Stealth Firefox updates to cure permissions fatigue

April Already?

It's the 1st of April right?
Either that or these people need to start smoking something less potent.
Are they seriously asking people to give Firefox automatic elevated permissions?
I ditched Firefox because of this insane update lark and now reading this I'm very glad I did.
It's almost as if they're trying to destroy Firefox and make themselves look like complete idiots at the same time.

By RedForest on 6 Oct 2011

Creating bad habits

Seems to me that UAC tries to make users _think_ "Should this update be occurring?" To me, this idea simply takes those people back to "A program's updating - oh, that must be OK, why worry?"

By AdrianB on 6 Oct 2011

Thoroughly Modern

I do like to be kept up to date.
However, nagging doubts appear if it should be required as often as Firefox.

Is it to keep ahead of the competition?
Is it to prevent malicious code impinging Firefox?
Is it due to update for update sake?

Automatical updates feels like just seems to be asking for trouble.

Having said all that other companies are just as guilty... Adobe Flash is now up to version 11.

We are only up to date until the version is published.

By lenmontieth on 6 Oct 2011

Not just Firefox

Mozilla are nagging me every few weeks with Thunderbird too.

Trouble is, both these programs install updates without being sure they aren't screwing up existing add-ons.

By seagull on 6 Oct 2011

Chrome and IE update silently

Mozilla seem to be in a lose lose situation here. All browsers need regular bug fixes, so they have no choice to update one way or another. Luckily features are not an issue for browsers as there haven't been any significant changes since Chrome's unified search and URL bar.

By tirons1 on 7 Oct 2011

Chrome and IE

Chrome is a "user" install, it doesn't install itself in a "normal" place, but under \users\name\appdata, which means it doesn't have to bypass the UAC security to install.

IE will only "silently" update if you have Automatic Updates turned on and those updates comes direct from Microsoft's servers, not a third party.

What Firefox is talking about verges on the criminal, in terms of bypassing the normal system security.

I don't like Chrome's method either, that it isn't installed as an app and it sneaks in the updates without warning.

The plus point is, that you always have the latest security updates, as soon as they are released, but the downside, especially for a corporate, is that you don't get to properly test the update before rolling it out.

I'd be much happier if they worked with MS or one of the other corporate suppliers and integrated it into WSUS or Service Center etc.

By big_D on 8 Oct 2011