Pollywogs!

…aka Firefox 3.1.  Since Ubuntu doesn’t include a decent version of Google Chrome (or Chromium as it’s called on the Linux platform), I was forced to use the vastly inferior Firefox.  With the most recent version of Firefox (well, recent beta), Firefox performance on Linux hasn’t been slow-ass-dog compared to Firefox on Windows for a change, and actually feels much closer to Chrome on XP (my gold standard)…even on my ancient Dell Inspiron 6000 and it’s ancient Intel Celeron 1.4Ghz processor.

So, how does one go about adding Firefox 3.5 to their computer?  I haven’t bothered trying it on Windows (why bother when I’ve got Google Chrome) but here is the link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

In Ubuntu, I had a heck of a time finding one website which had all of the steps necessary to do it correctly, in one easy to read sequence, with no bullshit…so here it goes…

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I had to add a new repository.  There were builds for intrepid, hardy and jaunty (that I’ve installed myself, probably more).

echo “deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/fta/ubuntu jaunty main” | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

You also have to authorize this repository.

gpg –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv 632D16BB0C713DA6

gpg –export –armor 632D16BB0C713DA6 | sudo apt-key add -

Then to install.

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude install firefox-3.5

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Shut down your existing instance of Firefox before running the new version, as it will clone your current profile for you, preserving your history, cookies and bookmarks.  When you run the new version, the menu entry is under “Internet”, and called “Shiretoko Web Browswer” if you’re running Gnome.  Marvel in the rendering speed and reduced CPU & memory loads.

Oh, and every operating system ought to have trusted repositories.  Boy would it be nice to run sudo aptitude safe-upgrade on my gaming XP box…