We're working towards a 1.7.5 release this week. The stable branch Mozilla application suite release is basically an attempt to get the Mozilla 1.7 app up to date with the Firefox Gecko. If we get this right, then web developers will be able to certify in one app and have confidence that their pages/web apps will work in the other.
If you're interested in helping us test this release, you can download nightly builds at ftp. We're nearly wrapped on taking changes to this branch, but if you know of outstanding Gecko compatibility issues, please be sure to nominate those for fixing in 1.7.5 by adding the "blocking1.7.5?" flag to the bug, or if you've got a patch, the "approval1.7.5?" flag.
After the 1.7.5 release, I expct things to get kinda slow at the Mozilla Foundation with various of us taking time off for the holidays and generally catching our collective breath after a very exciting, but draining, set of releases.
When we get back up to speed in early January, it'll be about time for the Mozilla 1.8 Alpha 6 release where we'll be pushing the latest trunk Gecko changes out to a wide testing audience using the Mozilla application suite as the delivery vehicle. If you'd like to get an early peek at what's in store for upcoming trunk releases, you can get nightly Firefox and Mozilla builds on FTP as well.
After the January alpha, we'll hopefully be moving on to a beta and a 1.8 Gecko branch from where we hope to be shipping our Firefox and Thunderbird updates. Those updates are planned, not as major feature releases, but rather as Gecko updates where we get all of the 1.0 featureset working with the latest trunk Gecko. As it stands today, Firefox is actually using a version of Gecko (though slightly patched) which is eight months old today. The Gecko update should provide significant improvements to layout performance and features.
Beyond the 1.1 releases, Ben and Scott are currently working on plans for the next major releases, which I believe are expected sometime in the summer months.
Posted by asa at December 13, 2004 06:51 PMI'm going to get very serious about reporter later in the week (not many issues remain). Hopefully new preview bits pushed late this week, early next week.
January, we should be doing cleanup.
Posted by: Robert Accettura on December 13, 2004 08:52 PMInteresting that about the 8 month old Gecko engine in Firefox. It's expected since it's from the aviary branch, but I just never thought about that. :-)
I wonder what features and performance improvements we'll get with a more updated Gecko engine though. This blog entry isn't very specific about the noticeable improvements. Is it what one can see here:
http://www.squarefree.com/burningedge/releases/1.1.html
Or is it even more large changes, like improved rendering speeds?
Thanks for the thorough update to what's happening behind the scene at Mozilla! Always great to be in the know. ;)
Posted by: AdamStac on December 14, 2004 12:17 AMYeah.. Thanks for the update. It is nice to be able to see a blog that posts mozilla news and plans that are not discussed on Mozillazine.
Thanks.
Posted by: larfnarf on December 14, 2004 04:17 AMAny info on the status of the GRE? I took a look here: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/embedding/GRE.html but I can't tell if Firefox and Thunderbird are using a shared GRE.
Posted by: JA on December 14, 2004 06:32 AMFirefox and Thunderbird are standalone. They are not (yet) sharing the same GRE/XRE.
Posted by: minghong on December 14, 2004 08:28 AMreview/approval missing
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59557
patch has approval1.7.5- WHY???
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=103468
seems to be fixed1.7.5, but not set
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=173010
security patch has no approval
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=258005
patch has no approval
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=271716
patch has approval1.7.5+, but no check in so far
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=272336
i need help but dont know who/how to get help..
we have a 60 computer internet depot here in new zealand, so many travellers have problems with IE and what it allows them to view.
we trialled firefox yesterday.. no problems.. but how do we offer the language bar that we had previously?
also is there any way to disable the mail choice from tools (we dont want the punters accessing programs through the browser thus bypassing our cafe program)
any help appreciated
john
Posted by: john on December 15, 2004 12:48 PMJohn, try asking at the MozillaZine forums http://forums.mozillazine.org/
Posted by: Metropolis on December 15, 2004 01:46 PMI suggest Firefox 1.1 to have full 64bit conformance, Microsoft Windows XP 64 bit is target for March - April 2005 release.
Posted by: Metropolis on December 15, 2004 01:48 PMhow 'bout just fixin them 1.0 bugs in that 1.1 instead, eh? a browser can wait some before it needs them 64 bits, newer gecko an' some bugfixin is on order, tho.
Posted by: bitter on December 15, 2004 02:41 PM