Thanks to Firefox we were able to receive huge amount of testers and prove that Gecko is a mature engine ready for use in mainstream tools like web browser or mail client.
One interesting fact is that Firefox 1.0 release did not influence our overall bugzilla numbers much.
Another, that this release slowed down our release timeframe a bit.
Look at this table:
| Release date | Gecko version | Opera version |
|---|---|---|
| 06.2002 | 1.0 | |
| 08.2002 | 1.1 [+2] | |
| 11.2002 | 1.2 [+3] | |
| 01.2003 | 7.0 | |
| 04.2003 | 1.3 [+5] | 7.1 [+3] |
| 06.2003 | 1.4 [+2] | |
| 09.2003 | 7.2 [+5] | |
| 10.2003 | 1.5 [+4] | |
| 01.2004 | 1.6 [+3] | |
| 05.2004 | 7.5 [+8] | |
| 06.2004 | 1.7 (Fx 1.0) [+5] | |
| 04.2005 | 8.0 [+9] | |
| 09.2005 | 8.5 [+5] | |
| ~11.2005 | 1.8 (Fx 1.5) [+17] | |
| Q4 2006 | 1.9 [~12] | |
| (?) | 2.0 |
The slowdown is a result of Firefox 1.0 release and that MoFo focused much on Firefox code, leaving Gecko a lower on priority list.
The question is if MoFo will want to release 1.9 with Firefox 2.0 (Q4 2006) or release it sooner and get Gecko 2.0 with Fx 2.0.
update: After reading (kudoz to Bablefish) Pascal’s comment, I added Opera’s numbers. There is additional difference that Opera releases minor versions with new features which keeps media on line.
6 replies on “Mozilla is getting Complex”
Do you have an idea when (if ever) will mozilla browsers change their useragent string from Mozilla/5.0 to (for example) Mozilla/6.0?
Kasprzol: Why should we do it?
Billet intéressant
Gandalf a un billet intéressant (comme beaucoup d’autres d’ailleurs) sur les temps de sorties de nouvelles versions de mozilla/firefox en suivant l’évolution de gecko. C’est intéressant car j’étais sur le point de faire exactement le même bil…
You should add IE numbers too 😉
>The slowdown is a result of Firefox 1.0 release and that MoFo focused much on Firefox code, leaving Gecko a lower on priority list.
Well there was also the deliberate plan to create longer release cycles, partly to simply reduce all the QA work involved. See http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.mozilla.devel.seamonkey/3314. I wouldn’t necessarily say that Gecko development became a lower priority due to Firefox. It was just that they didn’t want to release anything off the (1.8) trunk before FX 1.0 was released because FX 1.0 was based of 1.7, so they just kept adding in more 1.8alpha’s. Had they kept with the original scheme of having 4 releases per year, Gecko 1.8 would be 1.11 instead!
marcoos: Well maybe because the old string is around for a long time and I assume that the engine evolved a bit. (AFAIR the Mozilla/5.0 was in user agent string in Mozilla 1.4 (or even erlier) and now there is Mozilla 1.8/1.9 alpha).