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Mozilla.org Posts New Roadmap

Posted by Hemos on from the updating-the-.plan dept.

berteag00 writes "The mozilla.org staff has posted an updated roadmap detailing the Mozilla code base's relationship to the upcoming launch of Netscape 6."

6 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Only one thing... by Millennium · · Score: 4

    I would strongly suggest that the fork into the Mozilla and PR3 branches not occur just yet, particularly if PR3 is supposed to be a feature-freeze for NS6 (and judging from that illustration, it appears that's the case). There's still a lot to be done on Windows/Linux, and the Mac version is lagging far behind those, particularly in terms of security (no PSM, despite it being promised "soon" for many months now) and helper apps (which, last I checked, didn't even work with InternetConfig yet, though it was certainly planned).

    Besides, I liked the old Milestone system. Granted, some of the Milestones might need to be changed to reflect new developments, but it gave a clear look at where one is, how much progress has been made, and above all it wasn't a version number so there was no mistaking it for anything but a developmental release (this was Netscape's biggest problem with the preview releases; people keep seeming to think these should be fully finished browsers).
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  2. That last ten percent... by devphil · · Score: 4

    We are near the last ten percent of the "Mozilla 1.0" project, where the going gets tough.

    We all know the quote about the last ten percent taking the other ninety percent of the time, etc, etc. I think the last ten percent of the project is going to keep expanding (always remaining at "ten percent," of couse :-) unless they impose a freeze on the nifty neato keen cool shit that keeps getting added.

    /. has seen many articles about all the /stuff/ that gets thrown into Mozilla because it's "k3wl." Is there any information on a Mozilla feature freeze? I don't see any on the site...

    --
    You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
    1. Re:That last ten percent... by Hard_Code · · Score: 5

      You know what's even more satisfying that both? Creating elegant and bugless code in the first place. Sure it may sound facetious, but I really do get a lot more satisfaction upon committing rock solid code that does its job right, and is designed well, than coding up some whizbang piece of code in a frenzy then leaving it for poor bug hunters to waste thier lives trawling through for bugs. I'm of the opinion that even if it takes you twice as the first time to get something right, that still far outweighs the penalty of having to come back over and over again to fix bugs. The only "bugs" there should be are either typos, brain-blackouts, or really subtle design issues like threading and locking, etc.

      --

      It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
    2. Re:That last ten percent... by rkent · · Score: 5
      /. has seen many articles about all the /stuff/ that gets thrown into Mozilla because it's "k3wl." Is there any information on a Mozilla feature freeze? I don't see any on the site...

      From an outside perspective, it's easy to say this. But, realistically, it's a lot more fun to code in new features than it is to fix bugs. I mean, anyone who develops professionally knows how much cooler it is when your manager says "hey, figure out a way to code in feature X" than when she says "could you take a look at bug A1.006 and check in the fixed code when you're done?" And then you have to sit there and stare at this stupid text box that sometimes pops up and sometimes doesn't for no apparent reason, and check out 4 modules you didn't even think were affected because they're not interacting properly... etc etc etc. Fixing bugs really sucks!

      It kind of goes back to the theory that open source programmers are scratching their own itch when they contribute to a project. And most of the itches have been 90% scratched on this project. So who's still going to be contributing? Fortunately, there's a lot of effort still being put in by netscape; I don't think mozilla has really been depending much on huge fleets of independent developers. And we see how quickly it has gone so far. I wouldn't expect the pace to pick up now that the fun work is over.

  3. "Just a Browser"? by rkent · · Score: 4
    A ton of people are writing saying that mozilla should have started off as "just a browser" because "that's all I really want, a stable browser for UNIX." Unfortunately, that's not what there's a market for! These days most sites require javascript and/or java to run "correctly," and email and AIM are both really popular. So, saying that those things should wait until later is basically garaunteeing that mozilla doesn't gain any marketshare until later.

    Of course, one could argue that hey, this is an OpenSource project, it's the platonic ideal of software development, we the hackers can have whatever we want. Well, yes. Go ahead and check out a mozilla build and roll your own. You can do that. The thing is, the people who actually ARE contributing to mozilla are still strongly tied to netscape (okay not all of 'em), and they have wide acceptance as a goal. Which means it needs all that stuff. I don't think they made a poor decision by including it.

    1. Re:"Just a Browser"? by donutello · · Score: 4

      Whoa! You start with saying the browser needs to be extended with javascript and/or java and you are right there. There's no point shipping a browser which won't work on the majority of web sites.

      Then you make a huge logical leap by saying that email and IM is important so must be part of the browser. They are completely unrelated to browsing.

      It's ironic that Microsoft got into so much trouble for including a browser with the OS which they had a monopoly with while Netscape at the same time was including email and a development platform with the browser they had a monopoly with.

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      Mmmm.. Donuts