Firefox mirrors Google strategy of regular updates – V7 by end of year

Mozilla have said that they are copying the Google strategy of pushing regular updates of its Firefox browser whenever new features are ready, rather than waiting for predefined update schedules.

Jay Sullivan, the VP of product for the company spoke to PC Pro and said “What we want to do is get the power into users’ hands more quickly. For example, the video tag was shippable in June – we should have shipped it. Meanwhile, we're waiting for this whole package. Why wouldn't we ship the video tag when it's ready?”

This follows after Google announced last year that they would be updating their successful Chrome browser every six weeks even if major new functions weren't ready. Mozilla are outlining a similar goal and have even said that Firefox 7 will be released by the end of the year.

Sullivan said “We're moving on web time now, and we've been shipping a little bit on desktop time. It's not necessary, so we're undergoing some process changes, and we'll do smaller bundles more quickly.” He went on to say “We changed the way we do betas, we used to do three or four big betas, now we do betas every three weeks. The number sounds big, but why is there Chrome 9? Because they do fewer features but more releases. So we did fewer features per beta, but more betas. The number's not that meaningful.”

KitGuru says: Good news for the Firefox loving enthusiast community.

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