Firefox 6

[classical_hero]

What is going on with all these upgrades? They happening very fast, so I just don't understand why it could not be say 4.1 and so on, since they aren't much different from Firefox 4.

 

[Perfection]

It's the new way firefox is doing things. Rapid release of new versions every 6 weeks or so.

 

[Luckymoose]

I'm waiting for them to beat Chrome. I might go back if they do.

 

[deanej]

I'm trying to think of a piece of software where version numbers still mean something, and the only thing I can come up with is the Windows kernel.

 

[Maniacal]

Video game versions still mean something.

 

[Sadan01]

Even though I do not agree with the model Mozilla are following with releasing a new version every six weeks or so, considering that Google change the Chrome icon and increase Chrome up half a version level, I cannot fault Mozilla for doing almost the same thing.

As deanej says, most version numbers of software have been diluted over the past 5-10 years. Most companies today either put a year as a version or at the moment, an "X".

Even though I've never met a person that has said or reasoned the following, I suspect they're going to fast "versioning" due to being "left behind" by Google and Microsoft. Let's see - Chrome is currently v13.0.7 (full release) and their beta version is probably almost v14 by now. Microsoft have IE9 with V10 forthcoming. Mozilla sitting on version v6.0 of Firefox do appear, on the surface at least, to have been left behind.

 

[Maniacal]

I for one couldn't care less what the major version number of Firefox or Chrome is since they just keep updating the existing program.

 

[classical_hero]

Really the number change should be only done for major changes. As long as the browser is up to date and is working then I have no problem with is still being called say firefox 4.whatever, since as long as the quality is there, I will use the product.

 

[duckstab]

As a software engineer, I agree that version numbers should actually mean something. But usually the public version number is not under control of r&d departments anymore, it's usually determined by sales or marketing as part of the branding.

In this case, it's nothing more than an attempt to counter the incorrect perception that browsers such as IE 9 are far more advanced than Firefox was at version 5. I think Mozilla actually has plans to be all the way up to Firefox 8.0 by the end of the year.

 

[Sadan01]

Keep checking back on this page. It shows that Firefox 7.0 is due to be released on September 27, 2011 and Firefox 8.0 moves into BETA on the same date which most likely means Firefox 8 will be released in October or early November.

We could be seeing Firefox 9 before the end of the year.

 

[duckstab]

Yeah, woo hoo. Unless your QA organization now has to certify your app against four times as many FF versions as before

 

[deanej]

Or you're dealing with extension compatibility (I'm not since I use Chrome, but I've heard horror stories).

 

[Zelig]

Yeah, woo hoo. Unless your QA organization now has to certify your app against four times as many FF versions as before

My QA division certifies against standards, if users don't support those standards with whatever browser they're using, it's not our problem.

 

[duckstab]

My QA division certifies against standards, if users don't support those standards with whatever browser they're using, it's not our problem.

Must be nice. Our customers are mainly corporate IT departments who decide what browsers they're going to support, regardless of standards.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I was confused about the rapid updates too. I was wondering if suddenly they got a huge influx of developers working on it. And I was confused as they were annoucing Firefox 7 or 8 and I was still using 3 for addon compatibility. Some of the addons I use are slow to update but I use them very much and havent found good alternatives.

 

[GenMarshall]

I'm about to tell Firefox to quit updating itself since this is getting quite ridiculous. I won't be suppressed if there was Firefox 11 by the time Christmas rolls around.

 

[GoodGame]

I've noticed one pro-side to the updating, is that it rapidly leaves the ad-ware/malware in its wake. I was doing some of the typical "free surveys/download this" promos from Playspan/Facebook, and I was pleased to see that Firefox 6 was incompatible with many of the addons simply due to lack of backword compatibility.

So if it inadvertently improves surfing security, them I'm for rapid releases.

 

[Mise]

Well I for one no longer look forward to the next Firefox release.

About Chrome, I have no idea what version of Chrome I'm using. It's the latest version, that's all I care about. Chrome doesn't tell me or even seem to care about the version number. It's certainly not an advertising thing for Chrome. Why does FF or IE need to advertise its version number? I don't get it.

 

[deanej]

IE (and formerly Firefox) are built on older paradigms where the incrementing of the version number denoted major feature changes. Firefox left this when they started the new rapid release model but for some reason isn't dropping the version numbers until Firefox 7 for some reason. IE is still on this paradigm (in fact, it used to also be tied to windows version; IE9 is the first version not tied to a windows release since Netscape was the dominant browser). Chrome (and now Firefox) are built on a new paradigm: release as features are developed, increment the version number on set schedule regardless of changes.

 

[GoodGame]

Like deanej is saying, and additionally the under lying reason is marketing and revenue/relevance. If one producer starts advertising that their product is signficantly better and gets a word of mouth following on that advertising, then the other producer should follow suit, to maintain the competition. I guess the question to ask is if the incrementations are hype or not?

Probably a similar situation in the numbering of video cards which used to be very friendly to the uneducated (e.g. buy the next highest number), but became more complicated than that for a while.