tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post5757723822599167225..comments2023-12-12T01:10:23.246-08:00Comments on azakai's blog: Long-term support for Firefox?azakaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792138494525424175noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-61942256269849278482011-06-29T04:11:33.038-07:002011-06-29T04:11:33.038-07:00Whilst what you say is right it kind of misses the...Whilst what you say is right it kind of misses the point, Surely the obvious answer is to undo this silly decision - point versions should be bug fixes and security releases only, new features should be in major version updates.<br /><br />All of us who work in Enterprises and have evangelised for Fifrefox at work and with our friends are feeling badly let down now.<br /><br />Lets see a commitment to a stable branch under the Mozilla name and ask for volunteers to work on that - perhaps some Enterprises will put their staff forward as part of that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-54948412349109717372011-06-26T20:52:26.279-07:002011-06-26T20:52:26.279-07:00Think a little more creatively.
An enterprise-foc...Think a little more creatively.<br /><br />An enterprise-focused organisation could provide not just Firefox LTS, but also developer training, basic off-the-shelf intranet software, custom-designed intranets, hosting services, etc.<br /><br />Mozilla would never (and should never) do any of this, but a separate org can.voracityhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03471083431826382069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-12108307647483001052011-06-26T12:03:01.484-07:002011-06-26T12:03:01.484-07:00I learnt the Firefox code base for precisely this ...I learnt the Firefox code base for precisely this reason. We needed a custom Firefox inside our business for an enterprise customer to ensure they could reliably use our application.<br /><br />On the other hand when I left they were completely lacking in the necessary skills to maintain it! Do enterprises really want to put themselves at the mercy of contractors who are in very low supply?<br /><br />A far less risky strategy is not to use Firefox.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-82254061418085282102011-06-26T08:46:49.795-07:002011-06-26T08:46:49.795-07:00@Ian:
That isn't true. Ubuntu for example rel...@Ian:<br /><br />That isn't true. Ubuntu for example releases Firefox.<br /><br />You do need to get Mozilla's consent to use the Firefox brand. But as with the Ubuntu example, it seems clear that it is in everybody's interest to work together on this, so I would assume this would be worked out.kripkenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06468064783634443137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-49133717446202546772011-06-26T08:41:34.715-07:002011-06-26T08:41:34.715-07:00Actually, only Mozilla can release Firefox. Versio...Actually, only Mozilla can release Firefox. Versions released by other organisations need an alternative name (e.g. Iceweasel)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-77149662841486649802011-06-26T08:17:17.353-07:002011-06-26T08:17:17.353-07:00> As noted in mkaply's post, enterprises ma...> As noted in mkaply's post, enterprises make decisions based on money - the benefit to them of using Firefox over IE is not perceived to be big, so they're not going to be prepared to pay much for support (unless the benefit of using Firefox 7/8/9 over IE 9/10 can be increased?).<br /><br />A few financial benefits of a recent Firefox compared to IE:<br /><br />1. Works on XP. No need to replace older machines and/or OSes, unlike IE9 (and IE10 will not even run on Vista).<br /><br />2. Works on OS X, so can standardize on a single browser for the entire company if you already have OS X laptops, or makes you more comfortable agreeing to the requests for them if not.kripkenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06468064783634443137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-13568666821835456272011-06-26T05:12:16.292-07:002011-06-26T05:12:16.292-07:00This has been discussed before, also in relation t...This has been discussed before, also in relation to finding a business model for Thunderbird. As previous comments say, this is not cheap or easy to do - Mozilla Corp is best placed to do it, and they think it's too costly.<br /><br />As noted in mkaply's post, enterprises make decisions based on money - the benefit to them of using Firefox over IE is not perceived to be big, so they're not going to be prepared to pay much for support (unless the benefit of using Firefox 7/8/9 over IE 9/10 can be increased?).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13932576995475194290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-21024715504077015642011-06-26T03:37:43.060-07:002011-06-26T03:37:43.060-07:00As usually - anybody *could* do it but only Mozill...As usually - anybody *could* do it but only Mozilla is in the position to really do it. It's the same thing with XULRunner for example, there has been much talk about "somebody else" taking over its maintenance but nobody materialized. It really isn't that simple and would require a huge investment from an outside company. What would be the incentives?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-73862126321678327172011-06-26T02:20:27.192-07:002011-06-26T02:20:27.192-07:00I suggested this exact same thing here:
http://mi...I suggested this exact same thing here:<br /><br />http://mike.kaply.com/2011/06/24/why-do-companies-need-time-to-deploy-browsers/#comment-11058<br /><br />In fact, this will be better for all concerned because Mozilla has never had the resources to cater properly to 2 markets (i.e. enterprise and consumer) --- the MSI installers being just one of many, many examples (another example is the CCK). The enterprise-oriented group may also stand to make *much* more money than MoCo/MoFo ever has.voracityhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03471083431826382069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-34964778525444241692011-06-26T02:11:54.243-07:002011-06-26T02:11:54.243-07:00There is one thing Mozilla could do that would be ...There is one thing Mozilla could do that would be more beneficial than anything else: <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=598647" rel="nofollow">Provide an MSI installer</a>.<br /><br />Sadly, there that bug has been stalled for no apparent reason.Lars Gunther (itpastorn)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11544012919049072827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-36640354862824502732011-06-25T23:32:41.156-07:002011-06-25T23:32:41.156-07:00There might be few people that can do this work ri...There might be few people that can do this work right away. But the world is full of good engineers who can learn the necessary skills for this or for basically any other challenging software job.kripkenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06468064783634443137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2681864008001569004.post-84636761634443931632011-06-25T23:10:31.854-07:002011-06-25T23:10:31.854-07:00Unfortunately, Mozilla is a rather complex codebas...Unfortunately, Mozilla is a rather complex codebase and MoCo has hired pretty much everyone who has the ability to safely do this work. I wouldn't want what happened with Debian and OpenSSL (CVE-2008-0166) to happen to a LTS Firefox because of a badly applied patch. If I stretch it, I think there's maybe half a dozen people that I would trust to do this... (Obviously, I'm not one of them.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com