Bugs freeze Mozilla beta programme again

Second hold-up within a month.

By Gregg Keizer, Computerworld (US online)
Published: 08:05 GMT, 28 February 08

Mozilla has announced a 'code freeze' for a beta version for Firefox 3.0, the second time within a month.

The company's chief engineer hinted that the number of outstanding bugs at that point - 66 that could block the release of Firefox 3.0 - meant a fifth beta will likely be needed.

"We reviewed the remaining number of P1 [Priority 1] and P2 [Priority 2] blockers on our lists and decided that we would go ahead with tonight's Firefox 3 Beta 4 code freeze and then bake nightly builds for a few days before handing off the code to the build and quality assurance teams," said Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's interface designer, on the Mozilla developers' blog.

Between now and Friday, Beltzner continued, developers will be looking over the blocking bugs to decide which, if any, require another beta release and which would prevent the final release of Firefox 3.0 if they went unfixed.

Meanwhile, Mike Schroepfer, the company's vice president of engineering, said he is leaning toward a fifth beta to give developers a chance to quash potential blockers. "As of this writing, there are 66 P1 bugs, which implies we either will not meet code freeze tonight or will need to add another milestone," he said hours before Mozilla held its weekly status meeting on Firefox 3.0. "Given the number of improvements between Beta 3 and today's nightly, I'd strong prefer we meet the freeze and talk about doing an additional Beta."

However, Schroepfer also pushed for releasing Firefox 3.0 soon. "Given the amazing positive feedback and the fact that we have [500,000] daily active users of Firefox 3 (with basically hockey-stick growth of usage) I think we should push to final as fast as possible," he said on the Mozilla.dev newsgroup.

Previously, Schroepfer had refused to specify a release date for the final version of Firefox 3.0, although he had pointed to early March as the goal for Beta 4. Another beta would push out final delivery of a finished Firefox by approximately four weeks, based on the last interval between previews.

Mozilla froze Firefox 3.0 at Beta 3 on 29 January, and released that build two weeks later, on 12 February.

What are your views on this subject? Use the form below to post a comment on this article up to 500 characters.

Characters remaining: 500

Related Applications news

Microsoft Office 2010 beta available for download

Developers can get hands on software preview

19 November 2009

Microsoft reveals Silverlight update plans

Version 4 to beef up out of browser application support

Microsoft beta to shake up directory services

Developers to bake access control into applications

Salesforce launches own social networking app

Chatter could be 'Facebook for the enterprise'.

Related Applications reviews

Microsoft Office 2010 beta

Akvis ArtSuite 5.0 review

PeerBlock review

Email this article to a friend or colleague:

PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

Techworld White Papers

Database security: Preventing enterprise data leaks at the source

IDC discusses the growing internal threats to business information, the impact of government regulations on the protection of data, and how enterprises must adopt database security best practices...

Download Whitepaper

Service-oriented security

SOA has become an integral part of enterprise software by providing a framework to efficiently develop software as services that is easily sharable, reusable, and integrated. No where is the need more apparent than in the Identity Management space. Welcome to the age of Service-Oriented Security (SOS).

Download Whitepaper

Data protection prospective vendor checklist

Organisations need a way to map business needs against all these challenges in procuring a technical solution. To help, SANS has developed the following Prospective Vendor Checklist.

Download Whitepaper

Unlock the power of the mainframe

This whitepaper presents the notion of CICS as an integration hub based on a component-based, service-oriented architecture supporting Web services. Highlights will review the challenges and contrasted support for Web services natively in CICS.

Download Whitepaper

Techworld UK - Technology - Business

COLT White Paper

Are all VoIP services the same?

Questions to ask your service provider to ensure you get the VoIP service you need
With careful choice of partner, your business can have all the advantages of VoIP access - reduced costs, flexibility and simplicity - without the drawbacks.
This white paper is your guide to ensure you get right the VoIP service and details the pitfalls which businesses would do well to avoid.

Download white paper
BMC

Ride the express lane in the journey to speed ITIL adoption

Explore the challenges in making the journey to ITIL and the criteria for selecting consulting services
By following ITIL practices, your IT organisation will become more closely integrated with the business. We recommend making the journey to ITIL in a sequence of six incremental steps, the phases of which are driven through execution of a strategic transformational roadmap.

Download white paper

Webcast: IT Financial Management: Cost Optimisation for Efficiency and Agility.
On Demand Webcast
Join this webcast to learn about the techniques and technologies that can help you prove the value of IT to the business by understanding the true cost of today's IT services and those that will be necessary to deliver future success.

Register Today

Site Map

IDG Network

* *