As I mentioned earlier, those of us who had been on the nightly builds for Firefox 4 (including both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows) were updated to Firefox 4.2a1pre. I thought that was a rather odd numbering scheme as theoretically the next version was suppose to Firefox 5. After some research I have determined that 4.2a1pre is a continuation of the nightly builds formerly label as 4.0b13pre. The 4.2 is just a place holder number (much like 3.7, which eventually became 4.0 once in the beta builds) for what will likely be Firefox 5.
Now, no official word yet as to when Firefox 5 might be released although Mozilla is considering a new development process which would push out a general release in about 16-weeks.
so why did i bother to install the 4.0 version-that was offered for the 1st time to me yesterday, if there will just be another new version in a mere 16 weeks? why should i even bother with it again till ver.13.3 comes out in august? this is frustrating. i don’t even like THIS version. you people piss me off when you won’t leave well enough alone. as far as i can determine, if ver. 4.0 was ‘complete’, you wouldn’t be ABLE to produce a completely new version inside of 16 weeks. it should take years; unless of course you have us upgrading to useless versions for nothing. i don’t know what you are getting from that but i don’t like it. it’s a pain in the neck and one reason i stopped using exploder 5 years ago, unfinished security updates masquerading as new versions.
Hmm? take years to write a new browser??
Why all the new updates?
You probably never said that about Microsoft. (they do same thing, more often, with more subterfuge and mangling of competitors)…
Like this recent release…
Had a long known bug, patched (not fixed) several times, and yet, was released with ‘new’ browser that didn’t have the patches…
Or, 40+ patch Tuesday, in a recent month, where EIGHT holes were found (mostly previously patched, not fixed)…
The frequent update cycle has many reasons, of which I am not necessarily ‘privy to.
But, using a little knowledge and some logical thinking…
There are things found, in not a major way, that can improve the performance (Like the few lines of code that gave Linux a boost in performance earlier this year. (there was a patch to put it into 2.6.36, and .37, with it now part of .38…)
There are also market factors, where people want things different, changed, updated, ‘newer’ or improved… and waiting for a new ‘major release’ is not needed. (They are dumping the ‘major release cycle, since things change so much, and going closer to what Google is doing with the Chrome browsers, and away from the IE model).
The browsers, change in a flowing fast internet. Unlike Word Processors, where the only real change is to make the ‘new one’ incompatible with the ‘old one’ so the sales can keep on going, for something most people will NEVER have a need for.
A simple text or RTF program is all most ever need. Micorsoft and others don’t want that known, since they sell them, or the services to maintain and train for them.
Lastly, Security issues are always changing, with the ‘black hats’ ahead, since they have the time and reasons, more than some sources of software that keep selling stuff with same old problems, year after year (No, I am not saying Microsoft… there are others…err.. uh… forget I said that part…hehehe)