IMS_Blog

It’s not that long since I switched from the Mozilla Application Suite (seamonkey, MAS, simply Mozilla – call it what you will), to a combination of Firefox and Thunderbird (and Sunbird). Looks like I may have just done so in time. From the 28 February staff notes:

*Mozilla 1.8 final*

- To be discussed tomorrow whether we do one
Staff notes

The idea of no seamonkey 1.8 has of course caused much heated discussion (and nobody seems willing to commit to one being produced), in replies to the posting of the staff meeting notes, Asa’s blog and other places (and will probably break out at the Mozillazine story too). And I think those who are upset have some good points. From an enterprise software point of view the suite offers a lot more, in terms of features and integration. And in some ways the browser is much nicer for power users (and hence more innovative)—I’ve previously mentioned the huge number of extensions needed to get Firefox up to speed. Some of the decisions for Firefox (no site navigation bar for instance) are very hard to justify.

Even putting aside the Firefox versus Suite arguments (a debate I’m still undecided over, even though I’ve switched—and I think that may be part of the point the Mozilla Foundation seem determined to miss; what is right for one is not right for the other, or even may change at differing times. It’s supposed to be about choice)—there are other issues. For a start, what’s the point in a long and protracted sequence of alpha and beta releases if no final product is to come out the end (if they’d told the suite users that to start with how many testers for their betas do they think they would have had?). Further the sheer amount of anger present in some of the claims show that the foundation is in danger of falling into a trap it’s tripped over before even in the narrower scope of Firefox (think naming issues); it seems happy to appear to arrogantly ignore the the views of a vocal minority of its users (and a proportionally large number of those users have been its most loyal, with Mozilla since before there was a Foundation). it gives the impression (and it doesn’t matter if it’s right or not) that if your views do not agree with the few at the top of the Mozilla Foundation they will be simply silenced.

The most puzzling thing is there isn’t really a clear reason why everyone can’t continue to be appeased. The 1.8 Gecko must be finished, according to the road map that’s what Firefox 1.1 is based off. So why not go the extra few inches (not even mile) to finish a final release of the suite as well. It got you here and you never know, perhaps it just might be the thing to carry you onwards once the excitement of Firefox 1.0 dies away, and it becomes clear it’s a good browser, but hardly that cutting edge of innovation. I’d hate to see seamonkey die, only for us to recreate a suite by bodging the stand alones together. The suite is designed to work as one, any bodge will never be as good unless something changes so Firefox, Thunderbird et al. do the same (one comment rightly pointed out the frustration with having to install extensions twice, once for Firefox and once for Thunderbird). Let’s hope Mozilla for once not only listen, but are seen to do so.