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Off-topic, but Firefox is on 98 already? isn't Chrome on 99 too? Was their goal to "catch up" or something?

behnamoh 5y ago
I remember Mozilla were pretty pissed off at Chrome’s inaccurate versioning that induced a feeling of “chrome is 60 but ff is still on 3.5 so chrome has to be better “.
- philliphaydon 5y ago
  That's definitely the impression non-techy people seem to get from the numbering.
  - pbhjpbhj 5y ago
    IME non-techy people don't even know the name of their browser (or that it's called a browser, "oh you mean The Internet") nevermind the version number.
  - rightbyte 5y ago
    What non tech user even care about the version number of the browser. I have no clue what version I use.
AnonC 5y ago
Yes, when Google Chrome started doing more frequent releases with new major version numbers, there was an impression that Chrome was newer and better while Firefox was still old and lagging with a low (single digit) version number. Then Firefox shifted to doing a release once every six weeks, and over the years, the major version number has closed in on Chrome and will overtake it soon. On a related note, Firefox does have LTS (long term support) releases for enterprises or users who don’t want to move so fast. As I recall, Chrome was late to the LTS party, and before that it was forcing upgrades (because they happen periodically, behind the scenes) on users.
- cpeterso 5y ago
  Firefox’s release cycles switched from six weeks to four weeks a few years ago. Chrome and Firefox are both on four week release cycles, so Firefox’ version number won’t overtake unless Mozilla or Google change something. They’ll both hit version 100 in just a month or two. If too many websites are broken because they never expected a browser’s User-Agent string to have a version number with more than two digits, Chrome or Firefox might need to freeze the version number advertised in the User-Agent string.
nikolqy 5y ago
I was wondering the same thing. I think over the past months or even years, Mozilla has been trying to get their version to be the same number as Chrome. Maybe if they focused on making a faster browser they wouldn’t need to play silly number games with their versions.
- pbhjpbhj 5y ago
  The ship of Mozilla not playing silly games has long ago sailed.

I remember Mozilla were pretty pissed off at Chrome’s inaccurate versioning that induced a feeling of “chrome is 60 but ff is still on 3.5 so chrome has to be better “.

philliphaydon 5y ago
That's definitely the impression non-techy people seem to get from the numbering.
- pbhjpbhj 5y ago
  IME non-techy people don't even know the name of their browser (or that it's called a browser, "oh you mean The Internet") nevermind the version number.
- rightbyte 5y ago
  What non tech user even care about the version number of the browser. I have no clue what version I use.

AnonC 5y ago

Yes, when Google Chrome started doing more frequent releases with new major version numbers, there was an impression that Chrome was newer and better while Firefox was still old and lagging with a low (single digit) version number. Then Firefox shifted to doing a release once every six weeks, and over the years, the major version number has closed in on Chrome and will overtake it soon. On a related note, Firefox does have LTS (long term support) releases for enterprises or users who don’t want to move so fast. As I recall, Chrome was late to the LTS party, and before that it was forcing upgrades (because they happen periodically, behind the scenes) on users.

cpeterso 5y ago
Firefox’s release cycles switched from six weeks to four weeks a few years ago. Chrome and Firefox are both on four week release cycles, so Firefox’ version number won’t overtake unless Mozilla or Google change something. They’ll both hit version 100 in just a month or two. If too many websites are broken because they never expected a browser’s User-Agent string to have a version number with more than two digits, Chrome or Firefox might need to freeze the version number advertised in the User-Agent string.

nikolqy 5y ago

I was wondering the same thing. I think over the past months or even years, Mozilla has been trying to get their version to be the same number as Chrome. Maybe if they focused on making a faster browser they wouldn’t need to play silly number games with their versions.

pbhjpbhj 5y ago
The ship of Mozilla not playing silly games has long ago sailed.