Mozilla pushes for fast move to Firefox 3.6
Mozilla hopes to classify the upcoming Firefox 3.6 as a minor update, a move that may sound inconsequential but that in fact might have significant repercussions with Firefox users and the speed the open-source browser is developed.
Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's director of Firefox, in a mailing list discussion that he'd like to call the new version a minor release "to quickly migrate our user base to Firefox 3.6." Minor releases in the past typically have been steps from, for example, 3.5.3 to 3.5.4, but Mozilla is trying to speed up more significant changes and not just fixes for bugs and security holes.
"Firefox 3.6 will be primarily a release with security, stability, speed and capability enhancements, with no visible user interface changes over Firefox 3.5. As such, I think we should consider it as a candidate for a minor update, stretching our definition of what types of updates we can provide using that mechanism," Beltzner said.
Be default, Mozilla automatically distributes minor Firefox updates to be installed after a user prompt. Major updates initially require the user to actively retrieve the new version, though Mozilla gets more active as time passes and older versions reach the end of their support lifespans--January 2010 in the case of Firefox 3.0.
Why change the process? To keep up with changes in the browser world, Beltzner said.
"The pace of technology development in web browsers is speeding up rapidly, and we now face a challenge of ensuring that we can continue to deliver modern web browsing experiences to our users," he said.
And in a position that mirrors the rationale that Google offers for its automatically updating Chrome browser, he added, "Users' expectations of software have changed since the update mechanism was introduced in Firefox 1.5. Many applications that browser users interact with exist in the cloud, with updates pushed frequently and transparently, without consultation. That wasn't the case only a few years ago."
That sounds reasonable, right? Well, it turns out nothing is simple.
One problem is that add-ons won't work with the new version unless they're updated, too, and there are a lot of add-ons in the world. "Add-on compatibility is one of the large reasons why users do not move from one version to another," Beltzner said.
Sure enough, John Barton, an IBM employee who's a member of the group overseeing development of the Firebug add-on widely used in Web site development, raised concerns about moving quickly to 3.6 and the current version 1.4 of the add-on.
"We're a little confused by a Firefox 3.6 that can't decide if it is 3.6 or 3.5.5. If 3.6 is really minor, release it as 3.5.5. Else, well then it's not minor after all," Barton said, though adding, "I support shorter release cycles in Firefox."
Add-on compatibility problems is one reason Mozilla is moving to the new Jetpack extensions system in Firefox 4.0 next year.
One of the big new features in Firefox 3.6, code-named Namoroka, is the arrival of Personas, which lets people customize the browser appearance.
Mozilla said the first beta of Firefox 3.6 is due this weekend or early next week, and Beltzner said there currently are no plans for second beta. The final version is due by the end of the year.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
changing the add-ons system is a big mistake i belive..people are used to this system , why w'd they apply a new one that is used in chrome ? this way they give chrome a big advantage which is..when people adopt the new add-ons system they can make the sameplugin for firefox and chrome..insted they could simply add a tool in firefox to allow any plugin to be used or unblocked when firefox is updated to a newer version .
This is why I don't use those applications. You never know when an update will break something. It's best not to update until you know everything is working. Since I would be unlikely to hear about problems first if I was running these apps, I don't run them.
Yet another example of software companies hijacking control of your computer, while the users sit there oblivious to it all.
I see nothing wrong with Mozilla doing this, and I LAUD Google for being the first to do this. No, they are NOT hijacking control of your computer in the slightest. They are giving you fair warning beforehand, and telling you "You don't like it... don't use our software!"
all updates wreak havoc some where.. linux, mac, ms
Only a fool would use a handicapped browser like Chrome. Google has taken a modern functionally browser and turned into crap. And I irritated that Google gets credit for things they do not deserve. Google has taken Webkit and Gecko technology and created Chrome. They have not developed their own engine like Mozilla. Google should get NO!!! credit at all here. They have not even developed their own Java-script engine. They out sourced that job to a Danish company. So what's left? A handicapped interface which looks like crap and it's not usable at all.
Google gets credit for work they do not deserve. Google didn't develop Chrome. They just came up with a handicapped interface.
Mozilla's mission is to advance the web and standards. That's their mission. Google's mission with Chrome (stupid name btw, just like android. Who the he** comes up with all these stupid names?) is to make you look and click on more ads.
and it seems like Chrome's users dont really know what they want ..
most of them say they like it for being simple and it is a browser so a browser should be used for browsing only ..
but when the news about Chrome OS appeard ..all of them started to talk how great this one is going to be even tho its an OS built around chrome browser, where the browser w'll be the main shell in the OS and it'll be used to browse the web, open your images, browse your netboob "like windows explorer" and basicly everything ,so what about simplicity ? i'd call that hypocracy..not simplicity . all of a sudden Firefox add-ons become un-necessary , RSS feed..not big deal, master password key..something from past.. add to that IE sucks but using its proxy in chrome is awesome ..
The Chrome Javascript engive (V8) is not outsourced to a Danish company, it is developed by Googles development team in Denmark.
Which Gecko technologies are being used in Chrome?
Whats wrong with reusing WebKit? Googles work help make it better to the benefit of Chrome, Safari, mobile browsers, etc. - Whats wrong with that?
You may not like the interface (or the speed), but that is no reason to call those that do fools.
Regards,
Peter Frandsen, Chrome and Firefox user.
60% or so of people are still use to internet explorer and are making the switch when they do most of the time to FireFox. chrome is stagnant.
Stephen Shankland what the heck are you talking about? To me it seems that you are trying to make a story out of nothing. Typical modern internet tech journalist style to confuse to grab page views. 3.5.3 to 3.5.4 is not a minor release. It is just a bug and stability update. Nothing more. To call that a minor release is like to call a Microsoft Patch Tuesday a minor release of Windows.
3.5 to 3.6 is a minor release. That's why they use the version number 3.6 and not 4.0. Just as they thought that Firefox 3.5 was a big enough of a release to justify the bump in version number from 3.1 to 3.5.
3.6 may do great things BUT IT'S STILL A MINOR RELEASE!
Why give up something that works? Right? I think its much better to stop updating a version and release another. Don't upgrade something people don't want upgraded. Let them decide. Its not that you have to keep up dating it. Just don't take it away. Apple terrible at forcing a upgrade and making it almost impossible to go back. I am finding that out with Safari 4. Its a good browser but it still has bugs and it would be nice to go back to Safari 3 for a while until their worked out. But that's wishful thinking too.
That said, the nightly builds of 3.6 are quite good and seem as good or better than 3.5.3. I'm looking forward to version 4.0 when they change to process-based tabs.
- by tigger4046 October 30, 2009 12:22 PM PDT
- Although the public beta has not released yet, you can download a nightly build right now:
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(26 Comments)http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/3.6b1-candidates/build1/