Asa, after Mike Connors' recent Slashdotted comments about Firefox code reviews (and the various reactions and related stories around the web), we've seen a post from Ben Goodger and a followup from Mike Connors, but I've seen no explicit discussion of how Mike's particular comments will be addressed. Ben's post seemed to discuss future plans for Firefox (especially projects being worked on by the "inner circle") and delegation of work, while Mike sought to assure people that there were still more people than himself working on Firefox, but neither one seemed to explicitly mention how more code reviews were going to get done. From my (outsider's) perspective, it looks like a scarcity of people with both comprehensive knowledge of the codebase and the time (and monetary compensation) to review the code, leading to a perception among other "outsiders" that submitting patches is somewhat useless as no one will be able to get them reviewed. Is this particular piece of the Firefox picture of concern to the Mozilla Foundation? Are there plans to hire any additional staff for this kind of a focus, or in some way enable more code reviews to happen, so that contributions from people outside the 6 core Firefox hackers can get in more quickly? Is there anything we outsiders can do to help build the "community of hackers" Mike suggested Firefox may not have developed yet?

Asa - Is there a reason why you integrate your personal weblog here?
No offense, but some of us are only interested in you as a source of information on Mozilla.
Yet we have to wade through your musings on the cosmos and your new toys?
Is this considered professional by Mozilla standards?

jcwold: Well that was nice. If you don't like it friggin go elsewhere. I don't think this blog is called "jcwolds source for mozilla information" but in fact its called "adots notblog", which seems to me to imply that it is not an official mozilla blog.

Why are dogs *so* much better pets than cats?
(Wow, if that isn't flamebait, I don't know what is)

Just kidding :). My actual question is this: a while ago there was a big commotion about cooperation between the GNOME and Mozilla projects. The possibility was even raised of merging the two. We haven't heard anything about this since, so I ask, has anything happened along this front?

Oh, and what's up with all that dark energy? I mean, what is it and what causes it? I demand exact answers, in your own words!

Sorry Asa, I wish I could retract my questions now.
I do have to say I just don't know how to properly communicate with mozilla.org about mozilla issues, and I'm always referred to this blog. It's been making my job difficult. I just want some straightforward communication preferably in one location rather than spread across a dozen forums and blogs.
- And I'm real frustrated about the Seamonkey bomb which caught me completely off guard. Just last week I was defending you against some guy ranting that 1.8 wasn't going to be released. Show's what I know.
I think I'll just fade back into the woodwork now.

My question is: why is your name so funny, where does it come form, and what does it mean?

Thank you.

What products and techniques do you use to groom your goatee?

I have found it almost impossible to tend to a goatee without it taking up too much time.

When will we see new features for everyday folk in Firefox? Security fixes, rendering improvements and news Preferences dialogs are great but don't really get people excited like Tabbed Browsing or Find as you Type.

Saying 'extensions' is all well and good to people who are capable of installing them, but most people aren't. Also, extensions will never integrate or perform as well as base code.

So my question: What, if any, are the NEW killer features for Firefox, and will you please please PLEASE put them in 1.1 instead of 1.5? If not, how do you hope to keep competing with IE7?

I'm also interested into GNOME + Mozilla cooperation. But as I mostly use KDE for my desktop I would like to ask: What is the progress of native Firefox/Thunderbird interface for KDE?

Who is the artist that created the firefox logo?

@Phil: Jon Hicks of Hicksdesign

http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/portfolio/523/mozilla-logos

Anders

How should convince someone to switch to Firefox when the always-available Internet Explorer is updated to a version that is as secure as required by most users? (Or the people who already tell me: "But the one I have works fine for me! Why should switch to something that might occasionally display a page different than intended?")

What extensions do you use with Firefox and/or Thunderbird? Why?

Also, do you have a screenshot of your copy of Firefox in action? Just curious how one of the Mozilla guys has customized his Firefox :)

I noticed new flags in bugzilla for blocking Firefox 1.0.2 and blocking Firefox 1.0.3. Is it because there is going to be Firefox 1.0.2 release soon? If so, why? Thanks

When can we expect to see some progress on update.mozilla.org... Roadmaps? Policies?

After a long silence, there were some blog entries a month (?) or so ago that shed some light on what the problems had been (eg, security audit) and that progress was now being made. But since then it seems to be running in stealth mode.

