Mozilla Firefox switched from a "when it is done or necessary" approach to a release cycle that would see a new major version release of the browser every six weeks, regardless of new features, improvements or fixes included in that release. Frequent updates are disliked mainly for the following reasons:
- The updates break the user's workflow, as the browser needs to be restarted to complete the installation. This happens while the user works with the browser.
- Updates, especially in the beginning, had the tendency to break stuff like interface elements -- features or extensions that users did not want to give up. This is actually one of the core reasons why some Firefox users block updates or refuse to update Firefox 3 or 4 versions to the latest release versions. Users who applied the updates are in a position where they have to spend time getting accustomed to new versions.
- It often feels as if updates do not add any new features to the browser.
"I've had this conversation with dozens of people across three continents. Not one person has had anything good to say about the rapid release process. Nearly 100% of my highly unscientific survey volunteered the information -- unasked, unprompted -- that the rapid release process had ruined Firefox for them."
DiCarlo believes that this is exactly what drives many users to Chrome:
"Ironically, by doing rapid releases poorly, we just made Firefox look like an inferior version of Chrome. And by pushing a never-ending stream of updates on people who didn't want them, we drove a lot of those people to Chrome; exactly what we were trying to prevent."
Via Betanews
