Mozilla Scraps Firefox 1.1, Looks to 1.5

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Mozilla has just updated the Firefox development roadmap to reflect a decision on the next major release of the popular open-source browser. The non-profit foundation has decided to increase the version number of the next major release to 1.5 from 1.1, reflecting the sheer number of bug fixes and features that have been worked into the next version of the browser. Mozilla still plans to ship the next version of Firefox (now Firefox 1.5: "Deer Park") around September of this year:

Firefox 1.4: Beta release in August 2005
Feature Complete general public preview release
Firefox 1.5: Milestone Release
New Gecko, ongoing HIG compliance, software update system and extension manager improvements

The roadmap update comes just days after the discovery of a major flaw in Firefox, which has raised security concerns quite similar to those that have plagued ActiveX and Internet Explorer for years.

View: Firefox Roadmap | Blog Post

View: Neowin Discussion | Mozilla Home

Thanks to supernova_00 for the heads up through his Back Page News submission

(1 reply) #1 twyst3d on 21 Jul 2005 - 01:09

so well be at firefox 7 alot sooner!

#1.1 priestx on 21 Jul 2005 - 05:45

Techincally that's true, this means they are ahead of schedule and that they'll reach 1.5 earlier than anticipated.

(2 replies) #2 mzhao on 21 Jul 2005 - 01:15

Well, this'll at least sway some of my n00b friends who insist that a 0.1 version number change isn't as good as a 2.3 version number change (which can be true, but not necessarily)

#2.1 Ollie_T on 21 Jul 2005 - 19:34

The cynics might suggest the reason they're going for a jump of 0.4 is because at the current rate of 1.0.x updates they'll actually end up 1.1 months before Deer Park ever comes out

This gives 'em a bit more space

#2.2 Elendil on 22 Jul 2005 - 04:12

only cynics who don't understand the version system

1.0.9, 1.0.10, 1.0.11, 1.0.12, etc. plenty of room there

#3 MrA on 21 Jul 2005 - 01:36

I say good. With all the improvements, it deserved more than a 0.1 increase on version number.

#4 tiagosilva29 on 21 Jul 2005 - 01:46

KICK ASS!

(3 replies) #5 xpgeek on 21 Jul 2005 - 01:47

"The roadmap update comes just days after the discovery of a major flaw in Firefox"

Thats kinda misleading actually, because the discovered flaw is in greasemonkey, an extension, that I don't even use, not in the browser itself.

#5.1 eAi on 21 Jul 2005 - 09:03

I agree... needs correcting.

#5.2 AJCrowley Esq on 21 Jul 2005 - 11:21

I'm glad someone pointed that out, I was just getting ready to post. It's somewhat akin to saying that Internet Explorer has a major security hole because your CoolWebSearch (god bless IE) toolbar can be hacked.

#5.3 Ollie_T on 21 Jul 2005 - 19:36

Unless they were referring to the critical flaws patched in 1.0.5 / 1.0.6 (but the link is to the greasemonkey story so they clearly weren't

)

#6 psychoticpickle on 21 Jul 2005 - 01:58

Sounds like Mozilla is panicking with it's browser before IE7 ships.

(1 reply) #7 VikingStorm on 21 Jul 2005 - 02:07

Actually that makes a whole lot more sense.
They were planning on 1.1 directly to 2.0 next originally.

#7.1 Ned on 21 Jul 2005 - 12:47

Okay then...I thought that there was going to be a 1.5 build between 1.1 and 2.0

Now that I've actually read the roadmap I see a Firefox 3.0 to be released in q3 of 2006. They're kidding right?

(1 reply) #8 statm1 on 21 Jul 2005 - 02:25

No they were never planning on jumping from 1.1 to 2.0.. 1.5 has always been on the road map. If you cared to read it Viking.

#8.1 VikingStorm on 21 Jul 2005 - 03:44

Maybe it was just the mozilla forum people then. Since I remember people saying "then on to 2.0!" when referring to the 1.1 bugs to be fixed. Guess it was overzealous ideas that were true after all.

