It's probably similar to this rationale in the Slackware FAQ: http://www.slackware.com/faq/do_faq.php?faq=general#0

Are you seriously confused how incrementing a number works?

I think it's just coincidence. For years FF was "behind", but had a faster release cycle. Now it just happened to reach Chrome and will likely "pull ahead" in numbers.

Chrome now has the same 4 week release cycle as well [1], so they will probably continue to stay close. I know Firefox sometimes adds a week to their cycle due to holidays (especially around Christmas and the New Year). I don't know if Chrome does the same.

[1] https://blog.chromium.org/2021/03/speeding-up-release-cycle....

Chrome increased their release speed to stay one version ahead of ff. During the pandemic they missed one release, but they also skipped one version so that they can stay ahead. The version was somewhere in the nineties.

Jesus Christ... I'm sorry, I know I'm not adding anything to the conversation. I'm just baffled by these "decisions".

Honestly, no one cares... As long as you're consistent.

Well, this is called marketing.

PS: The version turned out to be 82 btw.

They just made versions a less important thing. It's must easier to release more often when you don't care if it bumps the major version or not, it doesn't have to be a big deal.

It's just a number that goes up

Firefox used to follow semantic versioning of some sort, but dropped it in favour of just incrementing the major number.

It’s common. So does Chrome. And LLVM from the top of my head