Firefox problem in 8.04 (and OOo)

[Ethelbert2]

Please excuse me if this has been asked before. I have Xubuntu on an old P3 computer. I am using Firefox now for this posting but the 3.0.10 version I have shows only one coloured item on the main menu, the rest grayed out. The "home" button" is live, but history and bookmarks are blank. I have been trying Ubuntu recently, installed on another computer and Firefox 3.0.10 was fine there though I seem to recall it had an extra plug-in. I tried reloading it with Synaptic here on Xubuntu but no change.

Can any one say what is happening.? Incidentally the version I am using here is 8.10 because there is an old Radeon 7000 card on the computer which does not like 9.04. The Ubuntu was 9.04 so maybe that explains it? But what to do?


Also I notice that the Synaptic only gives me Open Office 2.4 here - can I not upgrade that to 3.0??? Nothing shows on Synaptic. I probably have enough RAM at 512Mb.

[naugiedoggie]

Please excuse me if this has been asked before. I have Xubuntu on an old P3 computer. I am using Firefox now for this posting but the 3.0.10 version I have shows only one coloured item on the main menu, the rest grayed out. The "home" button" is live, but history and bookmarks are blank. I have been trying Ubuntu recently, installed on another computer and Firefox 3.0.10 was fine there though I seem to recall it had an extra plug-in. I tried reloading it with Synaptic here on Xubuntu but no change.

Can any one say what is happening.? Incidentally the version I am using here is 8.10 because there is an old Radeon 7000 card on the computer which does not like 9.04. The Ubuntu was 9.04 so maybe that explains it? But what to do?


Also I notice that the Synaptic only gives me Open Office 2.4 here - can I not upgrade that to 3.0??? Nothing shows on Synaptic. I probably have enough RAM at 512Mb.

Hello,

You can install any software you want to, but it can be tricky. I've had problems in the past with permissions when installing software in the global directories like /usr/local on Ubuntu, so I tend to put it in my /home directory. Unless there is specific functionality in 3.0 that you need, I would not do it, however. I just upgraded to 3.0 about a month ago and that was only because I wanted the MSO 7 converter. 2.4 works fine for regular office work of all kinds.

It's the major downside to package systems like the one used by Ubuntu, that you have to wait for someone to find time to make a new package or even be interested in making one. And some stuff you may want to use will never be packaged.

As far as FF goes, FF3 is bloated. It now takes even longer to load than IE. (Remember when Firefox advertised itself as the "fastest browser on the web"? Those days are over.) It may just be too much of a resource hog for that older system. I'd revert back to 2.x and see if that works better. I don't think there is anything in 3 that is needed or useful in the circumstances described.

Thanks.

mp

[naugiedoggie]

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