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Firefox Adopts a 6-8 Week Variable Release Schedule (mozilla.org)
AmiMoJo writes: Four years ago Mozilla moved to a fixed-schedule release model, otherwise known as the Train Model, in which we released Firefox every six weeks to get features and updates to users faster. Now Mozilla is moving to a variable 6-8 week cycle, with the same number of releases per year but some flexibility to 'respond to emerging user and market needs' and allow time for holidays. The new release schedule looks like this:
- 2016-01-26 – Firefox 44
- 2016-03-08 – Firefox 45, ESR 45 (6 weeks cycle)
- 2016-04-19 – Firefox 46 (6 weeks cycle)
- 2016-06-07 – Firefox 47 (7 weeks cycle)
- 2016-08-02 – Firefox 48 (8 weeks cycle)
- 2016-09-13 – Firefox 49 (6 weeks cycle)
- 2016-11-08 – Firefox 50 (8 weeks cycle)
- 2016-12-13 – Firefox 50.0.1 (5 week cycle, release for critical fixes as needed)
- 2017-01-24 – Firefox 51 (6 weeks from prior release)
The idea of having a "regular schedule" of releases is stupid. What if you didn't have any compelling features to add? You are just going to do a release because that is what the release schedule says? Here is a hint guys: writing software is not supposed to be just to keep you busy. It is supposed to deliver a product that is useful.
This upgrade treadmill is getting ridiculous. Can't anybody build anything that will last more than a few weeks? Am I that old to believe long tern stability is a good thing?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Users want a consistent interface, which is to not be arbitrarily mucked with, or copy annoying features of That Other Browser, which do not serve the User. They want their browser not to routinely dumb down features to better accommodate the lowest common denominator.
They want a lightweight, extensible, secure browser that respects their right to privacy, and enhances their privacy on the Internet. So far, they've done just about everything in their power to make sure Firefox does not supply these features; for example: Pocket. No reason for it to be anything other than another extension. Promising to do away with the extension framework down the road. Doing absolutely nothing about browser fingerprinting, when they're in the ideal position to fight it. Not allowing power users to whitelist sites that don't abuse Javascript. Etc. Etc.
They want the extensions that attracted them to Firefox in the first place to continue to work, which is again something they've promised to do away with in some future release.
In other words, if you had a goose which laid golden eggs, you'd probably want to take care of it and stuff, right? These guys do anything in their power to neglect and annoy that goose. The goose is going neurotic and plucking its own feathers and banging its head against the wall, and they think it's great.
Sounds like you want Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR). ESR releases receive a major update only once every 10 months, but still receive the same bugfix and security patches as the regular releases. Also, when you do get updated to a new ESR version, you know that it's one that's already been supported as a regular release for 2 months, so there's very little chance of surprise problems.
The current version is Firefox ESR 38, which was released as ESR on 11 August last year. The next one is ESR 45, coming on 31 May, which will last all the way until 21 March next year.
Hope that helps you.
Well, the key word now is "improvement", isn't it? That seems to be a matter of perception. I would love to know where the "improvements" are in a program that is no faster than, has grown just as fat as, and still has less than a quarter of the user features of its ancestor. Most of the processing is used to hide the garbage.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”