Re: Removing Firefox Version Number

On 15/08/11 22:32, Asa Dotzler wrote:
>
>
> Tyler Downer wrote:
>> On Aug 15, 12:20 pm, Pascal Chevrel<[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Le 15/08/2011 19:56, Asa Dotzler a écrit :
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Unless the reason you need the version number is because your
>>>> troubleshooting and I don't see any other obvious use cases for the
>>>> version number.
>>> Beta testers and web developers need to find that information rapidly
>>> because they switch constantly between different versions of Firefox for
>>> testing (the application itself or the pages they create).
>>>
>>> Pascal
>>
>> And they don't want to have to do extra steps to go into
>> Troubleshooting to find the number... And, if you totally get rid of
>> Version numbers, say goodbye to the beta testing community.
>
> There are no extra steps. Help->Troubleshooting is just as many steps as
> Help->About.
There are extra steps: figuring out where the info is. Every software 
ships with that info in the About window. Asking people to learn and 
find the new place for it is a huge burden on the users that want this 
info (and a lot of answers explained that some users do need this).

Also, unless I've missed the explanation, you never actually explained 
why removing the version number is so essential. You only said it was a 
"requirement of the feature" and that version numbers are going away. I 
agree the majority of users don't need to see this but some do. Like web 
developers. A web developer needs to know what version he is using as a 
basis before looking for precise documentation.

> We've removed it from all of our marketing materials. We're removing it from the download button on the Website.
Not yet, see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=668122

FWIW, I like the idea of telling how long ago the check for updates was 
done and I like the idea of trying to put less emphasis on the version 
number. I also think removing it from the about window is too much.