Firefox 6 doing away with version numbers...

[MiccyNarc]

And people are pissed...

http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...r_sparks_backlash?taxonomyId=211&pageNumber=1

Honestly, people need to chill. 90% of the people using FF don't know, don't care what version they are running. I work in IT and I see it every day. And it's easy enough to check if you actually care, just type about:support into the address bar and voila.

People just hate change :-\

 

[AtomicSpark]

Or people hate running the installer every week.

 

[Vegeta897]

You have to run installers to update Firefox?

/laugh

 

[Stigmata]

"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."

Yeah... that's not a thing.

 

[Destructo-Bot]

No, people hate their add-ons breaking just because of a version number change.

 

[Stigmata]

I'm pretty sure it's the code changes that break add-ons.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Headline: Browser becomes 'more web-like' by doing away with established web-like feature.

Firefox is becoming irrelevant pretty fast, and it makes me kind of sad. I'd switch back in a second if they trimmed the fat and made it run half as efficiently as Chrome while retaining it's core features. There's a few things it still does better, but on the whole it's just not worth the performance hit.

Also the latest version is ****ing ugly. What's with the stupid orange button?

 

[Dinnesch]

You don't have to run the installer over? I kinda miss the time I looked forward to every major update, though

Anyway it's still my favorite browser, it's way ahead of Chrome in customization options and the URL bar is superior. My PC is fast enough to make the speed difference with Chrome forgettable.

 

[MiccyNarc]

Yeah... that's not a thing.

What version of Facebook are you running? That's what they're talking about.

No, people hate their add-ons breaking just because of a version number change.

Mozilla has been working hard to make sure that add ons don't break on version changes. Firefox 9 (due out this year) will mark add ons as compatible by default.

I'd switch back in a second if they trimmed the fat and made it run half as efficiently as Chrome while retaining it's core features. There's a few things it still does better, but on the whole it's just not worth the performance hit.

Firefox 7 (due out in 6 weeks) is as fast as Chrome, Firefox 8 (which I'm running running the nightly build of now) is faster, especially if you get the 64 bit version. A lot has changed in the past few months for Firefox and a lot of it is positive.

 

[ríomhaire]

I don't get it, why take away numbers? It's true that the majority of web users don't give a damn, but then they wouldn't know how to check their version anyway. Who exactly does this help?

 

[Bad^Hat]

Firefox 9 (due out this year)

...

Firefox 7 (due out in 6 weeks)

...

Firefox 8 (which I'm running running the nightly build of now)

And to think, soon we won't be able to have this discussion! :v

 

[MiccyNarc]

The version numbers will still be there but hidden in the about:support page. The uproar is removing them from the help>about menu.

 

[ríomhaire]

The version numbers will still be there but hidden in the about:support page. The uproar is removing them from the help>about menu.

Ok, my question goes from "Why are they doing this?" to "Why does it matter if they remove it from one place and leave it in the other?"

 

[Stigmata]

There's no reason to obfuscate it at all in the first place. All it does is hide information that was, technically, already hidden from view. How many times does anyone go to the About page to check the version? Why change it?

 

[Raziaar]

No, people hate their add-ons breaking just because of a version number change.

Couldn't that be prevented by decent programming to prevent such fragility?

 

[Destructo-Bot]

The way I understand it is that the devs aren't permitted to specify a max version number that doesn't exist yet for their plugins. Whenever the version number changes, they have to update their plugin to increment the max version number. Most of those plugins would work just fine if there wasn't any kind of version check.

 

[Bad^Hat]

So what does removing the version number from the about page have to do with performing a version check? Are they doing away with numbers entirely or just obfuscating them? I'm so ****ing confused why would they do this.