Firefox 1.1 Scrapped

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Posted by Zonk on Thursday July 21, 2005 @04:12AM from the doing-it-up-right dept.

An Anonymous Reader writes: "The Firefox team has decided to scrap the planned 1.1 release (already in Alpha 2) and instead release the final version as 1.5 due to the significant number of bug fixes and changes. The 1.5 feature complete beta is expected next month." From the article: "We are planning for a Firefox 2.0 and 3.0, but will divide the planned work over (at this point) three major Milestones, 1.5 (September 2005), 2.0 (unscheduled) and 3.0 (unscheduled). All major development work will be done on the Mozilla trunk, and these releases will coincide with Gecko version revs."

16 of 482 comments (clear)

Scrapped? by Anonymous Coward · 2005-07-21 04:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

Wouldn't it be more appropriate and less alarmist to say that Firefox 1.1 will instead be called Firefox 1.5?
1. Re:Scrapped? by mattdm · 2005-07-21 04:49 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Wouldn't it be more appropriate and less alarmist to say that Firefox 1.1 will instead be called Firefox 1.5?
  
  If the headline had said that, the slashdot editors probably wouldn't have even looked at it in the submission queue. The more alarmist entry grabs attention better, so has a greater chance of getting published. Basically, nothing to see here, move along.
if you're gonna just throw it away... by idiotdevel · 2005-07-21 04:14 · Score: 5, Funny

can i have it?
One small keystroke for a man... by Miros · 2005-07-21 04:14 · Score: 5, Funny

One small keystroke for a man, one giant leap forward for verison obscurity.
They really need to fix autoupdate by afidel · 2005-07-21 04:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

I was running 1.0.4 and just happened to notice the mozilla.org slashblurb about a new version. I checked and the new version was 1.0.6 which had major security updates, yet when I did Tools->Options->Advanced->Software update nothing was found (and this is simply a manual way to trigger the normal update mechanism). If the update software can't find a new version with major security updates then what good is it?

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1. Re:They really need to fix autoupdate by recoiledsnake · 2005-07-21 04:27 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  If you read the comments yesterday you would have found that mozilla does staggered updates to ease the pressure on their servers and hence the auto update feature will be working in a day or two.
  
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2. Re:They really need to fix autoupdate by linuxci · 2005-07-21 04:32 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  One of the main advantages of 1.5 is the improved update system. Everyone knows that the 1.0 one was not up to scratch that's why they spent a lot of effort improving it. Based on current nightlies I'd say they've done a good job.
Version Numbers by Hachey · 2005-07-21 04:17 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm just glad we are out of the 0.X realm. That was really hurting Firefox's street cred to be below 1.0 --- I'm for the rapid growth of Firefox's version number. We gotta catch up IE7 and Opera 8.

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Steal The Thunder and Double It by WillAffleckUW · 2005-07-21 04:21 · Score: 5, Funny

Steal Microsoft's thunder and release it right after IE 7. :)

Even better, release it right after IE 7 and say it's the bug fix for IE 7.

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Can you read this? by Henry+V+.009 · 2005-07-21 04:26 · Score: 5, Insightful

I've spent the morning reading WONTFIX bugs on the Firefox text zoom issue. I'm feeling down on the browser just now.

There is no good option for making text zoom permanent if you have bad eyes. You can kludge by zooming default fonts and then disabling everything else in CSS.

The people working on Firefox are not interested in fixing this because "text zoom breaks page layouts." The fix that they've decided on, which may or may not come someday, is a page zoom feature that zooms everything. (Raise your hand if you love sideways scrolling.)

I am amazed at the lack of consideration for people with bad eyes -- it's not a small number of people either. Mozilla composer bends over backwards to enforce alt tags for images, but when it comes to usability nobody cares.

Maybe we'll start to see some consideration of this sort of thing once the average age of open source coders hits 50 and they find themselves having to squint more often.
Re:Nonsensical change by hendridm · 2005-07-21 04:28 · Score: 5, Funny

This will only confuse people. "Oh No! I missed versions 1.1-1.4!"

That's okay. Those people are too busy looking for Windows 96-97.
Re:This is all getting quite confusing... by Alex+P+Keaton+in+da · 2005-07-21 04:41 · Score: 5, Funny

Internet Explorer is free about like it is free for me to have sex with my wife. Sure, no money changes hands for the act, but believe me, getting the package the sex is "bundled" with is very expensive.... Way too many diamonds, not enough pearl necklaces....
I am happy with Firefox. I do not think that I would ever pay for a browser however, even if it was really great. I guess we have all been conditioned to want free browsers....
Your browser is NOT Microsoft Internet Explorer. Close this window and re-open.

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Scrapped? if 1.1 is now 1.5 then ... by WillAffleckUW · 2005-07-21 04:43 · Score: 5, Funny

Wouldn't it be more appropriate and less alarmist to say that Firefox 1.1 will instead be called Firefox 1.5?

No, Firefox 1.5 will be Firefox 5.

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-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
1. Re:Scrapped? if 1.1 is now 1.5 then ... by AKAImBatman · 2005-07-21 05:12 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  No, Firefox 1.5 will be Firefox 5.
  
  A Solaris user, I see. ;-)
  
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Re:Is there any plan to ... by Will2k_is_here · 2005-07-21 05:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

This is antithetical to Firefox's mission. Give the user a capable browser that contains no bloat (ie. stuff some users don't want).

I looked at the 5 most popular extensions on mozilla's update site. The top 4 may be pretty popular but that's a bad idea since Mozilla would be guaranteed a lawsuit.

The fifth is ForecastFox and a lot of people (myself included) don't want it in there.
How Firefox is more "free" than IE by tepples · 2005-07-21 05:10 · Score: 5, Insightful
Firefox is not free either, because I must buy hardware to run it on.

But it is closer to free than the alternatives:
- With Firefox, you have a free choice of hardware to run it on. You can run it on PowerPC hardware, or you can run it on x86 hardware, unlike IE 6. Currently, if you want to run IE 6 (with Trident layout engine) on a Mac, you have to pay Microsoft for Virtual PC and Windows XP. Or if there is a large number of people on another kind of hardware, they can all pitch in to fund a port of Gecko to another platform; Microsoft would never allow that.
- You're also free to upgrade your Firefox installation independent of your hardware or your operating system. In order to upgrade to IE 7, on the other hand, you have to toss out Windows 98/ME, Windows 2000, or Wine/GNU/Linux in favor of Windows XP with slipstreamed Service Pack 2 ($200).