Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory

Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by fedorabbit on Thursday August 11, 2011 @11:23AM (#2873238)

This version inflation thing is getting a bit out of hand...I'm using Firefox 5 right now, I don't feel any difference from Firefox 4.

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Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by stanleydrew on Thursday August 11, 2011 @01:20PM (#2873812)

I'm using Firefox 5 right now, I don't feel any difference from Firefox 4.

That's exactly the point. Which version of Gmail are we on right now? 477? Does that feel different from 476? I don't know. I just get performance improvements and new features as they come out.

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Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by AndyKelley on Thursday August 11, 2011 @11:35AM (#2873300)

The problem with using that metric is that the "feel" of a program is directly related to the UI changes that the version employs. You could change absolutely nothing bug and feature wise, but do a UI redesign and the new version would feel like it was updated a whole bunch.

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Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by fedorabbit on Thursday August 11, 2011 @11:43AM (#2873324)

What's wrong with subversion system for bug fixes? So, you mean they fixed so many bugs, improved so many back-end features in Firefox 4, which perfectly justifies a version jump from 4 to 7? I seem to remember old days Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 took forever...

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Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by capnrefsmmat on Thursday August 11, 2011 @12:36PM (#2873607)

They're not jumping from 4 to 7. 5 has been released; 6 will be released soon; 7 will be released six weeks after that. It's a time-based schedule with a new version number every six weeks.

Mozilla was sick of defining features for a given version and then delaying releases for months because of too-ambitious goals, so they switched to a whatever-is-done-by-the-deadline system. Version numbers aren't particularly meaningful.

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Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by r00fus on Thursday August 11, 2011 @03:10PM (#2874292)

Which is why I like Ubuntu's YY.MM versioning - it's completely natural and expected.

I also like build numbers like Microsoft and Apple give, you know if OSX 10.7 GM seed is different from the GA release by looking at the build (e.g. 11A494A)

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Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by Udo on Thursday August 11, 2011 @02:27PM (#2874108)

Clearly, they are pulling the old "major version change marketing stunt" to catch up with a perceived lag in version numbers compared to other browsers. You see, apparently people think IE 9 must be vastly superior to FF 4...

Personally, I think the time for version numbers should probably be over altogether. At this point I feel it's more productive to just tack a date string onto the thing and be done with it. For example, Firefox 2011-July is way more informative than an actual version number.

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Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by jamesgeck0 on Thursday August 11, 2011 @03:50PM (#2874454)

Did you read Mozilla's version number announcement a few months back? Version numbers aren't being used in marketing material anymore, so the user will rarely see them. The change in the version numbering corresponds to a new rapid release/update cycle. From the user's perspective, there are no versions, there is just Firefox.

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Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by Udo on Friday August 12, 2011 @05:58AM (#2876638)

I didn't read it, no. But looking at the website and the actual Firefox app right now, version numbers are still a big part of the picture. A release cycle doesn't become more rapid just because they're using major version numbers in place of minor ones. I get and support the idea behind a rapid release mechanism instead of holding back a release in order to wait on incomplete features, but still this version number thing seems like a stunt to me that has little to do with the actual release policy.

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Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by AlfaWolph on Thursday August 11, 2011 @02:26PM (#2874102)

We're on "Chrome 13" if that means anything. It shouldn't make a difference as long as major release numbers correspond to major improvements.

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Re:Firefox 7 will use up to 50% less memory by notatoad on Thursday August 11, 2011 @02:12PM (#2874036)

and why do you care?

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