back to article Mozilla plans four Firefoxes in 2011

Mozilla is planning to release four new versions of Firefox this year, shortening the browser's traditional release cycle considerably. To date, the open source outfit has released a new version of the browser every 12 to 18 months or so. Presumably, the proposed move is a response to Google, which now releases a new version …

COMMENTS

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  1. Paul McClure
    Stop

    Frequent updates, sometimes too many

    Excluding bug fixes and security updates they should limit major releases to one to two a year. It's unlikely a delay of a couple of months for the new shinny thing would bother many. Stick with stable releases and don't hoist the bugs on customers. There are enough bugs left to fix after careful editing.

    If you must change your operation do it to a plan rather than knee jerk response to a 'competitor'.

    1. Mark Aggleton
      Stop

      I thought..

      .. that in FF each new release was a bug fix release - in any other world it would be called a patch.

  2. SilverWave
    Linux

    WTF

    >Support modern operating systems and platforms

    > Windows 64-bit

    > OSX 10.7

    > Android 3.0

    > ARM CPUs

    Excuse me but wtf is Linux in that line-up?

    https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Roadmap

    1. Grey Goshawk

      hm

      They mean new operating systems and platforms. Linux has always been supported =/

    2. The BigYin

      @SilverWave

      Nice bit of partial editing. That page talks about "priorities". So it could be read that the various Linux releases are pretty good and that the releases mentioned are lagging behind.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Linux

      modern operating system

      "Support modern operating systems" = LINUX

    4. Wize

      @SilverWave

      That was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. They didn't mention Windows 32 by name either, but you get your penguin out and have a bit of a moan at being one of the downtrodden minorities.

      Unless you don't class Linux as a modern operating system.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Daily Shakespeare Quote

    What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.

    1. frank ly

      If You Like It.......

      All the world's a forum and all the players merely commentards.

    2. Beau
      Unhappy

      You are right!

      But you might at least try a little harder, and get your quote right!

      "What's in a name? That which we call a rose

      By any other name would smell as sweet."

      1. Ted Treen
        Thumb Up

        Who's a clever Bard-Steward then?

        While we're at it:-

        (Henry VI, Part II)

        "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

  4. CC

    Prefer Quality over quantity

    I would take one good release over 4 crappy releases and I especially like the way Chrome and Cromium can still use all extensions even in non final modes unlike Firefox that occasionally includes an Ad Blocker.

  5. steeplejack
    Linux

    Support for Linux is very poor.

    Most Linux users run 64-bit o/s kernel and libraries. So there should be a 64-bit Firefox for Linux. But there isn't. Get your act together, Mozilla!

    1. Cameron Colley

      There is (sort of) as 64bit Linux version.

      Minefield seems pretty good, and the nightly builds only sometimes break Adblock or NoScript.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Linux

      Most linux users

      > Most Linux users run 64-bit o/s kernel and libraries

      Really ? Based on what evidence ? Think you'll find that the majority are on tried and tested 32-bit

  6. ysth

    new version every 12 to 18 months? not so!

    Mozilla has released a whole lot more versions than that, just not major versions.

    Chrome isn't really comparable, since they don't make the same distinction of major vs minor.

    It's arguable which is the better approach, both for users and for web developers. Sounds like Mozilla is edging towards a compromise position. Will that be better than the extremes? Only time will tell.

  7. Big Al
    Thumb Down

    UI animation?

    No. Just no.

    That is all.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Status bar

    I'd prefer one with. Without the Status Bar it looks like a guy who forgot to put his trousers on. The missing SB is a fine example of the direction the browser as a whole appears to be heading and it is one I have no interest in. Rather like Gnome, reducing the ability to fine-tune and the available information. No thanks, I'm a control freak. I (once) thought we all were here. And coding for Mozilla.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Alert

      Status Bar vs Add Ons Bar

      If you simply need the Status Bar back for Add-Ons purposes then you can easily get it back by simply unhiding it (http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/what-add-bar)

      If you need the full Status Bar there is an add on for that (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/status-4-evar/)

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Too bloated

    Bring back Firefox 2 please. Stop f**king with HTML standards you pansy students with web design degrees and a failure to understand basic mathematics. Computing's turned from tech male dominated to Hollywood pink.

    1. The BigYin
      FAIL

      @Anon

      "Computing's turned from tech male dominated to Hollywood pink."

      May I just say "Alan Turing" and then "Now shut up"?

      Thanks.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Alan Turing

        The one No. 10 petition Brown _did_ satisfy. Apologise for something done decades before he had anything to do with it, so completely meaningless other than to theoretically get kudos for being his Honourable Right on-ness _and_ for giving the appearance of actually considering the petitions _and_ the implication that all the others - that _were_ relevent to the current electorate - were dismissed for unbiased common sense reasons rather than ignored for party political ones. And if a mike had been broadcasting it'd probably have caught him commenting about how if Turing had lived, Peter would be buggering the hatter out back as we speak !

    2. CD001
      Troll

      HTML Standards

      Which standards would they be then? HTML 4.01 Transitional? Strict? XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML1.1 Strict? HTML 5 which is not even standardised yet and is a bastardised HTML/XML mashup where tag closure is optional?