(1 reply) #9 Computer Guru on 21 Jul 2005 - 03:21

yeah, mozilla always insisted that .01 was good

BUT, I don;t know a single Mozilla fan who would not have rathered that Mozilla make hotfixes for their brpwser rather than a release a new browser vesion for each mistake....

#9.1 tyro on 21 Jul 2005 - 18:00

The new version of firefox will have the ability to update without reinstalling the whole thing.
As it says in the Deer Park Alpha Page:

Software update system to streamline product upgrades (currently disabled)

(1 reply) #10 chanvw on 21 Jul 2005 - 04:01

hmm... and I was so looking forward to the new update system

. Oh well, guess it's only an extra two months

#10.1 wtmcgee on 21 Jul 2005 - 14:28

it was always scheduled to be released in august/september. The only thing that is changing is the version number.

(1 reply) #11 mrk on 21 Jul 2005 - 04:13

opera > firefox.

PSYKE, only kidding :p

#11.1 Amsterdam on 22 Jul 2005 - 04:56

wow thats not biased

(4 replies) #12 imtoomuch on 21 Jul 2005 - 04:22

The Firefox roadmap is about as unreliable as it gets. Have they ever made one of their deadlines? Anyway, I'll be happy if the make Firefox a little lighter on RAM and faster too. Instead of adding more features and useless junk, they should concentrate on the speed, the bugs, and the security flaws first.

#12.1 yodat on 21 Jul 2005 - 07:53

Firefox definitely needs lighter RAM usage and in some cases (fast GIF anis) lighter CPU usage !

#12.2 SquareSoft0 on 21 Jul 2005 - 09:57

Well, GIFs are specifically timed so I don't understand how Firefox ends up animating everything too quickly. Very odd.

#12.3 masterren on 21 Jul 2005 - 12:19

I think he meant that fast GIF animations cause CPU usage to increase dramatically.

#12.4 Martin Blank on 21 Jul 2005 - 15:17

Software development is hard, and planning for unplanned bugs is really hard to do accurately. Whether it's something complex (Longhorn, HL2) or something comparitively simple (Firefox, IE), the further out you plan, the harder it is to keep up with the published schedule. This is why so many companies are now using the mantra "When it's done."

(2 replies) #13 -dt- on 21 Jul 2005 - 04:41

QUOTE

what the hell? , the exploit it self came from a hole in an extention (greasemonkey) it wasnt a firefox flaw or anything.

:/ its not similar to activeX exploits at all because most activeX exploits are from the browser its self not third party add ons (eg googlebar)
/me thinks the writer of this article should of read a bit more about this before jumping to the conclusion thats its a bug in the internals of firefox

#13.1 lardiop on 21 Jul 2005 - 12:30

Its exactly like ActiveX and Internet Explorer.

Poorly coded ActiveX controls or even malicious ones have plagued the whole browser for years. Firefox' extension system is quite similar in that anyone can write and distribute one without realizing that it can be used to exploit a system.

What Mozilla needs to consider is the level of access an extension can natively gain on a system, and look towards signed or approved extensions.

#13.2 Co_Co on 21 Jul 2005 - 16:16

Having signed and approved extentions makes it sounds like ActiveX. And who would sign or approve them? Would Mozilla? What if approved extentions could be spoofed?

(1 reply) #14 burning_jonny on 21 Jul 2005 - 04:46

I am impressed with the pace of development in Firefox, but I would like to see more attention given (as promised) to Mac OS X. Fx users can attest to that annoying Flash bug, and it would be nice to see cocoa widgets in Firefox as well.

I'd rightly switch to Camino right now if I could use extensions...

#14.1 Corwin2 on 21 Jul 2005 - 10:35

Firefox 1.5 has a major focus on improving the Mac version, they have hired a mac developper only to improve the MacOSX version which is indeed a bit less polished than the Windows version.

