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Firefox and Thunderbird 1.5.0.2 coming soon?


Tarun

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Don't get too happy. Firefox 2.0 is supposed to incorporate the new Cairo graphics engine and the new Places bookmarks/history system. Cairo is being tested in the Trunk nightly builds; it only has a few minor bugs, and looks pretty good right now. Places has landed on both the Trunk and Branch nightlies, even though features don't normally land on the Branch until all the major problems with them have been worked out on the Trunk. But the Firefox drivers wanted to have Places tested on the Branch nightlies for a while before the release of 2.0 Alpha 1, which has to come out soon to stay on schedule for the planned mid-year release of 2.0, so there it is.

Places is a long, long way from being ready, though. The GUI isn't really developed, and most of the features don't work yet; it's hard to even tell what it's supposed to do. I really think it was over-optimistic to think a major Firefox update could be ready every 6 months, but that's the plan. For more of my thoughts on this, see my blog. If you want to try to figure out what Places is intended to be, see: http://wiki.mozilla.org/Places

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I just read on the Firefox forums that 2.0 Alpha 1 has been pushed back a week or 2, new target to be adopted at the next Mozilla staff meeting. They're now saying 2.0 is to be released in the 3rd quarter, where they were saying late 2nd/early 3rd quarter.

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Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be worth the wait.  Mozilla doesn't seem like the company to pre-announce unnaturally far ahead to build up hype (unlike, say Blizzard *cough* Starcraft Ghost *cough*)

I don't mind waiting longer for it, I was just concerned that they might be rushing development too much to try to keep to an unrealistic schedule. It seems I didn't need to worry, reality has set in. I found a link to the latest development schedule; it now calls for a new version every 6 to 9 months instead of every 6 months. The draft roadmap has the 2.0 release right in the middle of the 3rd quarter, which would be mid-August. So expect it by maybe late September...
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Ok, they've nailed it down, Firefox 2.0 a1 will be released next Tuesday. See:  http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/

No frontpage news on that, greenknight? ;)

It's only the first alpha, you think it deserves the front page? Could do that tomorrow, if you think it belongs, too late tonight & I'm too tired. I'd need to word that very carefully, lots of caveats about how unfinished the Places UI is. Don't want people to get mad at us if they install it and find it's an unusable mess. :P

Seriously, maybe when it actually is released it could go on the front page. I wouldn't bet the farm on that happening on the new schedule either, it could easily get pushed back again.

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Installed a Firefox 2.0a1 nightly build, after I finally figured out the problem I was having in the Trunk build with Places. I just needed to expand the "Bookmark this page" popup so I could see the buttons. It's not too bad, except it lost one of my live bookmarks (RSS feeds). I may file a bug...

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Well, the new Firefox Alpha came out, officially Bon Echo 2.0a1 - to emphasize that it's not a Firefox release, just a test build. No Cairo in this one, it's mainly about getting more people testing the Places back end. I hope the story I posted is scary enough to keep ordinary users away from it, it really isn't ready for prime time. :P

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Further update on Firefox 2 development - it won't include either the Cairo image engine or the Places bookmark/history system. Seems they don't think either one can be developed to a sufficient level of refinement in time. Both continue to be developed on the Trunk nightlies, which have been renamed "Minefield" to scare away the noobs. :P

See: http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev...b8e7bafecccbc10

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