14 DAY TRIAL // The latest iteration of Mozilla's Firefox web browser is scheduled to be released in beta in a few days but one issue has split people involved with Firefox development. The upcoming Firefox 3.6 doesn't bring too many new features and is a very small evolutionary step. As such Mozilla's Firefox director Mike Beltzner would like to release 3.6 as a minor release rather than a full release. It may seem like a technicality but this makes the difference between being pushed through the automated update system or requiring the users to initiate the update themselves.
"Firefox 3.6 will be primarily a release with security, stability, speed and capability enhancements, with no visible user interface changes over Firefox 3.5. As such, I think we should consider it as a candidate for a minor update, stretching our definition of what types of updates we can provide using that mechanism," Beltzner revealed in a lengthy post on a Mozilla developer mailing list.
A minor release, like 3.5.4 for example, is automatically installed for all Firefox users running 3.5 or higher versions. This allows users to stay updated with the latest security and bug fixes without too much of a hassle. Major updates on the other hand, Firefox 3.0, 3.5 etc., don't go through the usual update system and users need to download the new version and install it themselves. This is done because major versions may have bigger changes and features that some people may not desire and this is evident in the number of Firefox 2.0 and 3.0 users.
Firefox 3.6 was initially hailed as a major update though nothing on the scale of 3.5, which brought a lot of new features and technologies. 3.6 is a blend of security and bug fixes and some small new features. Because of this Beltzner is pushing to make 3.6 a minor release to get it to the users as soon as possible. He believes that, because of the relatively small feature set, this could be done without any issues.
There is just one problem, but it's quite an important one and one that has plagued Firefox for a while now: add-on compatibility. With the new release add-ons will also have to be updated in order to work. This isn't a problem for the more popular ones but obscure add-ons may take a while before getting updated leaving their users with a problem. Users can of course choose not to update to a newer Firefox version until the add-on is updated as well but if the process is automated then they don't have a choice. The discussion is still underway and there is plenty of time to decide one way or the other but its outcome will influence the future of all upcoming Firefox releases.