For those of us who write extensions, it would be nice to know when (if?) the Developer Control Panel will return, and how the perpetual weeks-long backlog of submitted extensions will be addressed. I think there was also mention of working with other extension sites (like extensionsmirror.nl) that have become popular due to UMO's shortcomings -- any news on that front?

Also...

Now that Opportunity has reached Vostok crater, it looks to be boring and filled in (just ring-shaped flat circle of white rocks). What's your prediction for when we'll finally see some interesting terrain again? :-)

I halfheartedly asked about this at the end of your last Ask Asa:

What will be the future uses of XTF? Will you use it to for example integrate the code-heavy SVG standard which isn't suitable for the "less than 5MB" download you want Firefox2 to be?

Also, what's your opinion on how to best learn coding and becoming involved in Firefox development?

Thanks for your time. :-)

The Firefox nighly Linux builds currently show "gcc version 3.3.2" in about:buildconfig. Are there plans to move to GCC 3.4.x or 4.0? The latest GCC status report says 3.4.4 is due May 1 and 4.0 is due April 15. I'm a tweaking addict and I build my own optimized versions from CVS. I think the users should have builds with the latest fixes and code optimizations added to newer GCC versions.

Also, is Pango support still planned for font rendering?

I agree with xiao. Why isn't there more migration from the uber-popular and not-too-tech-only extensions to the main codebase, where new features should rightly belong?

The Web Forms 2.0 specification from the WHAT working group is almost ready.

AFAIK Firefox/Gecko/NGT already supports some small parts of it; when we can expect (almost) full support?

<p class="flamebait">Cats are much better than dogs, obviously.</p> ;-)

How much of the code in Firefox is just used in Firefox, and not part of some other Mozilla component (for instance Gecko). I rough estimate (in percent) would do nicely :)

Hello Asa ... some little questions about some future fonctionality of FF and TB

* Will FF will get a profile manager? ok, i know it is there, but it is not easy for standard user to get it --> exemple: a link in the start menu (windows) will be cool, as for thunderbird

* Is TB will have a different settings mode for enable javascript/loading image?
In fact, i disable javascript for all mails ... but it cause that my RSS feeds cannot use the javascript ... and thus, some of thus cannot work. It will be cool if the JS/image can be changed in a per folder setting mode

* Is TB'block image will be extended. Now, you can enable extern images in your mails from messages coming from adress in your adress book ... but some mailing lists change their email adress with each newsletters (the domain stay, the adresse stay also, but added with some numbers to identify the newsletter) --> for exemple newsletter.00.001.012.64@newsletter.domain.com
A new setting to enable adress like newsletter.*@newsletter.domain.com will be cool ... or a other filter like "subject contain ..."

Which argument do you find most convincing to choose Firefox instead of Opera? And excuse me for my laziness, but I really don't know how much people get paid by the Mozilla Foundation.

Thanks in advance, I still enjoy reading your blog.

Asa -

What is the status of the stand alone XRE (XUL Runtime). It would be great to have a prebuilt XRE for all the platforms that mozilla supports to make building cross-platform stand alone XUL applications easier. I have used XULRunner for proto-typing and testing out XUL, but this approach is not a viable option for a real application.

Thanks for your time.

Asa, can you give us an update on the status of automated testing throughout all Mozilla products?

I would like to know about both automated functional and security tests. In particular, have you extended the mangleme 'fuzzy' testing tool to non-HTML stuff?

Is there anything in the way of autotests casual developers can cook up or help with which you busy MoFo's don't have time for?

I am the entirety of my school's new cycling team, and am looking for a modecum of sponsorship from companies that I feel good about, mostly just to buy the custom jersey with my school's logo on it. Would the Mozilla Foundation be interested in guying space for a two color Firefox logo for something in the $10 to $100 range? I have been a Firefox user since 0.9 and have converted a number of my friends at school over to the browser. I've also switched over to Linux (Suse) and want to represent OSS in doing what I love and what I'm good at.

Thanks so much,
Perko

I'm "asking Asa" if he realizes that there is an entire nebula somewhat vying for the honor of representing FurFox in advertising and as an excellent wallpaper-- see the beautiful Fox Fur nebula at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050314.html