Consumers Can Go For Fewer Firefox Releases
Users and developers cited a number of reasons why consumers might want to use the less frequent Extended Support Release (ESR) builds that were announced recently. These include problems with extensions unable to keep up with the six week cadence, and a desire for fewer updates on machines they support for family and friends.
The ESR Firefox may also be just “good enough” for many users, one Mozilla developer argued.
The reason I expect a lot of users to switch to these ESR builds is not because they want extensions to work or because of any one issue that we can fix in the future. It’s simply because Firefox works ‘good enough’ right now and they don’t want to have to deal with change. – Cheng Wang on the mozilla.planning.dev discussion group
There was nothing in Mozilla’s proposal that indicated a technical barrier to non-business users climbing on the ESR train. But Mozilla will, at the least, discourage others from adopting the slower release schedule.
We want to ensure it will be an explicit choice to select the ESR and we won’t recommend it for individual use. The ESR is targeted specifically at organizations who face the challenges it addresses, not individual users. – Kev Needham, Mozilla’s channel manager
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Being passionate about software, Armin joined FavBrowser.com in early 2011 and has been actively writing ever since. Having accepted the challenge, he also enjoys watching anime, indulging in good books, staying fit and healthy, and trying new things.
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Finally a good idea from Mozilla.
Not trolling or anything but I haven’t seen a good thing from them for ages. I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks this.
No, you are 3
I agree with Cheng Wang. Firefox works good enough. These rapid releases cause a lot of troubles with addons compatibility.
Although the compatibility check can be easily turned off by changing the “extensions.checkCompatibility” to false (in about:config), some addons still need to be updated to work with a new version even if it’s the latest stable one.
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Firefox is long way from being Internet Explorer, but it shows what can happen to a browser when you think your product is considered “good enough”.
As a web developer, I don’t want Firefox to run behind in fixing bugs or implementing new features. I want to be able to use new features (in HTML5, CSS3) asap. I can always use it only later in time, when all major browsers support it, but I don’t want Firefox to be that browser that lags behind.
Sounds like Mozilla’s plan backfired. Although it obviously wasn’t a sensible or sustainable plan to begin with.