows me down.

Both Firefox and VSCode take about 3 seconds to install updates on my PC, so it hardly matters anyway.

If only other microsoft products had the same thinking. Microsoft Autoupdate needs to die.

meh, I mostly like it.

It would be great if they just checked for updates on startup like almost every other program. I use powerpoint twice a year. I don't need auto update taking center focus on my screen, interrupting whatever I'm doing, every week that powerpoint gets a patch.

On Windows or macOS? You can install PowerPoint via the App Store on macOS, which is great. Only MS product I have that use the MS Updater on macOS is Edge.

Ah that happens to me too every once in awhile and it's absolutely infuriating every time. Classic UI fail. It wouldn't be so bad if it just asked for permission first.

It happened today! I just tried to open a new tab to look something up but the page comes up with this:

> Sorry. We just need to do one small thing to keep going.

> Firefox has just been updated in the background. Click Restart Firefox to complete the update.

> We will restore all your pages, windows and tabs afterwards, so you can be on your way quickly.

I was in the middle of something. I had a thought, a question occurred, and I wanted to look something up on the Internet real quick. So I hit ctrl-t for a new tab. But that isn't the "new tab" command right now. Firefox has entered into an invisible quasi-mode that remaps ctrl-t to "restart firefox". But not quite. It actually remaps to a command that locks firefox like a grab: it's unusable, it refuses to load and display any more pages until I click that "Restart Firefox" button.

Interrupting my flow by remapping keyboard shortcuts to non-dismiss-able modal dialog with one button ("Click here and only here you idiot monkey" is what that says to me) is super-arrogant. It's patronizing and disrespectful. Saying "sorry" before you shove me doesn't make it any better, it just sounds obsequious.

I switched to Vivaldi yesterday. (The opening-a-tab thing today that I'm currently bitching about was to find something in my old history in FF.) I don't actually like it any better but it hasn't spat in my face so far.

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