Re: Removing Firefox Version Number

Teddy Ni wrote:
> On Aug 16, 2:05 pm, Asa Dotzler<[email protected]>  wrote:
>> Kai Engert wrote:
>>> Having the version number available simplifies the diagnosis of
>>> problems.
>> For those diagnosing problems, how is Help->Troubleshooting, which
>> contains the version number right at the top, not a better tool?
>>
>> - A
>
> You are not asking the right question here. No one is arguing that
> Troubleshooting is not a good place for diagnosing problems.
>
> But Troubleshooting is not part of the normal workflow for most users.

Neither is checking their software version number.

> I don't have data to back this up but it appears more plausible than
> the alternative, given all the comments here and my personal
> experience. One IMHO very reasonable path for technologically informed
> users is to look up the version number and then search on Google.

And this is crazy. What if Google says that the latest release of 
Firefox is 5.0.1 but Google's actually only telling half the story 
because 5.0.1 is only for Mac users and Windows and Linux users are up 
to date at 5.0?  Now the user is stressed out because she thinks she's 
not up to date when she actually is.

The entire workflow you describe here is good for traditional desktop 
software like Microsoft Office which updates once every several years. 
It's possibly even OK for software that updates every year or so. It's 
not really ideal for software that updates every 6 weeks or even more 
frequently than that.

- A