Mozilla suspends 64-bit Firefox for Windows

[zombifier25]

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/11/64-bit-firefox-for-windows-should-be-prioritized-not-suspended/

This makes me happy that I'm using Ubuntu, but it also makes me sad, because Mozilla has effectively alienated a large part of their userbase.

[MadmanRB]

Yeah this seems stupid especially when interest in 64bit is so big now.

[Paqman]

Sounds like 64-bit adoption in the Windows ecosystem is still dragging.

[Erik1984]

As someone asked in the comments on Ars Technica: Is it harder to make 64-bit applications for Windows compared to Linux and OSX? Why only drop the Windows version? It seems like a very weird move in 2012.

[zombifier25]

As someone asked in the comments on Ars Technica: Is it harder to make 64-bit applications for Windows compared to Linux and OSX? Why only drop the Windows version? It seems like a very weird move in 2012.

Yeah, especially considering that other (http://www.waterfoxproject.org/) people (http://www.palemoon.org/) seem to be perfectly capable of doing it.

[synaptix]

32bit Firefox works fine for me.

[QIII]

Even to this asinus, this seems asinine.

You don't blow off the vast majority of your user base.

If anything, from the perspective of business decision making, you dump off Linux support before you alienate the Windows community.

Many of us also use Windows. None of us should be happy about this.

[monkeybrain2012]

Hmm.. learn something new everyday. We use Win7 64 bit at work and never knew that FF is 32 bits, it seems to work fine. To be honest I don't really care as long as 64 bit is supported on Linux. It is not like we do anything cutting edge on he browser at work, just checking email and googling for info etc and it is not uncommon in office settings.

Anyway, since I don't have admin privilege on my work machine I have to call tech support to update Firefox and it takes them weeks to show up so I don't bother any more. It is still on version 14.

[BarfBag]

Yet another reason to use Chrome/Chromium.

[monkeybrain2012]

Yet another reason to use Chrome/Chromium.

Don't really care what you use on Windows. :)

[doorknob60]

Yet another reason to use Chrome/Chromium.

Chrome on Windows is 32 bit too :P

[BigCityCat]

Chrome sucks.

[LillyDragon]

I'm sure the average person on the Internet isn't going to care, so long as the speed of their Facebook experience and emails aren't affected. Most of the programs I use on 64-bit Windows 7 are 32-bit applications anyway. (The only 64-bit program I have that I can think of is GIMP 2.8, and it runs slower than the Linux version by a lot!) Would be nice to have support for 64-bit Firefox on Windows, and I agree that it is a strange decision on the Mozilla devs' part, but I spend most of my time on Ubuntu anyway. =P


Chrome sucks.

To me it only sucks because it doesn't have a feature to automatically clear temp caches on closing. Otherwise I generally like the browser, and a lot of the themes for it are pretty nice, IMO. =P Mostly use it for online banking, so otherwise I use Firefox for casual browsing and socializing.

[smellyman]

Chrome sucks.
yup

[MadmanRB]

Chrome sucks.

Good luck with flash in 5 years from now in linux :popcorn:

[LillyDragon]

Good luck with flash in 5 years from now in linux :popcorn:

Not forgetting Flash might be replaced by HTML5 by then. :P Firefox on Linux will endure; Open Source will win again! Mwahahahahahahahahah!!!

*spontaneously jumps out the window for no apparent reason*

[zombifier25]

Please don't turn this into a browsers war please.

[monkeybrain2012]

Good luck with flash in 5 years from now in linux :popcorn:

http://www.i-programmer.info/news/167-javascript/5113-shumway-mozillas-javascript-flash-player.html

I am confident that it will be ready in less than 5 years. Anyway, I don't even need flash now to play a lot of videos and have better results.

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/87011
http://linterna-magica.nongnu.org/

Anyway it is not because of any short coming of Firefox that it doesn't support updated flash on Linux, blame it on adobe.

[LillyDragon]

Please don't turn this into a browsers war please.

If you were referring to me, I can guarantee you that wasn't the intent. ^^' Just sayin' Flash probably won't be relevant for much longer for its usability across multiple browsers to even matter.

[MadmanRB]

Please don't turn this into a browsers war please.

I was just poking for fun, sorry

[JDShu]

It's probably a lack of manpower. In particular, open source developers are rarely interested in Windows. It's not like average users care if they're running 32 or 64 bit programs anyway.