Interviewed by CNN on 23/06/2011 21:56, WLS told the world: > Ray_Net wrote: >> Robert Kaiser wrote: >>> Ray_Net schrieb: >>>> But it would be nice to have a longer life of a supported version ... >>> >>> A lot of things would be nice. Do you sign up to the job of backporting >>> all those security patches? If so, we maybe can start talking about it. >>> >> Perhaps i have not explained correctly - The question is not for >> backporting ... the question is just why do you change major versions so >> often ? > > "Mozilla plans to switch to more frequent Firefox releases in order to > provide frequent improvements to users, without disrupting longer term > work." > > https://wiki.mozilla.org/RapidRelease#Overview
Let me elaborate a little... Think it this way: the traditional development model is like writing a book -- you take your time, do your research, assemble all the elements and attempt to launch a coherent package. It's done when it's done. Each major version will make bring all the changes together. The Chrome-style rapid development is more like publishing a magazine, or a newspaper. You have regular release dates, and you go "do we have anything for this release?" If a feature is stable enough, you release it, even if it would still benefit from more tinkering. Next release, you improve it. So the feature launches are kinda staggered, instead of being released all at once. The rapid-release train essentially does away with the distinction between major and minor versions (it's somewhat in the middle), and reduces the importance of maintenance releases (Chrome does do bugfix releases, but the new major version arrives pretty soon, so many people don't even notice the maintenance releases). The good thing about the rapid-release train is that the features that are ready are released to the users sooner, since they don't have to wait for other features. The bad thing...? Well, the system doesn't lend itself well for major reworkings. It would be impossible to do Seamonkey 2 in a rapid-release train, I think -- for a long time, Seamonkey would be unusable, because the XPFE features no longer worked and the Toolkit replacements weren't ready. I think the Firefox people did right by waiting for Firefox 4 (which was a major redesign of the UI, and some of the innards) before switching to rapid-release. -- MCBastos This message has been protected with the 2ROT13 algorithm. Unauthorized use will be prosecuted under the DMCA. -=-=- ... Sent from my Roomba. *Added by TagZilla 0.066.2 running on Seamonkey 2.1 * Get it at http://xsidebar.mozdev.org/modifiedmailnews.html#tagzilla _______________________________________________ support-seamonkey mailing list support-seamonkey@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