      The thing with standards is that non-standard elements have to be created before they can become part of the standard. Take the ubiquitous "title" attribute - that was originally an IE extension.

      Mind this is the first rant I've ever seen where "fucking with the standards" wasn't actually aimed at IE.

      Oh noes - I may have fed the troll...

  10. Tom 15

    Bah...

    They'll be lucky to get Firefox 4 out this year, let alone 5 through 7! They should just acknowledge that Chrome have got them beat... or perhaps focus more on Developer features like Firebug.

  11. Tigra 07
    IT Angle

    That doesn't add up...

    4 releases a year roughly 4 months apart is not 4 releases a year.

    Firefox aren't good with deadlines as FF4 showed.

    I support the good work they do, but anyone can see these deadlines won't be met.

  12. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    AI Level Playing Fields.

    Browsers are the NEUKlearer and Surreal Virtual Operating System GUI? And a question mark is only supplied for those who just haven't reached such heights yet.

  13. HMB

    Mozilla releases 4 stable Firefox builds and....

    Mozilla does 4 stable Firefox releases this year and 90% of Fortune 100 companies will switch to using linux on the desktop for their staff. I also hear that they'll perfect cold fusion, cure the common cold and BBC News 24 will actually start broadcasting respectable news again, all this year :P

    1. Ted Treen
      Pint

      Whatever you're drinking

      I want a pint of it...

  14. Corp-Rat
    Go

    Playing Catch-up

    Wonder if it's more that Mozilla are feeling left behind in the version number game and want to catch up, Even windows is "7" now

  15. Doug Glass
    Go

    Just what I need

    Broken add-ons every three months. Moronazilla needs to get a clue and understand quantity does not equate to quality necessarily.

  16. xj25vm

    Dicking around

    All this non-sense dicking around trying to keep up with the Jones of the browser world. There was a time when Firefox was going to right the wrongs of the browsers world - and give us an alternative for the crap the IE was putting out. Now they lost direction and all they can think is how to out-do Chrome (or whatever else) at completely irrelevant features.

    Stick with delivering a solid, bug-free, compliant and efficient piece of software and stop trying to 'innovate' for the sake of innovation and to justify your sorry jobs. That's exactly what fat companies like MS keep on doing and shoving on us all sorts of re-inventions of the wheel. That's exactly what Open Source projects *didn't* use to do.

    Nobody seems to be placing any priority on or talking about their other projects. How about the tons of bugs lying around for years in Thunderbird and Lightning? How about the crappy CalDAV support in Lighning? How about the pathetic speed on large calendar sets in Lightning? How about ongoing IMAP sync problems in Thunderbird? They have moved core functionality out of Thunderbird into add-ons - so that they can wash their hands of it and offload the work to outside contributors - in order to have more resources for marketing Firefox? Something has gone wrong there.

    Fire all the fluffy marketing execs and hire some software developers that give the community something actually useful - instead of press releases. Unless the money Google is providing come with explicit strings attached that it should be used for anything, except useful software for the community which might compete with commercial products.

    They are talking about Firefox 6 and moving to 4 releases per year for Firefox - when Thunderbird has struggled to move to even version 3 - and it looks like it is getting left more and more behind.

  17. Andy Farley
    Stop

    Give me back

    The top left hand window controls, a reasonable sized "bookmarks" button and the ability to move everything in the UI around and I'll be happy.

    The orange "Firefox" button is obviously the pet project of someone with too much power and not enough vision.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Alert

      UI customisation

      @Andy, just as frustrated as you but I find a lot of my UI niggles are easily solved by right clicking on any of the bars, selecting "customise" and then drag and drop items where you need them.

      Ahh.. Reload / Stop button back on the left...!

      1. Andy Farley
        Thumb Down

        Unfortunately the one thing

        it doesn't work on is the big orange button. The ability to have the menu bar next to it would be good as well.

        I'm seriously thinking of going Chrome. There, I've said it.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          I hear you...

          I hear you.

          I could be completely wrong about this but I thought I read about two possible solutions to this:

          (1) An add on (yes, an Add On!), or more promisingly

          (2) Some settings in about:config. Perhaps this might help?

          http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/07/06/remove-stuck-firefox-4-orange-menu-button-css/

  18. Framitz
    Heart

    Just about done

    Mozilla products have NEVER been fully stable or polished. I've used them on and off for years.

    Done with Mozilla, just about ready to uninstall forever, but holding on just in case.

    Using Chrome lately and liking it a lot.

  19. mittfh

    Extensions

    Most are compatible with future versions - they don't screw up the UI that much between minor versions. Unfortunately, not all developers are adept at putting an appropriate figure in the MaxVersion tag. There are two ways around this:

    a) Download the Add-on Compatibility Checker, which allows the browser to ignore MaxVersion and enable everything by default. However, if one extension does screw up your browsing, good luck in finding it...

    b) Download the xpi for an allegedly incompatible extension (rather than installing it), open up the .xpi in a compression program (xpis are just rebranded zip files), open up install.rdf, and change the value of MaxVersion. Double check it's the FF section, as some extensions will work on other Mozilla programs. Save install.rdf back to the xpi, and do a manual install. Then if you're feeling generous leave an appropriate comment on the extension's page at AMO.

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