Re: The future of Linux32 builds and tests

On 2015-10-08 5:26 PM, Mike Hommey wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 08, 2015 at 12:42:11PM -0700, Daniel Holbert wrote:
>> On 10/08/2015 11:34 AM, Daniel Holbert wrote:
>>   https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1204920#c1
>>
>> The numbers there show that ~40% of our Linux users are using the
>> 32-bit version. (on release & beta channels)  That's more than I was
>> expecting.
>>
>> Given that, I'd be uncomfortable with option (3) ("turn off Linux32
>> builds + tests entirely").  I'd also be uncomfortable with option (2)
>> (doing builds but no tests), because then 40% of our linux users would
>> be getting un-tested bits.  (Likely-working since they work on other
>> platforms, but who knows.)
>>
>> Option (1) (running tests occasionally) seems doable though, and
>> depending on how infrequent "occasionally" is, it seems like it could
>> get us cost-savings that are close to those from option (2).
>
> Now the interesting question, is how many of those users are running on
> 64-bits systems, and are only using 32-bits builds because that's what
> they downloaded back when mozilla.org didn't even offer the 64-bits
> version, which brings to the additional question: would it be worth
> forcing 32->64-bit upgrades of Firefox.

Aren't the vast majority of users running a version of Firefox 
distributed by their vendor (of which Ubuntu probably has the largest 
share, see e.g. 
http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOperatingSystems.htm)? 
I don't think any metrics gathered from the Firefox builds which we 
distribute are going to be very useful for measuring the impact of this 
change.

I'd suggest reaching out to at least Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora on this 
and see what they think, at least as input. They're the domain experts, 
and we really depend on their goodwill for ensuring that Firefox remains 
the default browser for their operating system.

Will