Firefox 1.1

[Pierce]

Well, FF is doing the oposite of what it set out to do.

These awfully over ambitious deadlines is putting pressure on the team to do well. Firefox 1.0.5 not being compatable with certain extentions gives me a felling that the team is being extremly presurized. Thats not something easily over looked, espically when Firefox needs extentions to be a viable browser. (oh okay you could live without them but seriously who doesnt have at least 1 extention installed?).

This also feels like a little bit of history repeating its self. For example, microsoft's track record of being on time and under performing isnt known for its perfect timeing. If i was somebody trying to compete against the owner of 95% of the internets browser choice, id seriously look at what they do right copy that, what they do wrong and improve that. I lost my interest in firefox espicaly because of its memory leak that froze my pc. I use opera which freezes, but at least it crashes out instead of taking the whole system with it!

Being somebody who is trying to make money from the internet, i do believe once you have a plan and announce it publicly you should stick to it. Modifying the version from 1.1 to 1.5 because "theres so many updates" is not a good idea. I know its a relivant point, but the truth is that most people arnt tuned into the world as much as the people on this forum, or who read the news. So one day when your at version number 1.0.x or w/e, and the next day you download an update saying "version number 1.5", your going to say to yourself, woah where was i, and how much did i miss? Then that leads to my god they are updating firefox so fast i blinked and i missed it, this is just like ie and its updates!

Dont get me wrong, this isnt a rant, its simply pointing out their weak factors. I do honstly believe they know how to code, but they dont seem to have a very well organised information structure. To put in simpler terms, is if you walk though the kithen of a 5 star resturant, and you see that theres all sorts of stuff lying around on the benches that shouldnt be, like onion peel, the floors unswept, meat left lying around, knives with blood left beside vegtables etc etc. Would you really want to eat at that resturant? Even if the public area was immaculately perfect? I dont think so. So what im saying is, that even if the code, the product and the usage of the program is better than IE, would you want to use a product so disorganised internaly?

These are just my thoughts, the link to my post on RSN and the source to ZDNET http://www.reallysimplenews.com/?article=130

Pierce

[jcl]

This also feels like a little bit of history repeating its self.

Very much so. The Moz folks have always had trouble with their roadmaps. Mozilla was years late because of decision to abandon the Netscape 5 codebase. The transition from Seamonkey to Firefox and Thunderbird is late. Sunbird, Rhino, Grendel are... well, who even remembers Sunbird, Rhino, and Grendel?

Being somebody who is trying to make money from the internet, i do believe once you have a plan and announce it publicly you should stick to it.

It's almost impossible to speed up software development. When you're late you either have to cut features and testing or deliver late. Mozilla relies on their reputation for feature-richness and correctness, so the the former is almost out of the question.

What they need to do is examine their development process and set more realistic milestones. Or stop setting milestones and release when ready.

So what im saying is, that even if the code, the product and the usage of the program is better than IE, would you want to use a product so disorganised internaly?

/me points to my Linux Experts badge

Edited July 22, 2005 by jcl

[Pierce]

The point about not keeping to deadlines, was as in to say "make more relistic ones" not "keep the unrealistic dead lines and rush out software" hehe

and good point about linux also being a bit disoranised internaly heh.

Pierce

[bozodog]

I still can't figure out why everybody is on the Firefox band wagon. I have been using the full Mozilla suite for years. I love it, it's fast , secure, and stable. I use some of the extra features, but not all. Tabbed browsing and the added Google toolbar makes it a fine application.