Mozilla Firefox 6 Released Ahead of Schedule

BogenDorpher writes "Mozilla is currently on schedule to release Firefox 6 on August 16th but it looks like the final version has already been signed off and is unofficially available on Mozilla's servers."

Comments

Why not just wait for version 7?

[EmagGeek]

After all, it'll be out Friday..

Plugins

[Allicorn]

Unfortunately six of the plugins I rely on (yes, those plugins that are supposedly the #1 reason to use Firefox over less customizable browsers) don't yet even support Firefox 5. Everytime that "update Firefox" box comes up, I check, find six plugins outstanding, and back out of it.

Update too fast and you will leave users behind.

Re:Plugins

[EMR]

This is why they are encouraging extension developers to switch to the Mozilla addons SDK which provides API stability between firefox releases (and is built in in firefox 4.0+ ). the addon SDK also allows for installing plugins without restarting the browser!! YEAH!!!

now, have you tried installing the addon compatibility reporter?

  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compatibility-reporter/

with that enabled you can forcibly enable addons that claim to not be compatible and test to see if they work. Also it gives you a away to send feedback to the developer that "hey it works" or "no it doesn't". And of course if you haven't contacted the developers of those addons, then that could be why they haven't been updated.

Re:Plugins

[DesScorp]

Unfortunately six of the plugins I rely on (yes, those plugins that are supposedly the #1 reason to use Firefox over less customizable browsers) don't yet even support Firefox 5. Everytime that "update Firefox" box comes up, I check, find six plugins outstanding, and back out of it.

Update too fast and you will leave users behind.

I used to encourage Firefox use in my shop... I gave my users the choice of IE and Firefox, and back when IE had that huge list of old unpatched holes, I told my users that I preferred FireFox if they were so inclined.

I've taken FF off of the approved list. The upgrades are coming too fast, and breaking too many things (mostly plugins, as the parent poster noted).

Re:Meanwhile...

[Samantha Wright]

I would suggest mentally normalizing the version numbers into release dates. Keep a list in your head, or on a wall, and then you can judge outdatedness more cromulently:

• Firefox 1.0: November 9, 2004
• Firefox 1.5: November 29, 2005
• Firefox 2: October 24, 2006
• Firefox 3: June 17, 2008
• Firefox 3.5: June 30, 2009
• Firefox 3.6: January 21, 2010
• Firefox 4: March 22, 2011
• Firefox 5: June 21, 2011
• Firefox 6: August 16, 2011

Now, you can truthfully ask yourself "How outdated is this user?" rather than the bogus proxy question "How many versions behind is this user?"

Does Mozilla not read Slashdot?

[linebackn]

I can understand companies not being in touch with their customers, but does Mozilla not even read tech sites like Slashdot? Every story about Firefox lately is filled with exactly how negatively people feel about this version number fiasco.

Chrome was able to get away with bumping version numbers because it was a very new product and nobody was depending on it yet. Even though they removed the "beta" tag surprisingly early on (for a Google product), I think many people STILL consider Chome as "beta".

On the other hand large corporate type applications were just beginning to support Firefox and depended on long term support of major versions. Well, that has just been stomped in the face. Sadly, from a corporate stand point the only browser that really seems stable, viable, and "corporate friendly" now is IE.

Comments on the browser itself?

[vlm]

So... 40 posts about how much better the support experience would be if they incremented it by 0.1 instead of 1.0, as if the bugs somehow know which digit was incremented. But, no comments about the actual browser? For example, have they finally reverted "tabs on top"?

Re:Comments on the browser itself?

[Briareos]

For example, have they finally reverted "tabs on top"?

So right-clicking somewhere in the toolbars to bring up the toolbar context menu and unchecking "Tabs on top" (which I actually like a lot, thankyouverymuch) is too much to ask?