Re: Removing Firefox Version Number

Hasse wrote:
 > Asa Dotzler wrote...
 >> Isaac Stitz wrote:
 >>> What if I want to check and see what version number I'm using so I
 >>> can determine what add-ons will (or won't work) for me?
 >> Another good question presuming you aren't up to speed on our rapid
 >> release system.
 >>
 >> As I said above, you will always be on the latest version.
 >
 > If that can be taken for granted, what is the point of having an
 > updateUI i the About dialog? Why not move it the Troubleshooting tab,
 > since an out-of-date browser presumably is a failure of some sort.

Yes, Hasse. You are mostly right here. That is essentially what we're 
trying to do. We're trying to minimize the information in the About 
window except communicating to the user -- to give them confidence, 
"Firefox just checked a moment ago and you can be confident that you are 
running the latest and greatest Firefox available." Maybe in a few years 
users will all have that confidence but right now they don't so we want 
to help them transition smoothly to this new world of always being on 
the latest version and not ever having to worry about that (a lot like 
Web apps are today.)

In addition to the "we're not there yet" issue, there's also an edge 
case here, though, where for a couple of days after the release, some 
users are still in the process of being updated automatically. If they 
go to the About window and the update is not yet complete, we should 
really quickly complete it for them and tell them we're doing that. 
That should not be the normal case for most users though and as we get 
better and better at more efficient deployment, that becomes even less 
of a concern.

Eventually, this use may nearly fully disappear. When everyone gets 
comfortable that they are always safe and secure and always on the 
latest offering that Mozilla has for them, most will stop wondering 
about up-to-date-ness completely and even this confidence-building 
feature may not be necessary.

We're not quite there yet :-)

- A