[Mageia-dev] FireFox ESR <= we should totally go for this wrt stable releases

Sat Feb 11 05:07:07 CET 2012

Florian Hubold wrote:
+> Our update policy already has an exception for Firefox, and so far there were
+> no bigger issues during updates from our initial 4.0 to 10.0. And if most other
+> distros don't use ESR, we're kind of alienated, and users will ask why we do that,
+> because we're not aimed at enterprise usage currently.
+
+There have been plenty of issues in the transition from 3.6 to 10.0, and I'm not talking about 
+Mageia specifically.  There's been lots of extensions broken, major UI changes, functionality 
+ripped out, etc.  It hasn't been smooth or easy at all.  Major changes in FF have never come like 
+this in its history.  If they are going to continue to make radical changes at the pace they have 
+been, it's going to continue to be a headache.
+
+It's a pain for less sophisticated users who have a harder time adjusting to UI changes, broken 
+extensions, and lost functionality.  It's a pain for sysadmins who support these users, sometimes 
+supporting them remotely.  It's a pain for the distro to have to keep building these updates, deal 
+with changed and upgraded dependencies, rebuild tons of dependent stuff, and have to try to QA 
+something that's changing.
+
+Sticking to the ESR will mean less work for the distro, less stress for sysadmins, and less pain 
+for users.  It seems like an obvious choice.
+
+Yes, we all know there are users (sometimes more sophisticated, sometimes not) who always want the 
+latest and greatest shiny new version numbers.  I don't claim to have numbers to back it up, but 
+I'd like to think that most users prefer major changes, adjustments, and possible breakage to occur 
+infrequently, and only when it is expected (distro upgrade), rather than happening frequently and 
+by surprise.  I'd like to think that most would prefer things to continue to work, and work the 
+same, and for updates to only fix bugs most of the time.  I would also like to think that those who 
+are overly obsessed about the new shiny version numbers can find ways to manage.
+
+