Re: Removing Firefox Version Number

Vega wrote:
> 1. Asa has even failed to provide numbers (or percentage) of such
> 'confused' users perhaps wandering around in a daze wondering about
> their Firefox version.

Hi Vega, thanks for taking the time to share your concerns here. Let me 
see if I can help answer some of them for you.

As I mentioned in an earlier post which asked a similar question, 
Mozilla is not purely data driven. We do use data as one of the tools in 
our toolbelt, but we also have highly educated, and very experienced, 
and super talented people working all over the Mozilla project. So, we 
do not require data for all changes in the Mozilla project. As a matter 
of fact, the Mozilla project has delegated to its various leaders 
(people who earned their responsibilities in the project through good 
deeds over time) the authority to decide how best to manage their 
particular projects and features.

Sometimes that project or feature owner will apply data to a problem. It 
can help them measure things they're unsure about. It can help them test 
solutions. But sometimes there are other ways to tackle a problem 
besides data and we trust our domain experts to make decisions based on 
those other things, including their knowledge and experience.

If you'd like to read more about how this works, I can recommend these 
two links:

*Mozilla Governance* http://www.mozilla.org/about/governance.html
*Mozilla Roles and Leadership* http://www.mozilla.org/about/roles.html

> 2. Why haven't Mozilla conducted an online poll to check if users
> would prefer this? If you have, mind publishing the results?

While a Mozilla module owner is certainly empowered to put things up to 
a vote, the Mozilla project absolutely does not require that changes 
must be subject to polls or popularity contests. That's just not how 
this project works. Again, I'd refer you to the links above if this 
doesn't make sense to you.

> 3. As always, The Ones from the Land of Perpetual 'Net fail to
> appreciate the need in emerging countries like India (where I'm from)
> - to NOT have automatic updates always on. In fact, I only update
> Firefox when I *know* there's a new release. Because I like to be and
> stay in control of the version I'm running, and downloading. And no,
> just clicking the "Check for updates" button for the removal of
> 'confusion' as Mozilla puts it, doesn't work for me, 'coz I'd be
> spending my net usage quota (tiny, but tangible) just to run the
> dashed check even if there's no update available. Has Mozilla even
> considered that? In terms of numbers I mean, which Mozilla seems
> reluctant to face.

We believe that for the vast majority of our users the tiny update pings 
that ensure your version of Firefox is secure and that your add-ons are 
not dangerous is well worth the few bytes of network activity.

These pings happen every day and amount to far less bandwidth 
consumption than loading even the smallest web page. This is indeed a 
piece of traffic and I am not saying that it is zero, but we believe 
that it is worth the safety and security benefit for most Firefox users.

That being said, if you really cannot spare a few tens of KB per month 
to have the piece of mind that your browser and your extensions are 
safe, you do have a mechanism available to turn it off.

> 4. Asa's responses smack (if not reek) of hubris, and that, though
> cavil, is enough of a reason to be put off.

I'm sorry I've made you feel that way.

> Quoting Tyler: "Thank you for showing to me that Mozilla is not the
> community that I need to be a part of."

Mozilla is a community that has changed quite a bit over the 13 years 
that I've been participating. Some of those changes have been difficult. 
The last time I think we made a change as serious as we've just done 
with the move to rapid releases was when we moved from the old Netscape 
Communicator clone version of Mozilla to Firefox.

Transitions can certainly be uncomfortable, even painful. With a much 
larger community today than we had back then, it's going to be difficult 
for even more people.

Mozilla survived that last big transition. It was a tough decision to 
change course like that but I believed then that it was the right thing 
to do despite it being difficult. I think the evidence today heavily 
supports that it was the right thing to do. The move to rapid releases, 
which is responsible for much of the discomfort I've seen in this 
discussion about version numbers, was another tough decision. I believe 
that it's the right thing to do despite it being difficult.

- A