Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog

Firefox 3 Beta 5 was suppose to be released last Thursday the 27th. However, on Sunday, March 23rd a major bug was discovered. Bug 424719: Firefox leaks nsDocument on http://www.freearcade.com/ when playing a game. Since the next developmental release after Beta 5 is suppose to Release Candidate 1 (which should not contain major bugs) there were faced with two options:

• Option #1: continue with the Beta 5 release as scheduled then fix this bug with a Beta 6 release.
• Option #2 : delay the Beta 5 release until this bug is fixed

I believe part of the reason they went with option #2 was because there would be no other reason (bugs, blockers, regressions, etc) for a Beta 6. No definitive date at this time when Beta 5 will be released. Currently the Upcoming Releases on Mozilla Wiki shows Week of March 31st. I’ll check the notes on Tuesday from the Firefox 3 status meeting and post any updates.

Here’s an overview of this week’s Update Meeting:

• Fx 2.0.0.13

  • Released: March 25

• Fx 2.0.0.14
  • Schedule in development
  • Planning meeting later this week.

• Firefox 3 Beta 4
• Beta 4 Shipped on March 10th

• Firefox 3 Beta 5

  • Code freeze: March 18
  • Builds start: March 27
  • QA: In Progress
  • Release to beta channel:
  • Final Release: March 27 Week of March 31st
  • Status: Delayed due to ’showstopper’ bug 424719

• Firefox 3 Final

  • 53 Blockers resolved in the last week
  • 54 Blockers added in the last week
  • 100 blockers remain for final
  • 20+ blockers have patches waiting on review/landing
  • Character of the bugs are continuing to be smaller in scope than previous

• Gecko 1.9 RC 1

• Code freeze: April 8th
• Builds start:
• QA starts:
• Release to beta channel:
• Final Release:
• Status: 140 Blockers remaining for RC

  • Content: 20
  • GFX: 29
  • JS: 10
  • Layout: 26
  • Platform: 31
  • General: 23

• Lightning/Sunbird (Calendar Project) - No Report

• TBird 1.5.0.14 - No Report

• TBird 2.0.0.13 - Expected Released Date: April 15th
• TBird 3.0a1
  • Thunderbird bug day: March 27th
    
  • Code Freeze: April 22

Complete Meeting Notes

March 31, 1998 was the official beginning for Mozilla (then Netscape Communication Corp) with first developer release of Netscape Communication 5.0. Over the next 10-years the source code ended up being completely re-written. Here’s the press release:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (March 31, 199 — Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:NSCP) today announced that the first developer release of its Communicator 5.0 source code is available for download from the mozilla.org Web site. Targeted at the developer community, this unprecedented release of the client source code promotes acceleration of the evolution of Communicator 5.0 development by allowing the company to harness the creative power of thousands of programmers on the Internet, incorporating their best enhancements into future versions of Netscape’s software. This strategy is designed to accelerate development and distribution of future high-quality versions of Netscape Communicator to business customers and individuals, further seeding the market for Netscape’s enterprise solutions and Netcenter business.

Full original press release

Mitchel Baker describes the Mozilla Project idea:

Ten years ago a radical idea took shape. The idea was that an open source community could create choice and innovation in key Internet technologies where large, commercial vendors could not. This idea took shape as the Mozilla project.

Mozilla was not the first group to pursue this idea. GNU/Linux and the BSD operating systems were already providing a very effective alternative at the server-side operating system level; the Apache web server was already proving that an open source solution could be effective even in areas where the commercial players were actively competing. Each of these gave strength to the idea that this new effort could be successful.

Here are some of Mozilla’s accomplishments over the past 10-years:

• Converted a closed, proprietary development process into a vibrant, transparent, open source project.
• Grown into a massive global community, quite possibly the largest open source project in the world
• Developed a set of long-term, vibrant projects — Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Camino, Bugzilla, Calendar –most, and possibly all of which have millions of users
• Become the software provider of choice for over 170 million people
• Proved that open source development can product great end user products
• Brought the Internet to millions of people in their language
• Moved the overall state of browser software forward dramatically
• Become a technology platform others use to create products built on Mozilla technologies, and in some cases competitive with Mozilla products
• Developed a reputation that people trust and feel they have helped create
• Developed a sophisticated organization that can — for example — service, update and respond to 170 million users
• Built and operated giant open-source web applications — where the source code that runs the application IS open source and available to others;
• Articulated our mission in broad, non-technical term
• Encouraged others to try open, transparent and collaborative techniques in a broad range of activities
• Created public assets of enormous value

News Sources:

• Mitchell’s Blog
• Mozilla Links