July 06, 2004
firefox roadmap update
Ben's released a Firefox Roadmap update with new information about the road to 1.0 (and beyond). Included in that document is the latest version of the diagram I previewed here a few days ago. I took all of your feedback into consideration and here's what it looks like:
If you've got further suggestions for how I can make the roadmap more clearly represent the information that Ben has provided in the document, please let me know.
Posted by asa at July 6, 2004 05:45 PMWell, I'm just a bit confused by the text right below the roadmap on the page. Isn't that bit about the .10 and .11 release superceded by this?
Posted by: Greg Brown on July 6, 2004 11:08 PMHey, September 14 is my birthday...
Thanks for the gift mozilla.org :-)
Do the Tux and Windows logos below 1.0 signify that OSX will not be supported on Sep 14? Just curious...
Posted by: Paul on July 7, 2004 12:50 AMWhy is the next release called RC1? This release will be definitely no *release candidate*, the former names 0.10 or 1.0beta were much better.
Posted by: Thomas on July 7, 2004 03:15 AMThomas - Ben responded to that point in the newsgroup to say that he's not entirely happy with "release candidate" either, and that name isn't definite yet. The marketing folks don't want to stick a "beta" label on it, because that would make it sound rougher than 0.9.
Someone else made what I think is a good suggestion, used by others, which is to call it a preview release - 1.0 PR1. Sounds better for folks that don't understand version numbering schemes, and makes more sense to those that do.
Posted by: michaell on July 7, 2004 05:39 AMPaul - yes. As you can see from looking at the roadmap document, the OS X 1.0 will come after, as they'll need some time to fix up the UI for OS X.
Posted by: michaell on July 7, 2004 05:41 AMMichaell, you (or the marketing people) are right, that 1.0 beta sounds "rougher" than 0.9 oder 1.0RC1, but I think this is the main problem: The normal user thinks that Firefox is done, when a 1.0RC release comes out and is disappointed, when he is faced with the bugs, that 1.0RC1 (or what it will be called) probably will have.
I think, that a 1.0 Preview Release is a good compromise, but this time, mozilla.org or respectively Ben should not make the same error they have done with Firefox 0.9RC and 0.9 again.
For many users, Firefox 1.0 is our first and last chance to convert them from IE, and so we shouldn't miss it this time.
As pointed out by Paul, it might be a good idea to actually show the Mac OS X expected release date.
Posted by: Riscky Abacus on July 7, 2004 07:09 AM"For many users, Firefox 1.0 is our first and last chance to convert them from IE, and so we shouldn't miss it this time."
I agree with Thomas, i might not be the last chance but it's one of the biggest chances.
How 1.0 is recieved may well set a long term image. Let's hope there's nothing the average user would see as a bug/broken feature
That being said i'm pretty confidant it will be polished and solid. 0.9 was a good lesson. :)
Posted by: jasidog on July 7, 2004 12:57 PM> I agree with Thomas, i might not be the last
> chance but it's one of the biggest chances.
It might not be our last chance for every potential new Firefox user, but many people give new software only one try and if Firefox 1.0 fails because of some nasty regressions (remember Netscape 6 or Firefox 0.9), they will switch back to IE and probably never come back.
Mozilla/Firefox is so much better than the Internet Explorer because of its excellent standards support and the better usability, but today the most people only switch to "alternative browser", because of the security flaws in IE. But this chance will not continue forever, MS will release some patches and Windows XP SP2 and the people will have the feeling, that IE is save now.
I cannot really imagine, that MS will ever release a good and standard compliant browser, but if the new IE in Longhorn will be good enough and quite save, it will be very difficult for us to tell people to switch to Mozilla or Firefox.