In hindsight, it's probably a better approach to implement the core technology improvements in 1.x versions and leave user-visible improvements to 2.0. This way, you can focus the end-user targeted marketing for every .0 version with a bunch of benefits for them, and between .0 versions, the technology and incompatibilities can be ironed out. Basically, it's the same mechanism as betas, except with a longer timeframe.

As for the maturity of the SVG implementation, every time I try out a build with SVG support enabled, there are loads of problems when I check out the W3C test suite. I'm worried we'll have problems there in the same way we have problems with Internet Explorer's CSS today. Are the bugs going to be a source of great frustration two years down the line?

I think you misinterpreted what db was saying; he was a bit ambiguous. I read "WinXP, ~2gig" as being a 2GHz processor, not 2GB RAM. I've got a similar processor and experience similar start-up times.

Right now, practically every other browser offers better user stylesheet support than Firefox - Opera, Konqueror, even Internet Explorer! When are we going to see the ability to set up user stylesheets in preferences?

Thanks Asa. I think communication like this can only improve the community.

Asa, thanks for the reply, glad to see the upgrade path will get more robust.

Are there any marketing (non-technical) efforts to encourage users to upgrade? For example, using the Spread Firefox network... I know this isn't as glamorous as getting new users, but I think it's far more important.

Asa said: "...the Firefox 1.0 Gecko was about 9 months old when it shipped..."
Well, that's pretty obvious everyone's shipped, err, born after 9 months :-D
To be serious, great job, Asa. Cheers!

Thanks Asa.

( Blatantly off-topic, I apologize in advance:
Asa and you guys might be interested in today's APOD, a 22348x3997 panorama of Mars
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050517.html
I do recommend the rss feed: http://www.jwz.org/cheesegrater/RSS/apod.rss )

Yay, I feel special.

Thanks.

ok thanks

Thanks for the reply Asa, I'll see about summarising relevent threads when relevent.

Thanks for the reply Asa, I'll see about summarising relevent threads as RSS / on some kind of blog. I guess a concise executive summary would be better considering the amount of things you deal with on a daily basis.

...and maybe I'll stop double or triple posting absolute rubbish in the meantime.

thanks Asa for you attention.

I will try to make myself more clear.

tools > option > font & colors
- proportional > serif > size (pixels) 16
- serif > arial
- san serif > arial
- monospace > arial > size (pixels) 14
- minimum font size: 16
- always use my: fonts*

look at mozdev.org
you will see that last collom is not correct, because it is too small. "last update" needs 2 lines and somewhere under the sponsor. I can not read what is hidden under it! a date?

* without this the art bureau the sentence; "This site is designed with Web standards" is lost in "sea".

I do not understand web page you mention at the end. I have no knowledge in css. very basic knowledge of html. another reason might be that English is not first language.

@db and asa about quicklaunch / startup time

Nearly independent from the cpu speed gecko based products are suffering a major delay when launching if an "on access" virus scanner like McAfee Virus Scan is active. Those scanners also harm the performance of new windows and even alert boxes or print preview.

I assume this is because those scanners do complex scans for javascript malware and since the entire firefox ui is javascript based that costs a lot of performance.

On my notebook (1.4Ghz, 512MB Ram) Firefox takes 2-3 seconds without and nearly 14 seconds with on access scan. During the launch time cpu usage goes up to 100% and even background playing music is jerking :\

If someone wants to repro the exact version is McAfee Virus Scan Enterprise 8.0i Patch Level 10 on Windows XP Pro SP2 (no desktop search or file index service running).

I think you misinterpreted what db was saying; he was a bit ambiguous. I read "WinXP, ~2gig" as being a 2GHz processor, not 2GB RAM. I've got a similar processor and experience similar start-up times.
I was trying for succinct, but there you go :P Yeah while its true that subsequent loads of Fx only take a couple of seconds, the initial load (first after booting) is about 10 seconds, give or take. From what I've heard/read, this is 'normal'. I'm even using a MOOX build.

Michael makes an interesting comment there; I run the famous AVG 7.0, and I'll see if disabling it is any help. But if it is... I can't exactly leave my anti-virus off, can I?

Anyway, thank you very much Asa. Your epic responses are much appreciated.

It has been said before but Thanks Asa! Communicating this clearly is really appreciated. Although I wouldn't be very interessted in all this if it wasn't backed by the great pieces of software.

I'm really looking forward to the end-user improvements of Firefox like the per-site controls as they will atract so many more users (keeping in mind the popularity of GreaseMonkey and the AltSS thingies).

Regarding the innovation books I mentioned. I couldn't find any downloadable audio versions, but there are a couple that have CD or tape versions available from Amazon. They tend to be abridged, but will probably get the big picture across:

* Innovator's Dilemma: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1565114159/
* Inside the Tornado: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0694519375/

"Simone Chiaretta asks,

"Asa, on spreadfirefox there is a post about how you used the 250.000 dollars you raised from the NYT ad campaign, since the ad costed just 50k. Can you explain how u spent the rest?

"Simone, the money was raised for the New York Times ad and for other launch related activities. What wasn't spent on the New York Times ad was spent on Firefox 1.0 launch activities."

Like?

Re: getting users to upgrade:
For a start you could turn on auto-update for 1.0.4 (en-GB).

One reader asked about Gnome integration - in 1.1 it's really a giant leap from what was in 1.0 (which already supported some parts of GnomeVFS and was able to set itself as Gnome's default web browser.). Two most visible things in the GUI:
- Firefox 1.1 uses native GTK file selectors (the same as e.g. current versions of GEdit or GIMP 2) instead of the XUL ones
- it uses GTK Stock Icons for "generic" buttons like "OK", "Cancel", "Properties" etc - look at my screenshot here: http://img162.echo.cx/my.php?image=firefoxgtkstockicons2ej.png and a fully-Gnome theme is AFAIK under development (it will use your Gnome theme in Firefox - for all the icons, just like Epiphany or Galeon).

So yes, Firefox is going to be a great Gnome app when it reaches 1.1. :)

Asa is afraid of editing wikipedia?

Oh well. Ok, I'll add it. Hopefully you'll license it in a manner that allows Wikipedia to host a copy of the file. (Meaning, just say they can when you post it.)

Tom, I'm not afraid. It just seems a little weird to be editing on myself so I don't. If I did, then I'd somehow feel obliged to keep the entry as correct as possible and I have no desire to do that. I'm happy that the community has decided to create and maintain an entry for me but I'm staying out of the actual editing of it.

- A

The author of Crossing the Chasm (and the others), Geoffrey Moore, gave a good talk on the subject at the Open Source Business Conference. Here's the ITConversations podcast page: http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail494.html

i would like to confirm what Michael Krax said about start up times on windows XP witht Mcaffe virus sacn. i often disable the active scan before launching firefox and then re enable when it has launched.