

Mozilla Firefox 4 will be our last big release - cfontes
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/365602/mozilla-firefox-4-will-be-our-last-big-release

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yannickmahe
But chrome also updates automatically, without asking for user permission.
Regardless of you think of that policy, it avoids platform fragmentation.
Firefox seems to be headed to a big fragmentation. Can't say that's good news
for web designer and frontend developers.

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sp332
Almost all users of Firefox and Chrome are using the most up-to-date versions
of those browsers. Firefox updates download in the background and update with
a single click. Firefox 5.0 (which will be out not long after 4.0) will have
completely transparent addon updating - not even a dialog box.

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necolas
It's presumptuous to say that this is the case for Firefox users. The fact
that Firefox requires manual agreement to update means there is fragmentation.
Faster updates will only increase that unless it is accompanied by automatic,
invisible updates.

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estel
From <http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php>, 87% of users are on Firefox
3.6 or newer, 95% 3.5 or newer and 99% on FF3 or newer. As fragmentation goes,
that's not half bad.

~~~
tnorthcutt
_From<http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php>, 87% of users are on Firefox
3.6 or newer, 95% 3.5 or newer and 99% on FF3 or newer. As fragmentation goes,
that's not half bad._

For reference (according to that page), here are the numbers for each browser
& version listed (as a percentage of that browser's share), along with the
stable release date (from Wikipedia) for that version:

IE8: 65.3% - 3/19/09

IE7: 24.9% - 10/18/06

IE6: 9.8% - 8/27/01

FF4: 2.3% - x/x/11

FF3.6: 85.3% - 1/21/10

FF3.5: 8.2% - 6/30/09

FF3: 4.2% - 6/17/08

Safari 5: 84.2% - 6/17/10

Safari 4: 15.8% - 6/8/09

Chrome 8: 100.0% - 12/2/10

~~~
estel
There are some numbers < 0.7% of the market that are not explicitly included
on that page. Particularly Firefox 2, which still has about 0.25% of the
overall market (0.8% of Firefox), and some older versions of Chrome.

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nailer
Nice. Google proved you could do the streaming release model, Firefox has seen
the light.

This moves the web forward much faster than the 'big bang' style IE releases
(sadly they're the ones who need this the most).

~~~
nopassrecover
Firefox has been release streaming for as long as I recall. The only exception
was major releases (as in to new rendering models). I'm not even sure Chrome
has been old enough to run into this?

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viraptor
Now the question of distros remains. What will ubuntu do? Since they want a
distribution that is frozen in time, will they allow updates at all, or create
ubuntu-volatile repos, or ...?

Also, what will happen with addons? How can developers track API changes and
provide updates in time?

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seabee
Same thing ubuntu does with chromium. As far as I can tell it's a problem
already solved.

~~~
RyanMcGreal
If that means I won't have to muck about with hacks like ubuntuzilla any more,
I'll be happy.

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ozziegooen
I don't like that title.

Had me thinking Firefox was preparing to shrivel down under Chrome. I became
really, really sad for a minute.

For the last few months I've used Chrome because of it's speed and elegant
interface. But I really prefer Mozilla and it's open source approach.

While Google isn't that bad, I feel like I'm doing the evil thing for personal
satisfaction. Like I'm slowly entering the dark side.

~~~
jp_sc
You can use Chromium if the license is what bothers you.

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Derbasti
Lets see if Mozilla can keep up the pace and lets see if they can push those
updates unintrusive enough to keep users from leaving.

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kamme
I hope they do change their general approach and not just the update
mechanism. I have been using chrome for a couple of months now and just
switched back to firefox to see what the evolution is during my time 'away'.

It's quite a mess, from my point of view... As a webdeveloper the browser is
my toolbox and while I do find firebug superior to the chrome development
tools, the other things that caught my attention where not so positive... It
feels sluggisch, was using 1.3gig of memory with 6tabs open and crashes
frequently. But I do admit it feels like coming home a bit so I'm sticking
with it and hoping things will be better in the future. I just hope this will
end well for firefox.

If not they can always start developing another lean and fast new browser that
will rock our worlds and gain populairy fast and change names a few times...
(anyone remember phoenix and firebird?)

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timtadh
DUPE:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2189121>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2189183>

