Firefox 5

I couldn't believe it when I started up Firefox today and it told me Firefox 5 was available. Really? I only updated to FF4 a couple of months ago! :unsure:

Anyway... I updated and really can't see anything different. Apparently there are over 1000 bug fixes and improvements, but I've yet to notice them. Some people are commenting that it is much faster, but I already thought FF4 was much faster then FF3 so can't see any speed difference yet.

I also read that Firefox have decided to accelerate their version releases in a similar way to Google Chrome. This seems stupid to me. Why jump a whole version number when all this update is at most is a point release update that should be 4.1 at most. In my view a full version update should normally contain interface design changes to polish and improve the ui and also major engine and feature updates.

What are your thoughts?

Same like you, they shouldn't skip versions so fast. I noticed already one week ago though that version 5 was coming, read it on another forum.

Firefox 4 froze quite regularly, it was then not responding, and I had to restart it, was quite annoying, and hopefully it doesn't happen anymore with version 5, at least it didn't yet. [TouchWood][/TouchWood]

What annoys me most is that there's is never a final version of FEBE available, I had a beta running for version 4, which was ok, but again it's not supported anymore for version 5. With which add-on do you backup your profile? I know that there's some existing, but they have pros but also a lot of cons. FEBE was just perfect for me.

I used to use FEBE but these days I just keep an html backup of my bookmarks and just set Firefox and its addons up manually if I install a new copy.

My thoughts were exactly the same like you. Anyway I did the upgrade, but I don't see any major difference till now.

FEBE 7.0 beta 6 was released 2 days ago, this one now supports Firefox 5, in case someone is interested. For me it's still the best option to backup your whole profile, or single items.

http://softwarebychuck.com/febe/febe70.html

I've not noticed any differences myself. Was a bit surprised when I noticed the upgrade, as I downloaded version 4 not long ago.

Raised an eyebrow with me too.

I had a read and apparently this is how they will do releases now - increasing the main version number instead of the minor version numbers. They are doing it because Google Chrome is on version 12, IE v9 and they don't want to be left behind in the version numbering wars. Another source said it was so we can get newer features quicker, but since v5 is practically the same as v4, I don't think that is true.

I think it's a stupid system - a whole version number change when very little has been added to the browser. The old system worked better, no need to copy Google's warped numbering system.

They would have been better to either adopt a dot point release scheme for more major updates, or a Windows style service pack approach. In my mind whole version number changes don't explain the importance of each update.

I don't care about the numbering system, they might as well call it Firefox 999.888.777, that's only the name. ;)
It's great they finally devided the development to few smaller testing groups, unlike before when they only did stable release and beta/alpha/trunk_release in one.
People need to see that something's going on, not many folks are browsing their forums for development news.
The 4th version took way too long to develop, over 9 months...

BTW: Get ready for the 6th update soon, the 1st beta was released yesterday, they moved the 7th version to aurora already, AND started working on the 8th version. IIRC, the 8th version will FINALLY have tabs in separate processes.

If you're asking me, I also don't care about the numbering system, only that I find it odd and unnecessary like they do at the moment. But not to the point that it would bother me.

The thing about the new numbering system is that older versions, like 3.x, get left behind quicker and perhaps support dropped sooner? I'd imagine they were tired of people hanging on to the last major release so want to make that line between versions harder to recognize and hopefully get more to update sooner. It has plus points and negative.

System Administrators, Website designers and Addon authors have to move faster to stay compatible and keep up with the constant changes, changes which are harder to identify.

With the old version number system, it was easy to tell when a major new release needed close attention and testing of addons, software and hardware compatibility (v4 onwards requires SSE2, Athlon XP goodbye or stick with v3). Now it's harder to know when a major release is a major release, or a minor update like v4 to v5.

Yes a number is just a number, but the old system just made more sense to me and was more useful to give users a heads up on major changes.