Mozilla Moving to Faster Release Cycle

Softpedia.

 

...ah yes, the usual software game.

Let's launch software as soon as it's available - no matter if it has bugs, the first users can beta test it.
I wish they did that with the cars of CEOs - one catches fire up.. bug in the fuel pump... one can't break (bug in the electronics)....

Why should we Beta test stuff just because some - cough - wants to push out software as fast as possible?
Let the beta testers test - and the end user use a finalized product as bug free as possible.

Edit:
Just to add some more - consumers will not accept if an item is faulty - a washing machine, car, etc. so why should we (knowingly!) accept the same from software?
Just imagine the news saying "recently an Airbus/a Boeing crashed due to a software bug that was due for a fix.

According to software companies that should be normal? It's one thing if a security vulnerability is detected after the fact and fixed - but knowingly releasing software as "stable" with bugs without a disclaimer alpha/beta I'd like to call criminal.

 

Firefox 5 coming within 4 months after FF4

 

why then are you still on firefox? that is a never ending bugridden alpha/beta application.

if cars would be developed open source, then people would be the testers, too. it's a logical normal way to do stuff. oh, and, if firefox crashes, nobody dies. so users CAN test and hunt down bugs, unlike with cars (there they do sometimes, too.. but we can just hope those bugs never lead to deaths, just small accidents)

 

Because I will not use google software, Opera once hijacked my settings and IE has no really good adblocker.

On that note though - technically, Firefox 3.6.xx should be reasonably bug free.
As you might have noticed - I do admit that errors occur - it's normal. But I do not accept that software with KNOWN bugs is released as "stable".

And your "doesn't kill anybody" - hmm, does it? -> Let's assume that bug allows someone to hijack your bank/paypal account - or much simpler - if you live in a country like China/Iran, someone uses a bug to say post some offending material on a forum/facebook/twitter, whathavenot which causes trouble with the authorities? -> You can't know that.

 

right, i forgot i shouldn't talk with you. you can't read, nor can you judge applications based on what they are, but based on your strong missinterpreted believe of who's good and who's bad, and that.

hint: bugs are only known once they show up. for complex software, that's at the user, especially in opensource environments, which can't afford to buy thousands of test-systems that run 24/7 to try out everything.

and no, a browserbug does normally not kill. if car brakes break, then it's an about 100% guarantee for injuries and deaths.

but you won't understand logic anyways.

 

-> the problem here is, Mozilla stated that they plan to release software with KNOWN bugs - maybe YOU should read. I said I know bugs occur, but I'm talking about KNOWN bugs - not the ones one finds after some time.

Of course, if you want that - be my guest. I don't - in the same way that I don't want half baked junk because companies are too stupid to develop something properly - thankfully one can still avoid that.

And I think the next answer I could give would be political - so I won't, I'll just give you a hint, Europe, 1945-1989.

 

well, as said, firefox is a never ending project, it's an open source project. release often, release early is what works best for those. they have very limited resources, and thus can use all the help available. releasing with known bugs is nothing new btw, happens with both software and hardware. every processor that's out has an errata list.

 

Even worse if it's done regularly.

A product with a known bug should not be released (except as a clearly (!!) labelled alpha/beta/test product) - and if it is, then it just shows how low the world has fallen.

 

You're forgetting that no one is forcing you to upgrade to 4.0. If 4.0 is going to be as buggy as they say it is, I have no problem with waiting on 3.6 till 4.1, or 5 or whatever is out.

 

FF 4 x64 didn't crash for a week with 50to60 tabs open .. ram usage 1.1Gb lol don't care about that.

Using nightly builds ... so don't care about major release cycles

 

Firefox 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0 to Ship in 2011

 

I've since switched to Chrome for my daily needs, but I still go back to FF because of certain needed addons.

 

Mozilla details new Chrome-like release schedule and channels, Firefox 5 soon

 

It's been a huge security flaw that they didn't already do this. Being on old versions of the renderer/compiler means that holes in security aren't patched for weeks at a time.

I'm glad they're finally doing this.

 

So is the Beta channel going to be similar to Chrome now, where it's essentially just 4.0.35 Beta, when the current version is 4.0.34?

 

First Firefox 6 build next week, Firefox 7 by May, and aurora channel introduced

 

Good luck with that. What release deadline have they actually met recently?
Even google doesn't have a schedule.

 

Well, I mean, if they continue to only make changes to small, focused chunks of code with each release, it could work out well.

 

New Icons:

 

Download Aurora Here It is now Firefox 5, and downloading the nightlies is Firefox 6.

As seen on Neowin:

Nightly=Chromium
Aurora=Chrome Dev Channel
Beta=Chrome Beta Channel

 

Mozilla needs to learn that improvements must come as quickly as the user base can adapt to them. Such a fast release cycle will either mean frequent updates and incremental improvements or frequent updates and huge improvements that require the user to relearn the UI.

 

I dunno update seems to come fairly quick with Chrome(many times I didn't even realize my version was update) and I don't think many are complaining there. Then again Chrome has basically had the same same look and feel since it was introduce, no?

 

Does it install over ff4 final?

 

Nightly doesn't... and the first change to Firefox 6 disabled pretty much all add-ons.... even their compatibility reporter... possibly idiots in charge.

As far as I can see it will just cause a lot of troubles, besides the fact that possibly quite soon we'll have firefox 487 and nobody will be able to keep track of the count... -> and obviously all the bugs that will turn up with every release, fixing one to add two more...

 

I was going to install the aurora, but I don't want to lose FF4 in the process.

What are the changes?

 

I can't see any in Nightly (which is 6 -> i.e. one step ahead)
Looks the same, acts the same - and after they fixed it the add-ons work again.

Overall it's possibly a bit quicker when starting up and quicker when loading pages, definitely on script heavy stuff, but it seems faster on regular pages too, i.e. possibly a better cache management/use.

-> But my guess is most changes are "under the hood".

 

It feels like they're trying too hard, but as long as these updates include bug fixes, then their hard work will be worth it.

 

It already has Chrome beat in the Orwellian user monitoring department (but not by much). I wonder to whom Mozilla is selling the free market research FF users provide them.