Re: Removing Firefox Version Number

Asa Dotzler wrote:
> Let me give you an example that I think will help make this clear. Back
> in 2001 or so, most of us were on MS Windows. Windows provides an OS
> standard tool for moving between documents and application, called the
> Taskbar. It works quite well for a lot of things, but we noticed that
> more and more that our browser windows were sort of overwhelming the
> Windows Taskbar.  A volunteer in the Mozilla community created an
> extension that offered a very interesting non-standard mechanism for
> organizing browser windows called Tabbed Browsing. This wasn't at all
> like the native Taskbar and it wasn't even like the MDI interface that
> Windows offers in applications like Office. But tabbed browsing seemed
> really compelling to some of us and so we built it into Mozilla and then
> Firefox. This was a total violation of the OS standard on Windows, Mac,
> and Linux but we didn't let that stop us. There were plenty of people
> telling us we were crazy (really!) but we stuck to our guns and today
> it's one of the most popular features of every single browser.

Wow.

Seriously, wow.

Changing history much...? InternetWorks, NetCaptor, IBrowse and Opera
ring a bell...? All of those had tabbed browsing BEFORE Firefox. You
copied the feature from them.

Even you yourself had a blog entry in 2005 in which you wrote that
tabbed browsing is ***NOT*** a Firefox invention.

http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/008433.html

And here you are now, claiming that it *was* a Firefox invention and
that everyone copied it. Let me guess - in 2015, you will be claiming
that Chrome copied the rapid release model of Firefox. What's worse,
you will believe it.

Just like you believe that removing version numbers from the About
dialog is a good thing.

You can't present any truly meaningful reasons - much less data! -
about why this is good, but you're adamant that it *is*. To support
your claims with a wild, unrelated, tangential example, you rewrite
history, twist the truth, and even deny yourself.

And if you tell yourself a lie enough times...

It's two numbers and a dot, ffs, leave them alone. You have been told
that by countless people all over the internet - people who are
responsible for spreading Firefox and attracting more users.


P.S. Your numbers are shrinking, by the way. Instead of aiming to hit
one billion users, how about aiming to keep what you already have?
Removing things, changing the UI drastically and breaking extensions
won't help you with that.