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Mozilla To Remove User-Facing Firefox Version Numbers

Posted by Soulskill on from the numbers-are-a-distraction dept.

MrSeb writes "A great collective gasp issued from tuned-in Firefox fans when Mozilla announced that it was switching to a Chrome-like release schedule for its browser. Now Mozilla wants to take things one step further and remove Firefox version numbers entirely — from the user-facing parts of the browser, anyway." You can see the Bugzilla entry for this change, and keep up on Mozilla's reasoning and discussion through a thread on the mozilla.dev.usability newsgroup. Mozilla's Asa Dotzler explained, "We're moving to a more Web-like convention where it's simply not important what version you're using as long as it's the latest version. ... The most important thing is confidence that they're on the latest release. That's what the About dialog will give them."

5 of 683 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Did the Gnome guys take over Mozilla or somethi by gad_zuki! · · Score: 5, Funny

    Moz devs: "No, no. We need an add-on that shows the version number. Someone will write it."

    User: "What version of FF is that add-on compatible with?"

    Moz devs: "Yeah about that....fuck you."

  2. Microsoft Support Center by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Caller: "My computer will not boot into Windows"
    Support: "What version of Windows are you running?"
    Caller: "Windows"
    Support: "But what version of Windows are you running?"
    Caller: "Windows"
    Support: "..."

  3. Re:So What? by logjon · · Score: 3, Funny

    With what versions is this extension compatible?

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  4. Re:This is a horrible idea by sorak · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, they've already gone apeshit with the version numbers anyway. I favor removing the number before it gets to 100.0.

    I say name each version after the first thing you exclaim when something goes wrong.

    In other news, Mozilla shitfuckdammit will replace the address bar with an animated monkey who suggests up to three web sites to you.

  5. Re:Version information can be important by paulkoan · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't need to close Firefox and reopen it. It is perfectly able to close itself at random times for me.

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