Remember when a new major version meant something major changed?
Was nice as it prompted me to go read change notes. Now I have no clue when it's a collection of minor things or has actual major changes unless I go read every set of change notes.
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
71 points (100.0% liked)
Firefox
17301 readers
242 users here now
A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Remember when a new major version meant something major changed?
Was nice as it prompted me to go read change notes. Now I have no clue when it’s a collection of minor things or has actual major changes unless I go read every set of change notes.
Now-a-days most of the (browser) software projects are following agile mode and not waterfall mode delivery.
Firefox doesn't follow semver so these aren't major releases. It's a user-facing app not a library.
And I wish they did follow semver, but loosely (i.e. major version bump shouldn't imply breakage, but instead a major new feature). If there is a major new feature, I think they should maintain security updates for the old one for some weeks in case there's a problem with the new feature.
That was the explicit goal of having huge irrelevant release numbers and to constantly release new versions: making sure nobody cares much and upgrade without much problems constantly to ensure security and web improvements are always there in users hands.