Re: Removing Firefox Version Number

On Aug 16, 6:50 pm, Asa Dotzler <[email protected]> wrote:

> Neither is checking their software version number.

My point was that it is more common to check software version numbers,
and there are more reasons to do so, than just troubleshooting.
Naturally, you could disagree and we won't get anywhere further
debating that angle, so I'll drop it.

> > 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.

What is so crazy about what I described? To clarify, I'm not talking
about users concerned whether they are running the latest version and
then searching Google to confirm that. We already have features in the
About dialog that inform the user whether they are on the latest
version or not.

I'm talking in this particular instance about self diagnosing an
issue. The user wants to know some information, let's suppose about a
new feature as an example. The version number serves as as the doorway
to this information, perhaps via a search engine. No troubleshooting
involved at all!

You've invoked your hypothetical user (and Google search too for that
matter), so let me invoke mine. User goes to About and sees no version
indication at all but sees FF last updated 5 weeks ago. How will this
user know how to find what he or she missed during that time without
the benefit of a targeted version search? Now the user is stressed out
because FF is in fact out of date and there's no conventional way to
find out what's changed.

To me it seems the lack of version numbers works well for a system
that can push out updates at any time. But FF has a structured release
cycle happening every 6 weeks, enough time for features to accumulate,
enough structure to attach a version number for organization.