Hi Adrian, Others may be able to answer some of your questions more specifically, but here are a few answers which may help.
If it seems like there isn't much fanfare around the "functional complete" and "code freeze" dates for new versions of Firefox OS then that's because these aren't "releases" as such. Firstly, Firefox OS runs on a rapid release "train model" like Firefox where updates come more regularly than the longer term releases of Android and iOS and therefore aren't such a big event when they happen. There hasn't really been a big announcement around a Firefox release since Firefox 4, after which Firefox started on a rapid release model. Improvements to Firefox come incrementally and often, Firefox OS is much the same. Secondly, Mozilla never "releases" Firefox OS. We just declare a milestone like "functional complete" or "code freeze" and then we hand over the code base to partners like device manufacturers and mobile networks who then carry out their own testing and customisation before turning that code into a product or an over-the-air update. That's why you're more likely to see a press release around a new device or a launch of devices in a new market than you are new versions of Firefox OS. Something else to understand is that Mozilla does not control the over-the-air updates which update your device to a newer version of Firefox OS. These are the responsibility of device manufacturers and/or mobile networks. Mozilla works hard to try to get new updates pushed out to as many devices as possible by working with partners, but ultimately this is not under Mozilla's control. The answers to your specific questions about whether goals were met around the 1.3 and 1.4 versions are a little more complex. Firefox OS is developed by multiple fairly autonomous functional teams https://wiki.mozilla.org/FirefoxOS#FirefoxOS_Functional_Team_Informationwho each have their own backlog of work. Broadly the "functional complete" milestone is a fixed date when new features stop being developed for a given version and "code freeze" is when Mozilla freezes the code base to hand it over to partners, hopefully with no remaining "blocker" bugs which would block that version from being released by them. In the train model very few features are committed for a particular release and the idea is that any feature which is not finished by the functional complete date is disabled or backed out and "rides the next train" instead. We try not to fix functional scope but rather fix our timelines and our bar for quality. Sometimes schedules do change though, as we iterate on our own processes and make changes due to market requirements. At MWC Mozilla announced an upcoming reference device called the Flame which will be aimed at developers and which Mozilla will have a little more control over. This device should see more regular updates of less stable builds of Firefox OS from the "master" branch so that developers can "eat their own dogfood" and use pre-release versions of Firefox OS themselves to help find bugs faster. But other than this reference device updates to other devices are largely under the control of device manufacturers and mobile networks who may be able to provide more specific information about the update plans for those particular devices. I'm sorry if you're disappointed by the lack of announcements about Firefox OS development milestones but hopefully this goes some way to explaining why. Please do let us know if there are ways you think we could communicate better. Our version schedule is publicly available on the wiki as you discovered and you can attend our public weekly Gaia https://wiki.mozilla.org/Gaia/Meeting_Notes and B2G https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G/Meeting meetings if you'd like more regular updates on progress. Minutes for these meetings are available on the wiki if the times aren't good for you. I hope that helps. Ben On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 4:25 PM, Adrian Custer <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello all, > > Yesterday was an important milestone for Firefox OS, according to: > > https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/B2G_Landing#Versions_and_ > Scheduling > including: > * my handset's operating system reaching 'End-of-life' > * v1.3.0 reaching 'code freeze' > * v1.4.0 reaching 'functional complete' > although it might be that this wiki page is irrelevant. > > Over the last two decades, my experience in the world of free software has > been that projects reaching important milestones put out announcements to > the affected communities about the status of things, the plans, and other > relevant information through which developers, users, document writers, the > press, and the interested public can remain informed about the project. > Similar milestones have come and gone since November without such > announcements. > > Could someone in the know please explain what is going on? > > Thank you. > > ~adrian > > > > > P.S. Answers to some of the following questions would be useful: > > Does Firefox OS ever actually declare a 'release'? Did any version hit > 'release' yesterday? What is meant by the next section > > https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/B2G_Landing#Rough_Update_Graph > when it talks about '1.2 release'? > > Did FfOS 1.1 reach 'end-of-life' yesterday and what does that actually > mean? Are people buying telephones in Uruguay today vulnerable from here on > out to all security flaws discovered in the OS and in the browser? Is the > rumor that there will never be any over-the-air updates to handsets here > true? > > Did Firefox 1.3 reach 'code-freeze' yesterday? What is the status of the > code base at code freeze? Did the schedule slip successfully address the > issues which caused the slip? > > Did Firefox OS 1.4 reach 'functional complete' yesterday? Was the planned > functionality completely written? > > > > _______________________________________________ > dev-b2g mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-b2g > _______________________________________________ dev-b2g mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-b2g
