Re: Linux and Software Freedom

On Aug 16, 8:33 pm, Asa Dotzler <[email protected]> wrote:
> There's a perfect example up-thread where a user didn't know if he was
> up to date when he had Firefox 5.0 installed but Google or some news
> report or some friend told him they had 5.0.1.

True enough. But the chronology is backwards here. That comment
happened after this decision was "made." If that specific type of
situation had been the sole cause of removing the version from the
About dialog, but not from the Troubleshoot page, then I'd expect that
explanation would have been given much earlier. It wasn't given
earlier, as far as I can find, so it leads me to think that there are
yet uncited reasons for the removal of the version string from the
About window, but not the Troubleshoot page. I would love to hear
these other reasons if there are any.

> Answering the question "am I on the latest version"
> is the primary usability goal of the About window for Mozilla. We think
> we can answer that in a way that isn't confusing for most people and
> doesn't require users to guess about whether "the Web" or "a friend" of
> "something I read on twitter" are reporting accurately on what the
> latest version is for that user.

If someone gets caught up in such a situation, and they open the About
window to find Firefox saying it's up to date, but with a lower
version than they saw cited in the "gossip," and decide to distrust
the dialog, and research it anyway, then will they not come out of the
experience with more trust in what Firefox says? The learning process
may be arduous, but the results would be positive, would they not?