Update to FFox latest version or...no?

There were a lot of complaints about FF updated versions a year or so ago, thus I am still running the older one.
Thinking about updating to newer version, need pros and cons.

I am running XP 2022 ser. pack 2.

The latest release 3.5.2 is yummy. Well, maybe not yummy, but as of this version several glitches that showed up in the initial release of 3.5 are gone.

If you have the version 2 series, note that FF 3.x is different in many ways. The changes were what caused a lot of complaints. I still don't like some of them entirely myself, but I've either grown accustomed to certain things or have turned off those bits that I didn't want.

Ohh..I checked. I have 3.0.3.
Only issue I have is browser crashing a fewt imes a week, usully after I have been on it most of the day, even tho Ihave emptied cache, etc.

Could you tell me what some of the major differences are with 3.5.2?
I know it is a big question to ask, and will understand if you do not have time.

... except that stability and load times have been improved.

There is one feature in it I do not like, the Location Aware Browsing. It's not as bad as it sounds because you have to agree to every request a website might make for your location, and you can turn it off entirely.

There's a lot under the hood, notably support for the HTML 5 standard, which, when implemented more broadly, will allow for multimedia presentations (video) on websites without proprietary plugins like Flash, Silverlight, and Quicktime.

There's also the change in javascript rendering engine, which significantly increases performance on javascript heavy sites. That's worth the upgrade to 3.5 by itself.

OnEdit:

Major changes to 3.5: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.5/releasenotes/

I use ie8 and love it. I've actually taken the time to compare firefox and ie8 in both speed and likeability. IE8 beats firefox hands down in speed and the other is of course personal but I like the way pages load in ie better than in firefox. I try firefox pretty regularly like when a new big upgrade comes along and I for the life of me can't see what everyone who loves it see. My advice is put ie8 on your machine along with panda's cloud antivirus and enjoy

Objectively, IE8 is not faster than Firefox 3.5.x. It's actually among the slowest. IE is also among the biggest hogs of memory.

It may have been about equal to FF in terms of speed prior to the release of 3.5, but it isn't now.

http://lifehacker.com/5352195/browser-speed-tests-chrome-40-and-opera-10-take-on-all-challengers?skyline=true&s=x

but I'll stick with what I was saying. My own timing on my own machine using sites I go to regularly, like du and I'll reiterate, Ie8 is faster than ff. I haven't compared chrome but no matter I won't be using it anyway so why bother. The pages look crisper using ie as a plus as my old eyes aren't what they used to be. I have cookies blocked and of late I'm doing the in private because I'm not so sure I like the idea of sites collecting info on my surfing habits and it was a simple registry edit to make ie8 start in inprivate mode to btw.

I'm not trying to convince you to use anything other than what you want to use. No single application fits the needs or desires of all people. Variety is a good thing.

I'm just commenting on the speed issue, which many independent tests have confirmed. The issues involving the javascript engine and memory use are major elements in the latest version of FF, and IE simply has nothing to compare to it at the moment.

My personal tests have shown results opposite to yours. I'm not sure DU is a really good test anyway since the load times I personally experience for any pages that aren't heavily populated with third-party graphic links or hundreds of messages load somewhere in the 1-2 second range. It's difficult to get an accurate reading of browser speed under those conditions given all the other elements that can affect any test. For example, testing one browser at a time when google-analytics is having one of its seizures or when the server with our avatars is burping will affect the test in ways that aren't precisely a browser issue itself.

Anyway, I just wanted to mention it.