Re: Removing Firefox Version Number

On 8月14日, 下午9时53分, Tyler Downer <[email protected]> wrote:
> In Bug 678775 (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=678775),
> Asa has suggested that we remove the version number from the Firefox
> About window, stating that the about:support page is all the
> information anybody will need. While I understand that the UX team
> wants to remove content from the UI and simplify it, there needs to be
> a balance between information that benefits someone, and cleaning up
> the UI.
>
> First off, the versions number has always been shown in the Help>About
> window for almost every Windows program for the past 16+ years (I
> started using Windows with 95, it was probably in use before then). By
> removing the version number from the About window (which was already
> simplified to showing just the version number, and not build ID in
> Firefox 4, eg. Firefox 4.0.1), then we open up a window of confusion
> with those people who want to check  just what version they are
> running.
>
> Asa says "When a user opens the About window for Firefox, the window
> should say something like 'Firefox checked for updates 20 minutes ago,
> you are running the latest release.'" But what if the computer is not
> always connected to the Internet and the user wants to see if they
> have the latest Firefox or if they need to connect to the internet and
> download it? Or if they have had issues with their internet
> connection? I had an Apache server set up on a computer once that i
> did not have connected to the internet so I didn't have to worry about
> security, but I did keep an up to date version of Firefox on the
> computer because I used it for web development. And using the about:
> pages isn't a good solution. 75% of people don't even know the about:
> pages exist (based on my triage experience) and users likely are not
> going to find them on their own.
>
> Now, while I understand that the UX team wants to make version numbers
> less important (that is something I myself want to see happen)
> removing them from the About window is not the answer. Even Chrome,
> which has a rapid release cycle and a VERY good updating process,
> shows the Version in the about window. What needs to be done is,
> remove the version from the download page. Just say "Download Firefox"
> and leave it at that. Make Firefox automagically update in the
> background (with an easy to find preference to turn that off), and get
> rid of the first run pages (which now that we are using rapid release
> and each new version has like 1 small feature, don't serve any purpose
> anyway).
>
> The About window needs to continue showing the version number, and it
> already checks for updates as soon as it is opened. I see little to no
> benefit by removing it (other that "let's remove something else from
> the UI". Might as well remove the entire about window) and just
> confusion, community angst, and frustration by cutting it.

Did you find that:
Comparing with Google Chrome, Firefox is based on
Mercury Repository of whom the HG version is not recognisable for a
human.

Let's look at a Google Chrome's version number:
"13.0.782.112, SVN-95650"
The "13.0" is for the public that the number grows by 1 every 2 month.
The "782.112" means the 112th update of the branch 782.
SVN-95650 is the SVN version.

The customer can easily find whether their chrome is newest by
checking "782.112" or "SVN-95650", even if the automatic update system
fails.

Then, go back to Firefox's "about:"
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:6.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/6.0
This tells nothing but the "big" version that is "always grows by 1
every 2 month".
in about:buildconfig, it shows "mozilla-release/rev/218ed8178b1e", OK,
what the hell is "218ed8178b1e"？
_______________________________________________
dev-usability mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-usability