Re: Removing Firefox Version Number

Teddy Ni wrote:
> 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 because FF is in fact out of date and there's no conventional way to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.

It won't say that Firefox was last updated 5 weeks ago. It will say 
something like "Firefox just asked Mozilla 3 seconds ago and Mozilla 
reports that you're using the latest available version for your 
operating system" or something like that worded much simpler (perhaps 
"Firefox checked for updates 3 seconds ago, you are running the latest 
release.")  If the user isn't on the latest version, Firefox will say 
something like "Firefox just checked and you're running an old version. 
The new version is installing as we speak."

> 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.

Firefox can push out updates any time. We push major updates every 6 
weeks on a schedule and we push minor updates as needed (see the 5.0.1 
release we pushed out for Mac users because Mac OS X Lion was breaking 
Firefox 5). As for feature accumulation, I wouldn't worry too much about 
that. Firefox will just get a little bit better every 6 weeks and users 
will find it's faster, more responsive, and works better for them. It 
isn't like the old days where we batched up new features for a year or 
two and then dropped them on a user all at once. The whole point of the 
rapid release cycle is to make change more incremental and less 
disruptive for users.

- A