In a move that will not affect 99 percent of users, but will greatly please a small minority of its user base, Mozilla Engineering Manager Benjamin Smedberg reversed his controversial decision to kill availability of 64-bit builds of the Firefox browser.
But the move was a half-hearted one, as Mozilla still is sticking to the party line: Its 64-bit development for Windows is over, for now.
The November suspension was justified by a list of complaints raised -- some of them valid, others not so much. The biggest complaint Smedberg voiced was that moving Firefox to 64-bit builds simply wasn’t that high a priority to most of its users. That’s technically correct. Only users who demand hundreds of tabs open at once need to go beyond the 2GB memory envelope of 32-bit Firefox without crashes. Most users will never hit that limitation.
But some will. Microsoft and Opera already have 64-bit browsers. Apple and Google are actively working on 64-bit browsers. Clearly demand for this improvement is small, but not non-existent.
Other criticisms were more questionable. Smedberg complained that the bug reports from users testing the 64-bit browsers were hard to read. But the onus for that difficulty -- and the responsibility for remedying it -- ultimately rests on Mozilla’s contributors. And his criticism about plug-in incompatibility seems weak given the availability of 64-bit builds of top plug-ins like Flash and Java.
As frustrating as Mozilla’s decision and justifications were, it was even more troubling that Mozilla decided to deny users access to code that was already complete. Smedberg appears to have finally realized that. He wrote in his blog:
It seems that there are users who regularly run into the 4GB memory limits of 32-bit builds. These users often have hundreds or even thousands of tabs. These users are using the 64-bit nightlies not primarily to be part of our testing community, but because those builds are the best product available.
So the good news is that the nightlies are going to be available once more.
The bad news is that Mozilla’s decision to discontinue development still stands. That leaves the x64 bit version in a pre-Aurora stage. (Mozilla maintains three primary build channels: Aurora -- alpha builds; Beta; and the Release.)
Mozilla also is taking other steps to largely follow through with its original intention of killing 64-bit development. It will shuffle registered x64 users to the 32-bit release channel, forcing them to manually download the x64 nightlies if they want them. It will remove bug reporting in the nightlies.
I will say that I think Mozilla is right about one thing: Its top priority should be in making a polished Metro-style Firefox browser app for Windows 8, as that is the push that will benefit the most users overall as consumers (and to a lesser extent enterprises) shift to Windows 8. But I also say we power users shouldn’t let Mozilla off the hook so easily, just because it restored the nightlies.
The fact remains that for many power users, the best browser (or perhaps only useable browser) is a stable 64-bit browser. If Mozilla is incapable of delivering or is unwilling to deliver the best browser for these users, it calls into question its more outside-the-box efforts -- which include a smartphone OS and a social network.
After all, if a browser company can’t at least try to make the best, most full-featured browser available, how can its other efforts be taken seriously? And for that matter, how can enterprise users take a browser-maker that seems disinterested in developing for power users seriously? Mozilla still has some soul-searching to do.
— Jason Mick is senior news editor at the independent tech news site DailyTech.
SInce I know you very well;I will never say that you don't have a High enough IQ!!!
I just feel that Android is way far too ahead in the Apps space here.Its a dominance which is unsurmountable unless Google themselves screw up[Unlikely].
And Google has the funds which Mozilla does'nt have.
Maybe my IQ isn't high enough to complete the analogy, but it would seem to be
Tizen:Android::Firefox:Chrome
And in the article it seemed to say that Firefox is a more "compelling user experience".
As far as apps, anything done with the Android SDK will be easily portable, and many apps are now written as web applications using JQuery mobile...so no porting at all needed!
If you need evidence that Tizen could supercede Android just look at how Android surplanted Windows and Ios in mobile. And now Samsung is the big kid in mobile hardware, it's only natural they would want full control of their software and Tizen gives them that. The next step is for others to follow and not have to pay licensing fees.
I have a PC with a 9850 Phenom II Black 4-core processor, and prior to upgrading it had an X2, both 64 bit, but I've never run any Windows but XP 32-bit on it.
The only 64 bit OS I've ever used on any of my machines is Suse Linux 11.2 -- and I haven't been able to update that because of my current disk partitioning.
because I'm one of those people who has a zillion tabs open at a time.
Currently I use RockMelt, which is Chrome-based, but I gather they've quit development on it. I'm *very* disappointed because there's features of it I really like, but since I am starting to run into compatibility problems at some point I'm going to have to bite the bullet and fall back to another browser. I had moved from Firefox to Chrome in the first place because of the memory leak problem. I had been starting to think about Firefox again because it reportedly had more extensions than other browsers. But if Chrome has a 64-bit version, and Firefox doesn't, that's going to make my decision harder.
I think Mozilla is doing the correct thing due to the problems they are having with the 64bit browser. If they get it out there and its buggy it will be worse. As long as they are going to go back to it I don't think its so bad.
I think Mozilla is doing the correct thing due to the problems they are having with the 64bit browser. If they get it out there and its buggy it will be worse. As long as they are going to go back to it I don't think its so bad.
I am not sure how aware you are with the Typical SDLC process.
Believe me its an extremely long-winded and messy ;especially on complicated Projects like this one[A Web Browser with millions of Users;constantly getting exposed to hackers,etc searching for Vulnerabilities everywhere].
Entrusting everything to enthusiasts can mess things up for consumers as whole.
Look at the Branching and Forking seen in Android[Especially new versions under Google and Amazon];which forced Google to eventually bring everything back in-house.
Yeah they can offer 64-bit build versions for enthusiasts to play with;but if you expect Consumer acceptance for such a varied User experience;I don't think so.
You pinpointed the issue earlier in your Blogpost itself[Its about the fact that not many Consumers;excluding Power Users] need the 64-Bit Browser today.
As for the question of revenues and Budgets;One can guauge that from the Fact that IE,Chrome and Safari all have massive IT budgets supporting them.
In contrast Firefox has much smaller budgets;so they have to prioritize.
I also would have preferrred if they would have released the 64-Bit version in the Wild and let enthusiasts play/develop on it further but that's the way things go today.
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Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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