MCBastos wrote:
While it looks nice in theory, in practice I don't know if it's
feasible. I see a number of problems with it.
The first, the biggest one, is that for 75% or the time Seamonkey
will be running on an *unsupported* and *unmaintained* version of
Gecko. Any Gecko issues (including very serious ones -- security
issues are in most of cases Gecko issues) that crop up in that period
will go unfixed for months.
To illustrate, let's imagine, for the sake of argument, that
Seamonkey 2.5 were to be rescheduled for 6 months in the future
(April 2012), roughly coinciding with Firefox 11. SM 2.4.x runs on
Gecko 7. But by middle November, when Firefox 8 is release, Gecko 7
is going to be dropped. So there would be no support available for
Gecko 7 from November to March.
Then, from the developer's POV, the compatibility leaps will be
much, much larger. Instead of assimilating the changes in Geckos 8,9
and 10 once at a time, all the changes from 7 to 11 will have to be
added at once. More changes to do, more stuff to break, all at once.
As a first stab, it would seem possible to do all this stuff internally,
releasing only v. 7 and v. 11 to the public and using v. 8, 9, and 10 as
internal drafts. However, as you note, that means any issues that arise
will take all that time to be addressed.
From reading this NG and thinking about my own experience, two concerns
seem to be driving the calls for less frequent upgrades:
1) rapid release tends to promote sloppy work, products not ready for
prime time, and poor product reduces market share;
2) rapid release forces users to adapt quickly and often, and most users
don't like that unless it's for new features important to them.
If the devs (anyone notice "dev" is an old Sanskrit word for "god"?) can
establish work processes that ensure quality product, and limit user
adaptations to really important benefits (don't just move stuff around
for the sake of change), rapid release should be tolerable. And those
users who really don't like it can skip versions and update less often,
while those who want to be on the bleeding edge can keep running nightlies.
--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
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