Re: Removing Firefox Version Number

Adam Kowalczyk wrote:
 > Allow me to chime in, as I made the same point in another post but it
 > went unanswered.
 >
 > Your answer doesn't address the problem. He heard Firefox 15 was
 > have process-per-tab and he wants to find out if he's running that
 > version yet. Telling that he's got the latest version, without
 > specifying its number, does not help him.

Hi Adam. Two answers. First, if Firefox 15 has shipped, he's already 
running it or will be as soon as he opens the About window.  If it 
hasn't shipped, he's not running it. He doesn't have to wonder.

Second, for the relatively small group of people who are interested in 
the architectural changes happening in Firefox, the Troubleshooting page 
will make it very obvious which version they are using. If I want to 
know if I've got the Firefox version that ships with Azure Canvas, and I 
know that Azure canvas is in Firefox 7, I can very easily click the 
Firefox menu, then the Help menu, then the Troubleshooting menuitem.

Let me give you another example. Firefox shipped "Hardware Acceleration" 
in Firefox 4. As a user I might want to know if I have Hardware 
Acceleration. Opening the About dialog and looking at the version there, 
Firefox 4.0.1 doesn't actually tell me if I have hardware acceleration. 
The only easy way to find that out is to go to the Troubleshooting 
window and see if I have full, partial, or no hardware acceleration.

Likewise, Firefox shipped with a "new Firefox button for all your common 
menu-driven interactions". As a user I might want to know if I have that 
feature. The way to find this out is not to open the About dialog, but 
to look up at my toolbar and see if I have the new Firefox button. If 
I'm on Mac, or Linux, or Windows XP, I won't have it and the version 
number doesn't help me at all because it's only available on certain 
platforms.

My point is, that the features that power users like you and me care 
about (hardware acceleration, new graphics backends, process separation, 
etc.) are better understood from the Troubleshooting window than the 
About window AND that non-geeky features, like the Firefox button or 
tabs on top, are obvious from the feature itself or not better 
understood by querying the About dialog.

As it turns out, the process per tab feature that users will notice is 
actually the removal of a user interaction. Where before a web page 
crashing could take Firefox down, after process per tab (or domain, or 
just separating content from chrome) users won't see Firefox crash as 
often. So, the feature of "not crashing as often" is, for most regular 
users, not particularly interesting as a feature and may be achieved 
through bug fixing as much as through process per tab re-architecting.

But, because I don't want to be accused again of not answering the 
question, if you're one of those people who follow the tech press 
closely enough that you're waiting for new features in Firefox, you can 
always check the Troubleshooting page for the Firefox version -- or if 
you really really need it front and center, there are extensions that 
will put it in your titlebar or addonbar for you where you can't ever 
miss it, and I'm sure there will be an extension that puts it into the 
About dialog as well.

Hope that answers your questions.

- A