You'll get faster UI, a Safari data import and better integration into the OS with FF1.5

#15 Kalphegor on 21 Jul 2005 - 05:54

what about thunderbird? 1.1 or 1.5 ?

(2 replies) #16 TheSarge on 21 Jul 2005 - 09:31

So, we'll see another Firefox version (1.5) next month and then Deer Park goes Beta in September? Eeeeexcelent.
You may now rub your hands together with glee.

Y'know, I really like how Firefox has progrssed so far. Granted, the 1.05 bug-fix snafu was not a good thing, but it could have been a lot worse. They recognised the error, publicly reported it, didn't try and ignore it and had it fixed in short order.
I don't remember exactly how much time elapsed between the 1.05 release and the 1.06 release, but it was not a long period by any stretch of the imagination.
Long live the open-source community!

#16.1 Corwin2 on 21 Jul 2005 - 10:35

>I don't remember exactly how much time elapsed between the 1.05 release and the 1.06 release, but it was not a long period by any stretch of the imagination.

7 days

#16.2 AJCrowley Esq on 21 Jul 2005 - 11:24

So, we'll see another Firefox version (1.5) next month and then Deer Park goes Beta in September?

I believe that 1.5 is Deer Park, it goes beta next month, and should be getting released in September.

#17 RanCorX2 on 21 Jul 2005 - 09:45

go firefox

(3 replies) #18 Beastage on 21 Jul 2005 - 13:20

They'll add the new version to download count as well! and woha look.... 5 billion downloads!

#18.1 RyanVM on 21 Jul 2005 - 20:52

Nice troll attempt. Too bad Asa's already gone on record as saying that downloads through the update server aren't counted in their download statistics.

http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/008504.html

#18.2 Beastage on 21 Jul 2005 - 22:19

Nice counter troll attempt , considering that most of the people will use the website link to download an update

#18.3 RyanVM on 22 Jul 2005 - 03:14

Counter troll? At least I actually have some evidence to back up my statements...

All I see from you is speculation with nothing to back it up. If you want to start tossing out random anecdotal evidence, how about all the single downloads which are installed on multiple machines, say in a corporate environment?

(4 replies) #19 kl33per on 21 Jul 2005 - 14:33

This could be a dangerous move by Mozilla, depending on when a beta of IE7 is available. If IE7 is very impressive, and Firefox is still on the 1.0x branch, you could see Firefox users jump back to IE. Of course, if 1.5 arrives before IE7 and has all the promised new features, then all is well.

#19.1 Sticktron on 21 Jul 2005 - 15:04

This is exactly where i am sitting... if IE7 comes out soon, with tabs and gestures, i'd switch back right away- for the speed and tight integration.

#19.2 Kushan on 21 Jul 2005 - 15:09

They keywords here are " If IE7 is very impressive".
Come on, is that really very likely?

And I don't mean to be a fanboy, it's jsut that IE has always been as basic as you can get, for IE7 to be very impressive, it'd need to have features that are currently not available in Opera or Firefox which isn't very likely.

#19.3 Structured on 21 Jul 2005 - 16:11

you could argue it used to be, but not really anymore. it did take the majority of market share after all. whether that was because it was better than the competition, or just because it was bundled with Windows is another argument altogether.

#19.4 toadeater on 22 Jul 2005 - 07:59

IE 7 impressive? From what has been revealed about it, there's nothing particularly impressive about it. Tabs and gestures, and RSS? Um... that's playing catch up to Firefox 1.0.

The only thing that would get me to switch back would be a major speed increase over Firefox 1.1+

Plus, I don't know how I could get along without some of the Firefox extensions I'm currently using that IE doesn't have.

#20 Beastage on 21 Jul 2005 - 22:14

Jesus... these are web browsers , come on people - trivial piece of software
how sad you must be to become a web browser fan?

Last edited by 9398 on 21 Jul 2005 - 22:21

#21 PsykX on 22 Jul 2005 - 14:02

*wants something equal or better than (tough one) Safari's RSS support in Firefox 1.5*

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