How do I know if my Chrome and Firefox browser are up to date in Xubuntu 16.04LTS? I'm having all kinds of funky issues (invisible links and all-around bugginess) replying to emails in my Godaddy email account. The tech people (who usually try to say Linux is the problem) are now saying 'these things happen' when the browsers aren't up to date. I do regular sudo apt-get update/sudo apt-get upgrades so I'm figuring that keeps the browsers up to date but I don't know.

And a realated question. Now that I think of it (I have two Xubuntu 16.04LTS computers.), on the home computer I get software updates to be installed from Xubuntu all the time, but I never get them on this (work) computer. Could the updates be getting installed automatically or perhaps they're being installed through sudo apt-get update/sudo apt-get upgrades or perhaps they're not being installed at all. How do I check this? Thanks.

I'm not running Chrome so I can't help there.

With FF go to the 3 lines in the right hand corner of your browser and click on that.
When the window opens with all of the options go to the bottom of the window and click on the question mark.
Than click on 'about firefox' it should show you what version of FF you are running.

I'm running version 52.3 of FF in Slackware. What version are you running in Xubuntu?

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/releases/

If you want a newer version of FF let me know I've got the cmd's written in a book I keep for Linux.

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Thanks Ztcoracat. Looks like I'm one off the latest. I'm not in hurry to upgrade though as I really think the problem is with Godaddy's crappy email. (The Godaddy rep told me it was 30 years old.)

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1600 posts and you still haven't grasped the concept of package management and repositories?

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Ondoho comments such as that are not helpful.

Please review the original post which does mention aptitude.

It also appears that the Gregg Bell's version of Firefox is up to date.

And I have the latest version of Chrome, so the tech's excuse is just that.

Hi, Gregg.

As a Chrome user under the 'grandfather' rules (!!), having switched to Chrome at the original 'beta' preview & evaluation release back in Autumn 2008, I can perhaps explain one or two things about the Chrome update process.

I was originally using it under XP; I've only used Linux for around 4 years, most of those exclusively with 'Puppy'. The Windows version of Chrome contains a built-in updater which you can trigger manually, unlike FireFox's which starts automatically the moment the Help->About window appears. With Chrome, there's a button to click on in order to start things rolling; otherwise, it works the same as Firefox, necessitating a browser restart to complete the process.

In Linux, the Firefox update works just the same; the user initiates the process simply by going into Help->About. Chrome, however, works a wee bit differently. In the majority of mainstream distros, installing Chrome also installs the Google 'Chrome' repo, which will update the browser as & when Google roll out the updated version.

No amount of 'apt-get' updates will speed this process up, since the update is, in this instance, not coming from the distro's repos, but rather Google's own repos.

You can, however, speed this process up simply by visiting the Chrome downloads page, d/l-ing the relevant .deb or .rpm package and manually installing it. This will overwrite the package contents; it does not, however, affect your bookmarks/extensions/history, etc, as these are stored in the /.cache & /.config 'hidden' directories in your personal directory.

----------------------------------------------

You can rest assured that the version on offer at the Chrome downloads page is, without exception, always the very latest 'stable' release. Google's browser is built, and tested, dozens of times a day by 'buildbots', totally unsupervised, semi-autonomous automated processes.

If you're running a distro that uses the Debian/Ubuntu .deb packages, one little tip; install 'gDebi' from the repos, then use that to install 'stand-alone' .deb packages. It was designed for just this purpose; don't ask me why, but it seems to do a much better job of tracking down needed dependencies.

Hope that's of some use.


Mike.

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Hi Mike, Thanks a lot for the great information. The version of Chrome I have (screenshot) is only one off the latest version so whatever is happening I am not using an ancient version. And thanks, yeah, I do have gDebi for installing .deb stuff. (I found the Ubuntu Software Center installs hardly every worked.) I don't think I'll upgrade since my Chrome is so relatively new, but if I do, it's great to have the information about how to do it. Thanks.

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You can't help using a product for almost a decade without learning summat about how it works..!

Yes, Canonical are one of the only organisations I know of who've managed to screw up the Synaptic package manager system. (The 'Software Centre' was only ever a user-friendly GUI 'front-end', in any case, but as usual, Shuttleworth's crew managed to mess it up.....'cos they just cannot leave things alone that simply 'work'). They're always convinced that a few 'tweaks' will improve things; sadly, they rarely (if ever) do.

'Twas just one of the multitude of reasons I gave Ubuntu the 'bum's rush' after about 9 months or so of use.....

TBH, in one of the Puppy 'spins' in my 'kennels', I'm using Chrome 39. It was re-mastered into the ISO at 'birth', and still plays NetFlix, and streaming video & audio services, without issue; I discovered quite some time ago that you can update PepperFlash in Linux, even on very old versions of Chrome/Chromium.....because the API's 'plug'n'socket' for Pepper hasn't changed in all the time they've been using it. (It's one of the few items I am fanatical about keeping up-to-date.) And the earlier Chrome releases ran a heck of a sight faster than current ones; it was one of the things that attracted me to it in the first place.....it's sheer, blinding speed of operation!

Two versions off new? I wouldn't bother for at least another half-dozen releases; you'll be perfectly safe, trust me. Chrome's 'tab sandboxing' design goes a long way towards mitigating most nasties on the 'net.

Where else d'you think Mozilla got the idea?


Mike.

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You're Welcome.

Yeah, your FF browser is all up to date. You should be good.

Sorry I'm not good with Chrome.
I would imagine you could find out what version of Chrome you have somewhere in the settings.

30 years old the rep told you.... Jeeeze; I'd say they are do for a major upgrade to their e-mail software.

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Ha ha. This stuff is all so different than Windows. Click a button. I have a really old computer too and it's a challenge getting what I want to work work properly. (Eg. Playing videos in FF is still a challenge.) But you know, I enjoy making it work. I got the computer because they were throwing it out because it crashed. Well, I plopped Xubuntu on there and it works five times as fast as the Windows did on it. It's the Linux adventure. Thanks for the info about Chrome. I'll sit tight with it.

Thanks Ztcoracat. Yeah, no kidding. 30 years old. And uh, gee, they didn't tell me that when they were selling me the package. "Now, our email software is 30 years old and really wonky." Ha ha.

That's just crazy.

Maybe if they get enough complaints they will upgrade. I'd think they would.

Enjoy your Xubunu machines and your browsers.

Cheers,
Ztcoracat