It went against established UI conventions that span OSes and 20+ years of IT development.

The argument become overheated but Mozilla’s proposition had a number of flaws: Where ever we go with this, I don’t think it will have either a large impact on version number messaging or on making Firefox useless, so I think the rage on both sides is overrated.ĭone … I’m having a hard time finding anyone at all who thinks this is a good idea. Version numbers in software are like coordinate systems in physics: irrelevant and necessary at the same time - it’s completely irrelevant how you do them, but they provide necessary reference points. The organization put forward some reasonable arguments but ultimately backed down.

The majority of respondents detested the idea (although a large volume of ranting and spam appeared when Mozilla’s intentions went public). Uproar ensued on Bugzilla and the associated newsgroup discussion. If you really needed the version number, it could be found in about:support.Users would be informed when the last check occurred, whether they were using the latest version, and how they could update (if Firefox had not automagically done so).One solution Mozilla considered was the removal of version numbers from Firefox’s “Help > About” dialog. Those using Chrome either understand this concept or don’t care. The browser also has fewer legacy hurdles and has silently updated since the early days. It’s add-ons system is far simpler more akin to bookmarklets than integrated code. Mozilla is replicating Google’s release model but Chrome does not necessarily exhibit the same problems.

Few people understand the rationale behind major version increments. The majority of IT departments must test mission-critical applications before a browser update can be deployed throughout the enterprise. Most of us use extensions which cannot keep up with Firefox’s development progress. Most web developers agree it’s good for HTML5 feature evolution but it’s not without problems: Firefox’s rapid release schedule has not been the success Mozilla hoped.

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