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News Mozilla ceases work on 64-bit Firefox for Windows

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 22 Nov 2012.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  2. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    When i tried Waterfox and Pale Moon the biggest problem i had was Flash player crashing. it's a real shame there stopping development as i found the 64-bit version to be faster.
     
  3. dyzophoria

    dyzophoria Minimodder

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    it seems the frustration is the lack plugin developers wanting to develop on 64bit platforms, its a shame really, especially based on my experience with firefox, it tends to eat alot of memory ( for caching i guess? or whatever) it could have really helped the program if it were in 64bit,lol
     
  4. MrJay

    MrJay You are always where you want to be

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    This seems a bit short sighted to me!

    If anything id bite the bullet and cut 32bit support.
     
  5. derviansoul

    derviansoul What's a Dremel?

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    Maybe they should just cut the development on 32bits instead and force developers to update or get left behind.
     
  6. Amsalpedalb

    Amsalpedalb What's a Dremel?

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    That bit right there should be the current industry trend. Update to 64 bit or piss off.
     
  7. maverik-sg1

    maverik-sg1 Minimodder

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    100% with you on this, proper multi-core support and 64bit all the way.
     
  8. SchizoFrog

    SchizoFrog What's a Dremel?

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    You can't drop 32bit support when the majority of systems are 32bit based. That thinking is just retarded.
     
  9. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    I don't agree, I know its not exactly accurate but the best i could find is the steam hardware survey and it shows 59% are using Windows 7 64 bit.
     
  10. Adnoctum

    Adnoctum Kill_All_Humans

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    You what?

    You claim that the 50% of Firefox Nightly users represent a "not-inconsiderable proportion of its user base"?

    Either that is poor wording or it is poor logic, unless you think that Nightly Build users represents a significant audience for Mozilla? I would suggest the the proportion of Firefox users who utilise the 64-bit version of Firefox would be miniscule given there was never a Win 64-bit release.

    What a non-story, especially given all Mozilla has done is kill a development program and not a released product.
    32-bit Firefox lives happily on Win 64-bit, and at the moment the 64-bit version gives zero advantages for the vast majority of users (or any?) and quite a few disadvantages, and Firefox may be a bit of a memory hog but I doubt there would be many situations in which Firefox would need more than 3-4GB of memory. The use just isn't there yet.
    My use of 64-bit Firefox (in Linux) does not give me an improved experience over my use of the 32-bit version (Win and Linux).

    Not to mention there is no 64-bit Chrome for Windows, nor is there any plans for such, Opera 64-bit has only just been released as a stable version, and does anyone use the 64-bit IE? I don't, and there is little need to do so over the 32-bit version.

    Good use of resources for Mozilla to use the development effort for 32-bit Firefox until it makes sense to make a move.
     
  11. Adnoctum

    Adnoctum Kill_All_Humans

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    I have had this argument so many times that I should have a text file I can copy/paste from.

    The Steam Hardware Survey is a snapshot of Steam users.
    * Is every computer on the face of the planet polled in the Steam Survey? No?
    * Then it must sample a wide variety of computer types and uses then? No, not that either?
    Then it is NOT representative of the systems that "most people" have.

    It is a very narrow view of a narrow audience. It is representative of the systems that Steam users have, users who game on their systems and are thus more likely to keep it updated with newer software and hardware.
    That's not my mum, so she wasn't asked to participate in the Steam survey. Nor my dad. Nor my invisible friend Harvey.
     
  12. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    @Adnoctum
    I know i did say it's not exactly accurate :worried: but i did try to find some information on amount of x86 versus x64, i guess it's like politicians and how they interpret the numbers :naughty:

    But seriously how do you measure such a thing, i mean are we only including platforms that FF runs on, or are we looking at the bigger picture?
     
  13. SchizoFrog

    SchizoFrog What's a Dremel?

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    Yeah, 59% of Steam Clients... I bet Steam users don't even count for a third of PCs that use a browser and even just over half of those on Steam have a 64bit machine. I think you killed your own argument there.
     
  14. SchizoFrog

    SchizoFrog What's a Dremel?

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    Corky, you have to look at the overall picture as FF is a user CHOICE. If they went 64bit only then they would limit themselves to a tiny minority of PC users. I guess Mozilla would have a good understanding of the numbers as they can tell how many unique PC id's download their browsers and of which bit type.
     
  15. IvanIvanovich

    IvanIvanovich будет глотать вашу душу.

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    I've been using the x64 version on Windows since it has existed. I've never had a single problem with it or the 2 relevant plugins that I use which have an x64 version Flash and Java. I could give a flying f*ck if there is no silverlight, quicktime, or any of the other myriad crap I would go out of my way to disable and/or remove if there happened to end up on my system anyway.
    Poor show Mozilla. Maybe if you actually relased a stable x64 Windows version all of the plugin developers might have bothered to release. Chicken and egg nonsense. It's no wonder x64 software uptake in general is still so pathetic with these attitudes.
     
  16. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    Not a argument just a matter of opinion..
     
  17. Gradius

    Gradius IT Consultant

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    They are going far back with this stupid decision. 32-bit is DEAD!
     
  18. Adnoctum

    Adnoctum Kill_All_Humans

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    Yes, poor show Mozilla for not providing Lysol with the browser that he wants[1]. He is even doing his best to accommodate you because he is also refraining from using many of the other plug-ins and tools that most other Internet users use or are obliged to use.

    Furthermore, how dare you use your collective professional judgement to make the best choices on where to devote finite financial and software engineering resources. It really shows up your lack of commitment to providing Windows users with the best possible product when you are outspent by your competitors like Microsoft. Don't you want to win the highly profitable browser market?

    Certainly it is true that Google also doesn't see fit to develop a 64-bit Windows version of Chrome, but they have never shown much interest in developing tools that would enhance the experience of using the Internet.

    I'm sure that if he donated $10 in his native currency (not including beads, clams and coconuts) you could have devoted a team of software engineers[2] for 6 months or more in order to complete a 64-bit browser for him and his extremely important 64-bit Internet browsing needs. Obviously his very important 64-bit browsing needs aren't being addressed by other options like IE8/9/10 64-bit or by the recently released Opera 12 64-bit.

    Buck up your game, Mozilla! Also, pull up your socks!

    [1] But not the browser he deserves. Also, there should be permabans for making Batman jokes.
    [2] Located in Mauritania. $10 doesn't go far on software engineers.
     
  19. impar

    impar Minimodder

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    Greetings!

    I used to hit the 32bit RAM limit for Firefox some months ago, in my case around the 3,2-3,3GB RAM use. With the new versions and after changing two RAM wasteful RAM addons I havent met that limit yet.
    Firefox is still the most stable and light on resources for my use (roughly 40-50 tabs average open at a time).
     
  20. Bogomip

    Bogomip ... Yo Momma

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