Downgrade Firefox Quantum

[usteveu]

I just updated my Debian Stretch and ended up with Firefox Quantum. I don't like it. It broke all of my addon extensions and I find it very unfriendly to use. How do I downgrade to the version I had? I'm afraid I don't know exactly what version I had previously. Any version would be better than this Quantum. Thank You.

[Bulkley]

Check out Waterfox and Palemoon, both based on an older version of Firefox. They are not in Debian's repos but are available as appimages and can be run in userspace. Also, Chromium is in the Debian Stretch repo.

[Wheelerof4te]

If you don't really care about security and performance it gives, there are many alternatives to Firefox Quantum. You can even download earlier 52 ESR version from Mozilla archives and run it from userspace.

[usteveu]

This is bad. This is really bad. My whole user experience is seriously broken. I can't use this Quantum garbage. I absolutely have to have the functionality of Tab Mix Plus. If I do a fresh net-install with my 9.5 CD what version of Firefox will I get?

Thanks for the replies. None of those other browsers work for me.

Wheelerof4te ... How do I run 52 from user space? I have it unzipped and click the binary but it seems Quantum has hijacked all the settings.

Thanks.

[Wheelerof4te]

^New 60 ESR.

You have other options, as mentioned. Chromium is kept up to date in Stable, too.

[usteveu]

cross post...sorry.

Wheelerof4te ... Chromium is not Firefox 52.

[Wheelerof4te]

You will have to open it with terminal or create a desktop file. Check out Debian's wiki page for Firefox.

[CwF]

First, uninstall 60.2 or whatever it is so it can't hijack anything. You state you don't want it then dump it, don't leave it around.

Do you have a 52.9 deb somewhere? Locate it, dl'ed if you find it and try with gdebi to install it.

This is exactly why I keep a pool for myself as a last known good. Stable is considered safe to keep pace with, but browsers and kernels I keep finding benefit from skipping every so often.

[stevepusser]

As always, older versions of packages are available at snapshot.debian.org: http://snapshot.debian.org/package/fire ... %7Edeb9u1/

The debs are at the bottom of this long page, or you can add a snapshot as a repository.

[debiman]

Thanks for the replies. None of those other browsers work for me.

Try seamonkey.
It's a lot like more like the old firefox-esr.

[bw123]

I hope if the OP finds an answer to the question about downgrading that works he will follow up.

From what I have read, after installing the newer versions of Firefox-ESR or Quantum, the config stored in ~/.mozilla will not be backwards compatible with the previous older ver?

The way to test the newer ver, with possibility to return to v52.x without reconfiguring all the about:config settings, and extensions, history, bookmarks, etc... would be to back up the ~/.mozilla folder first?

[Bulkley]

For what it's worth, Firefox-ESR Quantum uses the same config as Firefox Quantum app-image. As far as I can tell there is no behavioral difference between them.

[arzgi]

For what it's worth, Firefox-ESR Quantum uses the same config as Firefox Quantum app-image. As far as I can tell there is no behavioral difference between them.

For me it stopped playing videos from https://areena.yle.fi. This is the national broadcasting company here, so it wont show videos outside Finland. My wife's experience was same on her desktop pc.

reportbug showed good info, videos worked if started as:

Code: Select all

firefox-esr -safe-mode

and also, if I emptied

Code: Select all

.mozilla/firefox

so went my bookmarks , had to use backups.

I was advised, some extension caused this behavior, now I just have search for that, the probplem is that I don't remember having installed any...

Also me and my wife noticed Firefox Quantum loads web pages _much_ slower than chromium.

[debiman]

From what I have read, after installing the newer versions of Firefox-ESR or Quantum, the config stored in ~/.mozilla will not be backwards compatible with the previous older ver?

i don't believe this.
for me, ALL mozilla products were always very backwards compatible, trying to make sense of old configs, automatically converting them etc.
never had a problem with this specifically, for over a decade.

[usteveu]

Thanks, folks.
I got it done. After I figured out what to do and how to do it it was quite simple. Just uninstall 60. Download 52 and install it. There were a couple of dependency errors. Just search for, download, and install them. I now have my tabs below and Tab Mix Plus.
I wish Mozilla would spend more time designing their tab functions. That "tabs on top" is a showstopper for me. I categorically refuse to use it. I can deal with security issues better than poor design issues.

[debiman]

There were a couple of dependency errors. Just search for, download, and install them.

that sounds like it might cause some trouble later on, you should keep an eye on these packages.