There was a big debate about Mozillas choice of switching the old version numbering (x.1, x.2 etc.) in favor of the far more dynamic version numbering approach of round versions (4, 5, 6, etc.).
The question remains, should openSUSE follow that example and just announce every new release as a full release.
This way we could have soon (in our lifetime anyway) version 20. Ok, i far ahead already.
To be honest, i am still not sure if mozillas strategy to the general public is that good. Like for instance your favorite plugin doesn’t work anymore - ‘Not available for Firefox 9.0’.
I am convident that this will not happen with openSUSE, but you never know.
But seriously, would it make sense or does it only confuse people. And what would be the benefit anyway.
Did you miss all the discussion over the version scheme months ago? Next one is 12.1. It’s all decided already so I seriously doubt that there will be any change for quite a while.
On 08/16/2011 04:46 PM, ken yap wrote:
>
> Did you miss all the discussion over the version scheme months ago? Next
> one is 12.1. It’s all decided already so I seriously doubt that there
> will be any change for quite a while.
>
>
Ha, i think i did. Well, one can not follow everything.
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Euer Komputerfriek Joerg
using LXDE on 11.4 x64 and happy with a cup of real hot coffee…
mozilla guys have lost their minds and the last year has made it clear that there are no logical people in any position of influence. I won’t make an argument about what versions numbers should or should not be, but since Chrome has become popular and is clearly a threat for market share. Hence, it’s all about marketing…
It really was a proposal so suppress the version number display from the About box. Fortunately it seems to be only the idea of one prominent developer and the sentiment against it on bugzilla was overwhelming. And it wasn’t even a bug, it was really a RFF.
I don’t view it as much about marketing as being about users and I support the no version number in about box idea. Mozilla seems to have been besieged lately by users (and non-users) who are taking a “****ed if you do, ****ed if you don’t” approach to it. First everyone complains that a new version of Firefox hasn’t been released in 790 years so they release Firefox 4 and begin using an agile development approach to get improvements and bug fixes into people’s hands sooner. Next people begin to complain that updates are coming too fast. They then complain that there’s no changes worthy of incrementing the version number so high, then in the next breath complain that these rapid releases change too much and break everything. The no easy-to-see-version-number thing seems a move designed to stop a certain class of end user from complaining any more. The new thing I’m seeing is Windows users complaining about the incredible burden of actually downloading and installing Firefox to update it, unlike Chrome, which apparently does it transparently in the background. If Firefox did that I’m sure the complaint would be that Firefox was installing software without permission! I tell these users that Firefox does update transparently on Linux… along with all the other programs and the operating system.
I hope no one minds that I used openSUSE’s own numbering issues to defend Firefox today on ZDNet. I pointed out how openSUSE too doesn’t use a major-minor numbering scheme and releases on a fixed schedule like Firefox and that no one’s attacked openSUSE over it. Maybe instead of leaving Firefox alone they’ll start attacking openSUSE now. Apparently Google is immune from numbering strategy criticism for some reason…
I will quote an opinion expressed by an user when hearing about Mozilla`s ideea: ““This is a REALLY dumb, stupid, idiotic idea!”” The post was deleted by Asa Dotzler on that page, i hope that mine will still be here
Doesn’t. You can read openSUSE News for the whole thing, but…
“openSUSE does not ship major/minor releases, but our numbering/naming scheme – NN.X – has led to a common misperception that a .0 release was major and a .x release was an update. This created a number of issues, including lack of media attention for .x releases, and user misconceptions about stability of .0 releases.”
On 08/17/2011 10:06 AM, duncreg wrote:
>
> ken_yap;2375691 Wrote:
>> Does or doesn’t?
>
> Doesn’t. You can read ‘openSUSE News’ (http://tinyurl.com/3fmbc5u) for
> the whole thing, but…
>
> “openSUSE does not ship major/minor releases, but our numbering/naming
> scheme – NN.X – has led to a common misperception that a .0 release
> was major and a .x release was an update. This created a number of
> issues, including lack of media attention for .x releases, and user
> misconceptions about stability of .0 releases.”
>
>
Well that never made sense to me. For IT pro that makes maybe sense, but
for IT illiterate people like me it doesn’t.
I always thought of x.0 as a big change like a different desktops,
different icons etc… well that doesn’t really apply to linux i think.
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Euer Komputerfriek Joerg
using LXDE on 11.4 x64 and happy with a cup of real hot coffee…
On Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:57:22 +0000, JoergJaeger wrote:
> Well that never made sense to me. For IT pro that makes maybe sense, but
> for IT illiterate people like me it doesn’t. I always thought of x.0 as
> a big change like a different desktops, different icons etc… well that
> doesn’t really apply to linux i think.
And also an x.0 version should perhaps be treated with suspicion and best
left alone by users of a nervous disposition. Good example would be KDE
4.0 - though 4.1 and 4.2 were best avoided as well.
–
Graham Davis, Bracknell, Berks.
openSUSE 11.4 (32-bit); KDE 4.7.0; AMD Phenom II X2 550 Processor;
Video: nVidia GeForce 210 (using nouveau driver);
Sound: ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA); Wireless: BCM4306
you know when i first saw Firefox 6 i thought that someone is transferring me to a fake web page indeed i spent a while to make sure that it was the original web page
i mean ver 5 was just out there thats crazy
i think they plan to have a new version every month…soon we will be
up to version 36 and so far ahead of Opera, Safari, Internet Explorer
and whatever else there is they will all just close up!
–
DD Hacker Humor
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobile” of operating systems!
I like opensuse version numbering as it is now.
Mozilla’s strategy gives the impression of changing too fast, of not having stable ground under your feet. Of course it’s just an impression, but I prefer it the other way, though I understand that probably there are many reasons I ignore that lead them to change.
So, in the end, it’s good what they decide: they are working for all of us, and we can only be grateful, even if we have liked it other way.
The no easy-to-see-version-number thing seems a move designed to stop a certain class of end user from complaining any more. The new thing I’m seeing is Windows users complaining about the incredible burden of actually downloading and installing Firefox to update it, unlike Chrome, which apparently does it transparently in the background. If Firefox did that I’m sure the complaint would be that Firefox was installing software without permission! 