Comments on: The new amateuristic release strategy of Firefox http://www.g-loaded.eu/2011/09/28/the-new-amateuristic-release-strategy-of-firefox/ An open-source software and technology related journal Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:13:01 +0000 hourly 1 By: Abercrombie http://www.g-loaded.eu/2011/09/28/the-new-amateuristic-release-strategy-of-firefox/#comment-19268 Abercrombie Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:33:17 +0000 http://www.g-loaded.eu/?p=2505#comment-19268 I don’t advocate with IE and firefox. I usually use a web browser to complete the various tasks. Without any reason is invalid, proved to be the is a waste of time, deal with extended because the new version not compatible with strategy.

]]> By: Stunt http://www.g-loaded.eu/2011/09/28/the-new-amateuristic-release-strategy-of-firefox/#comment-19265 Stunt Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:25:06 +0000 http://www.g-loaded.eu/?p=2505#comment-19265 Like you I’ve been with FF since Phoenix days.

The whole Firefox/Thunderbird release strategy is a joke. Some addons disable every time, and most of the time reading the release notes they’ve barely added anything – so who does it benefit.

Chrome can manage to update dozens of times and never once have I noticed, cared or has an addon broken. So they should take a leaf out of G’s book and only enable the crazy “but it goes upto 11″ updating scheme only when they’ve figured out how to a) Do it entirely invisibly, and b) Never break an addon.

Whilst I’m whinging why, oh why, does TB now include a full blown instance of FF browser, complete with plugins and addons. I know I need to process HTML emails, but really just use the basic engine – with no extra junk. Isn’t the bloat of Communicator what prompted the separation in the first place, with an aim to have superfluous stuff in addons?

]]> By: I also remember Phoenix http://www.g-loaded.eu/2011/09/28/the-new-amateuristic-release-strategy-of-firefox/#comment-19116 I also remember Phoenix Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:41:49 +0000 http://www.g-loaded.eu/?p=2505#comment-19116 There’s something to be said for allowing your users to choose! Look at Ubuntu. They’ve fixed the worst aspect of Debian (*long* release cycles) and they deliver releases every six months. However, they also create LTS (long term support) releases for customers (e.g. enterprise) who don’t want to be on a release treadmill.

If Mozilla wants to push out new releases more frequently, it would really be nice if they could commit to patching security holes in a given release (“LTS”) so that users and extension developers have a stable platform to rely on. Those that want bleeding edge features can jump on the release treadmill.

Instead what they’ve effectively done is forced users into testing beta releases, even though they’re not called that.

]]> By: Chuck Jones http://www.g-loaded.eu/2011/09/28/the-new-amateuristic-release-strategy-of-firefox/#comment-19010 Chuck Jones Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:26:25 +0000 http://www.g-loaded.eu/?p=2505#comment-19010 Seriously Mozilla, let’s ease off on the updates. Every day my wife complains that she has to update *AGAIN* just to be able to surf the web. I turned off auto updates to stop her complaining. I downgraded to 3.6 as my favorite password automator isn’t interested in running with the bulls and neither am I …

]]> By: George Notaras http://www.g-loaded.eu/2011/09/28/the-new-amateuristic-release-strategy-of-firefox/#comment-19000 George Notaras Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:41:27 +0000 http://www.g-loaded.eu/?p=2505#comment-19000 @kazetsukai: I didn’t say I prefer IE over Firefox. What I really said is that, if Firefox upgrades continue to give me a hard time with the extensions I use, I wouldn’t mind switching to another web browser that lets me do my job uninterrupted, even a closed-source one like IE. I use the web browser to accomplish various tasks. There is no reason valid enough to justify the time that is wasted while dealing with extension incompatibilities because of the new release strategy. I’m sure the enterprise world won’t approve this new release strategy.

]]> By: kazetsukai http://www.g-loaded.eu/2011/09/28/the-new-amateuristic-release-strategy-of-firefox/#comment-18999 kazetsukai Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:15:36 +0000 http://www.g-loaded.eu/?p=2505#comment-18999 Like Firefox or not… if you prefer IE to anything, you’re crazy.

]]> By: George Notaras http://www.g-loaded.eu/2011/09/28/the-new-amateuristic-release-strategy-of-firefox/#comment-18951 George Notaras Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:43:19 +0000 http://www.g-loaded.eu/?p=2505#comment-18951 All I say is that they rushed to switch to the new release strategy without first making sure that the transition would be smooth for the users. Hence the amateuristic. Why the rush? Jetpack should be used for a while (> year), so as to give extension developers enough time to adopt it. After the major extension developers had switched, then they could change the release strategy. But, in this case, marketing was the real reason for the rush to switch strategies. There is no other explanation that makes sense…

]]> By: comzeradd http://www.g-loaded.eu/2011/09/28/the-new-amateuristic-release-strategy-of-firefox/#comment-18949 comzeradd Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:03:53 +0000 http://www.g-loaded.eu/?p=2505#comment-18949 You are actually wrong on everything :)

The new release strategy is an engineering decision, not a marketing one. It’s a way to adopt more rapidly new features. (Remember how long we’ve been waiting for the FF4).
See here a list of features and technologies that users will experience in the near future, just because of the new release strategy.

As for the extensions thing… well it was time for a breakthrough and it was inevitable to break backwards compatibility. From now on all add-on developers should use Jetpack, so their extensions keep running regardless of the FF version ;)

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