Mozilla Firefox 4 will be our last big release

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/365602/mozilla-firefox-4-will-be-our-last-big-release

by cfontes • 15 years ago

62 24 15 years ago

pcpro.co.uk

nailer• 15 years ago

Nice. Google proved you could do the streaming release model, Firefox has seen the light.

This moves the web forward much faster than the 'big bang' style IE releases (sadly they're the ones who need this the most).

nopassrecover• 15 years ago

Firefox has been release streaming for as long as I recall. The only exception was major releases (as in to new rendering models). I'm not even sure Chrome has been old enough to run into this?

yannickmahe• 15 years ago

But chrome also updates automatically, without asking for user permission. Regardless of you think of that policy, it avoids platform fragmentation. Firefox seems to be headed to a big fragmentation. Can't say that's good news for web designer and frontend developers.

sp332• 15 years ago

Almost all users of Firefox and Chrome are using the most up-to-date versions of those browsers. Firefox updates download in the background and update with a single click. Firefox 5.0 (which will be out not long after 4.0) will have completely transparent addon updating - not even a dialog box.

necolas2• 15 years ago

It's presumptuous to say that this is the case for Firefox users. The fact that Firefox requires manual agreement to update means there is fragmentation. Faster updates will only increase that unless it is accompanied by automatic, invisible updates.

there• 15 years ago

how do firefox and chrome do that on unix systems where you've installed them initially by a precompiled package which put the binaries in /usr/local? you wouldn't have permission to update anything there, especially without a dialog box.

agentultra• 15 years ago

I can't really say I understand why "fragmentation" is a problem.

HTML5, CSS3, and ECMAScript are all standards that don't change very frequently. Not all browsers support them equally, but I thought we were trying to get away from caring about that. I haven't seen a "this site is designed for X" (X being some browser, usually IE or Netscape back when this practice was popular) badge in quite a few years. To me it seems that this strong competition amongst browser developers to compete for features and updates has been influencing web developers to bring back this bygone era. Is that really where web developers want to go again?

"Fragmentation" to me isn't an issue. A user shouldn't have to trust your code implicitly always and forever. If they don't want your shiny new features, they should be able to download an earlier version and stick with it.

Also, as mentioned elsewhere -- distro's might take issue with this sort of scheme.

To me it seems more like a competition with Chrome than a technical choice.

Derbasti• 15 years ago

Lets see if Mozilla can keep up the pace and lets see if they can push those updates unintrusive enough to keep users from leaving.

ozziegooen• 15 years ago

I don't like that title.

Had me thinking Firefox was preparing to shrivel down under Chrome. I became really, really sad for a minute.

For the last few months I've used Chrome because of it's speed and elegant interface. But I really prefer Mozilla and it's open source approach.

While Google isn't that bad, I feel like I'm doing the evil thing for personal satisfaction. Like I'm slowly entering the dark side.

jp_sc• 15 years ago

You can use Chromium if the license is what bothers you.

viraptor• 15 years ago

Now the question of distros remains. What will ubuntu do? Since they want a distribution that is frozen in time, will they allow updates at all, or create ubuntu-volatile repos, or ...?

Also, what will happen with addons? How can developers track API changes and provide updates in time?

seabee• 15 years ago

Same thing ubuntu does with chromium. As far as I can tell it's a problem already solved.

RyanMcGreal• 15 years ago

If that means I won't have to muck about with hacks like ubuntuzilla any more, I'll be happy.

juiceandjuice• 15 years ago

Ubuntu will now be based off of Arch instead of Debian in order to accomodate rolling releases.

kidding :)

adolfojp• 15 years ago

Well, you could always use Mint Debian and get the best and worst of both worlds.

timtadh• 15 years ago

DUPE:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2189121

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2189183

kamme• 15 years ago

I hope they do change their general approach and not just the update mechanism. I have been using chrome for a couple of months now and just switched back to firefox to see what the evolution is during my time 'away'.

It's quite a mess, from my point of view... As a webdeveloper the browser is my toolbox and while I do find firebug superior to the chrome development tools, the other things that caught my attention where not so positive... It feels sluggisch, was using 1.3gig of memory with 6tabs open and crashes frequently. But I do admit it feels like coming home a bit so I'm sticking with it and hoping things will be better in the future. I just hope this will end well for firefox.

If not they can always start developing another lean and fast new browser that will rock our worlds and gain populairy fast and change names a few times... (anyone remember phoenix and firebird?)

Mozilla Firefox 4 will be our last big release

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