Firefox 3.6.4 is still chugging along
If you haven't called into Mozilla's platform or release meetings you may be wondering what the heck is going on with Firefox 3.6.4.
We originally announced a beta of Firefox 3.6.4 on April 20th, 2010. We then let everyone know there was an updated beta on May 4th, 2010. Today is May 27th. What's been happening since the 4th? Lots!
- In total we built (and mostly released) five builds of Firefox 3.6.4 for our beta users
- We have been analyzing crash reports, making sure there are no new issues and quantifying the benefits of out-of-process-plugins. Out-of-process-plugin hangs / crashes (or OOPsies) are now easier to see thanks to a new version of Socorro that rolled out a couple weeks ago. You can see an example by looking at this report. The "hang |" signatures are reports that are sent when a plugin misbehaves. Note that there is still more work to do to filter out OOPsies in aggregate graphs and counts
- We have been working with antivirus and firewall vendors to make sure the new "plugin-container.exe" process used by OOPP isn't flagged as malware. If you work for such a vendor and have not heard from us please get in touch
- We have started creating the sixth build with a fix to the only known blocker. Hopefully build number six will meet our high quality standards and become Firefox 3.6.4 final (after a beta period of course). I'll do another blog post letting everyone know when the release candidate build is out. In the meantime, you can help out by installing and testing the latest beta from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all-beta.html
As always, the most up-to-date release plan can be found on the wiki.
We know out-of-process-plugins will make a huge difference for our user base and we are trying to get Firefox 3.6.4 released as soon as possible. Hang tight and help us test!
1 Minute from Nevada to California
Apparently UPS has some crazy-fast trucks or planes...
Cool poem & typography video
I've been focusing on being more assertive when I speak. It's been hit or miss. Love this poem and the video is pretty decent too.
Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.
Blogs are hard
Who knew writing blog entries would be so hard? I have a bunch of half-finished entries in the queue, but they have taken a back-burner to Firefox releases, weekend fun, and craigslist shopping.
It is surprisingly hard to write a coherent blog post. I think the last four years of emailing informally for work has caused my long-form writing skills to atrophy. I've also noticed my spelling ability take a nose-dive when I read craigslist for an extended period of time. I will hopefully be writing a Firefox Jetpack to fix common phonetic spelling mistakes in craigslist posts, which should hopefully allow me to read craigslist without getting dumber.
Upcoming post topics:
- Technology
- A fairly in-depth look at update technology, comparing the difference between Apple, Mozilla, and (generally) Linux vendors. I might look into what Microsoft does as well, but it would be a superficial comparison as I have little hands-on experience with the Windows side of software updates / installers
- My #1 Bugzilla feature request (and potential patch / changeset)
- Ideas for new systems / process improvements at Mozilla
- Post on Firefox OOPP and the positive impact it is having
- What it's like to be a new employee at Mozilla (in general as well as thoughts about coming from Apple)
- My new i7 iMac impressions
- Personal / Random
- Things that annoy me that other people seem to enjoy immensely
Also, expect so see a lot more random picture posts as soon as I get a cellphone that actually takes photos. I had to give up my iPhone when I left Apple as it was their hardware on their plan. I am now a proud owner of a sweet $20 Samsung Go Phone (aka "Zack Morris" phone):
This is pretty much the phone I have
Yay Valve and Adobe!
Steam was officially released for the Mac the other day. For a limited time Mac users can get the awesome game Portal for free. I've been wanting to try out Portal for a while now and I finally got a new 27 inch iMac last week. Yay! Time to install...