Lack of silent updates was one of the key reasons I switched from Firefox to Chrome (speed was another.) Seemed like every time I opened the browser to view a webpage I needed to see that very moment, Firefox would pop up an annoying update prompt that I'd keep clicking out of each time.
+1 - Interesting - that's actually why I've switched over to Chrome as well. Basically, every time I started up Firefox on my System at work on XP, Firefox would Freeze with a "Hey, we're going to upgrade you now - why don't you just go grab some coffee!" - So, slowly but surely, my goto browser started to become Chrome. The downside of this, is that, over time, I started firefox even less frequently, and, as a result, it was _always_ waiting for an upgrade. making it even worse.
The funny thing is that from a Linux user's perspective, Google was simply providing a workaround for what should have been the OS's job. On Linux, Firefox's auto-updates are disabled so that the OS can handle that instead.
This is probably the best solution, as it gives you the most control over updates, and applies to all software system-wide. You're not forced to install updates at any time, and you can disable the notifications if you want.
And last I looked, that's how Chrome/Linux works too, at least on Ubuntu. When you download and install the deb, it'll set up apt sources so you get updates through the system.
I also appreciate that when I close a tab, its memory is returned to the OS. My safari process tends to need killing once in a while, after it's been mean to my VM.
