Is older better when it comes to Firefox?

by Alexander Levine on April 20, 2012 in Internet Software, Software, Software Comparison, Software Guides, Software Reviews with 7 Comments
Husband and wife quarreling over Firefox

At OldVersion.com, one of our most downloaded software titles is Firefox.

With rumors flying around that Firefox could possibly embed video chat in its future versions, it begs the question: are newer versions necessarily better when it comes to this web browser? Do we need Firefox 18.5 with video features and Facebook integration? Isn’t simpler better when it comes to web browsing?

Thus, I decided to embark on an experiential journey to test the progression of version iterations and how it affects system performance. In other words, I wanted to see if Firefox 11.0 runs as well on older computers as older versions do.

I did this on Dell Latitude D830, a fairly old system that has often benefited from running older versions.

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Why old software versions matter

by Joseph Black on March 25, 2012 in Featured, Software with 2 Comments

In a recent post on the oldversion.com blog attention was drawn to a comment left on the site’s Facebook page by a user who said, “I am using your oldversion.com resource to restore some really low resource computers to give to people who have no money to buy a computer for themselves or their children.”

What a fantastic use of the oldversion.com service!

If ever there was an argument for maintaining freely available archives of old versions of software, then this has to be one of the better ones. Why should access to computers and the Internet be the sole preserve of those privileged enough to afford it?

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Old versions make us a little more equal

by Alexander Levine on March 5, 2012 in Featured with 4 Comments
Old user frustrated with newer versions

I was sifting through our Facebook page saw something that made me smile:

“I am using your oldversion.com resource to restore some really low resource computers to give to people who have no money to buy a computer for themselves or their children.”

Michael further went on to comment:

The computers I am working on are Intel mmx 200 and amd 233 processor based. The business school my oldest son works at refitted all their classrooms with new units when alex an investor bought the school and these units had to be gotten rid of. I had room in my garage and the hauled them over here and I have been working on them on and off for the past two years. They all had win 98 installed so I had to find old software to work with win 98 and have came up with quite a lot. Firefox 3.6.25 works pretty good and is still supported by Mozilla.

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Old versions are cultural artifacts

by Alexander Levine on February 21, 2012 in Software with 2 Comments
ft2

If you’ve been browsing around the site for a while, you’ll note that some old versions simply don’t function anymore. So why do we have them?

At OldVersion.com, we believe that software is a cultural artifact. Therefore, we made a decision to archive all software regardless if it’s working or not.
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Why I’m willing to go to jail for running OldVersion.com

by Alexander Levine on January 25, 2012 in Software with 47 Comments
ft1

Archiving older versions is an honor. I like to think of myself as the curator of a new kind of museum, carefully picking and choosing which software to put on display. There are some true gems of true gems of software history here and also some not-working software that have turned entire industries upside down.

Not everyone seems to understand the purpose of this museum.
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