On 6/15/2011 9:20 AM Robert Kaiser submitted the following:
W3BNR schrieb:
Thanks, Bill. I just came up to 2.1 this week. Previously I just stayed
one above the latest releast, ie 2.0.xxpre where xx was one higher than
the official release, so I was used to just a one number difference
between released versions and nightlies. So far I'm happy with 2.1.
The "pre" things have been dropped, among other things because some websites
detect anything with "pre" in their browser identification ("UA string") as a
Palm Pre and show a mobile version of the site instead. The main reason is that
the previous continuous version notation doesn't work that well with the new
development model at Mozilla.
Starting from now, there are _always_ four "active" versions of Mozilla products
(like Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey):
1) Nightly:
- version number ending in "a1",
currently "2.4a1" for SeaMonkey, "7.0a1" for Firefox
- bleeding-edge active development happens here
- daily updates
- some things can break for a few days
2) Aurora:
- version number ending in "a2",
currently "2.3a2" for SeaMonkey, "6.0a2" for Firefox
- stabilization happens here, features that don't work correctly are
being removed, need to wait for next version
- daily updates
- nothing should be broken at any time
- main target for localization and making add-ons compatible
3) Beta:
- version number looking like final,
currently "2.2" for SeaMonkey, "5.0" for Firefox
- issues that are only found with a larger testing community are
being fixed here, like not very common crashes, etc.
- roughly weekly updates / betas
- should have "release candidate" quality, fit for wide-range testing
3) Release:
- currently 2.1 for SeaMonkey, 4.0(.1) for Firefox
- no work is happening here, majority of users are on that version
- bring both security fixes and new features to the masses
- releases every 6 weeks with outcome from beta cycle
- within that period, updates are not planned, but very small and
targeted ones may be done if any grave security issues come up
that need fixes to be delivered fast ("chemspills").
Every 6 weeks, the code will be shifted from Nightly to Aurora, Aurora to Beta,
and Beta to Release. The next such "uplift" is coming on July 5. Only the most
recent release is being maintained for security until the next one comes 6 weeks
later.
That also enables us to talk to users and the press only about "the current/next
release/beta/aurora" and market features instead of rather meaningless version
numbers. Also, every feature we get finished can be in users' hands within 12-18
weeks and not need a year or two as previously. For users, updating to a new
version will not change a lot every time but only small bits, so that it's way
easier to step to a new version.
Note that we are just starting into this model, so we are not completely aligned
with the routine of this yet. SeaMonkey is only starting to issue daily builds
from "aurora" today, and doing a first "beta" build later this week, while
Firefox is doing the 5.0 release already next week, earlier than in the normal
schedule (and SeaMonkey 2.2 probably will also be earlier than the normal
schedule) to keep their promise of "shipping 3 months after Firefox 4". In the
next few months, we'll become more aligned with this schedule and process and it
will feel much more like the natural process of things.
Robert Kaiser
Thank you, Robert for the expanded explanation. I have copied it to my notebook
for future reference.
--
Ed
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1zhwu/
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