For the record, I'd already hacked one about:config entry about HarfBuzz (obviously something most users won't know how to do) to fix an earlier related problem, and it sounds like I now need to hack another one to fix the same problem in more recent Firefox builds.
Well, thank you for the link. I can honestly say that despite using Mozilla browsers for many years and trying to file a bug on numerous occasions, I have never come across that FTP site. It sure as heck wasn't mentioned anywhere usefully prominent on either the main web site to download Firefox or the pages relating to filing a bug last time I tried, and I did spend several minutes looking.
I will just reiterate here that it wouldn't matter to me anyway now, though, because the one previous build I did find and install when trying to report a bug a few weeks ago (the latest 3.6 series one) basically screwed up my entire add-ons configuration in my current (then v5) Firefox build, something it had no reason to go anywhere near when I was just trying to do a clean parallel install to check for regressions in a particular area. If I'm going to volunteer my time to help out, it simply isn't worth risking the hassle of reconfiguring my up-to-date Firefox installation (which I use for actual paying work) any time I want to check for regressions since an older version.
> Troll.
No, honest opinion. I think the Firefox team's repeatedly demonstrated attitude to fast releases, new features vs. quality control/regression testing, and generally providing a sustainable, reliable platform useful for business applications, is fundamentally flawed on a management level. Their reliance on Google for almost their entire income stream is also fundamentally flawed on a commercial level, given that it is ultimately in Google's commercial interests to move more people onto Chrome and lock them in by using Chrome-specific features in Google's web offerings. If your management/PR and your commercial set-up are undermined, it doesn't really matter how good you are technically.
Anecdotally, I have been in two meetings already this week where director-level people (that's CxO level people for those of you across the pond) in medium-sized companies have made policy decisions that Firefox support is no longer to be considered a priority for their web development work (which is a significant part of their business in each case). The reasoning was much the same in both cases, and the same as other meetings I've been to recently: the amount of time that developers have been spending working around regressions and incompatibilities in recent months can't be justified when you don't know what will break again or be fixed anyway in the next release less than three months away, and when any claim of support that can't be relied upon for business-level timescales isn't worth anything in the market anyway.
More objectively, look at any reputable measure of market share in the browser space. Firefox hasn't been going anywhere for quite a while; if anything, it's dropped slightly according to some sources. Meanwhile, IE has been losing share as fast as ever, Chrome has been racing up faster than any browser in history, and several of the "minor" browsers are grabbing enough of the pie to register. That is not a healthy picture for Firefox.
Well, the top result if you Google for "Firefox kerning capital T" is this report from a few days ago, complete with screenshot:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=230274...
For the record, I'd already hacked one about:config entry about HarfBuzz (obviously something most users won't know how to do) to fix an earlier related problem, and it sounds like I now need to hack another one to fix the same problem in more recent Firefox builds.
> You're outright lying now. https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases
Well, thank you for the link. I can honestly say that despite using Mozilla browsers for many years and trying to file a bug on numerous occasions, I have never come across that FTP site. It sure as heck wasn't mentioned anywhere usefully prominent on either the main web site to download Firefox or the pages relating to filing a bug last time I tried, and I did spend several minutes looking.
I will just reiterate here that it wouldn't matter to me anyway now, though, because the one previous build I did find and install when trying to report a bug a few weeks ago (the latest 3.6 series one) basically screwed up my entire add-ons configuration in my current (then v5) Firefox build, something it had no reason to go anywhere near when I was just trying to do a clean parallel install to check for regressions in a particular area. If I'm going to volunteer my time to help out, it simply isn't worth risking the hassle of reconfiguring my up-to-date Firefox installation (which I use for actual paying work) any time I want to check for regressions since an older version.
> Troll.
No, honest opinion. I think the Firefox team's repeatedly demonstrated attitude to fast releases, new features vs. quality control/regression testing, and generally providing a sustainable, reliable platform useful for business applications, is fundamentally flawed on a management level. Their reliance on Google for almost their entire income stream is also fundamentally flawed on a commercial level, given that it is ultimately in Google's commercial interests to move more people onto Chrome and lock them in by using Chrome-specific features in Google's web offerings. If your management/PR and your commercial set-up are undermined, it doesn't really matter how good you are technically.
Anecdotally, I have been in two meetings already this week where director-level people (that's CxO level people for those of you across the pond) in medium-sized companies have made policy decisions that Firefox support is no longer to be considered a priority for their web development work (which is a significant part of their business in each case). The reasoning was much the same in both cases, and the same as other meetings I've been to recently: the amount of time that developers have been spending working around regressions and incompatibilities in recent months can't be justified when you don't know what will break again or be fixed anyway in the next release less than three months away, and when any claim of support that can't be relied upon for business-level timescales isn't worth anything in the market anyway.
More objectively, look at any reputable measure of market share in the browser space. Firefox hasn't been going anywhere for quite a while; if anything, it's dropped slightly according to some sources. Meanwhile, IE has been losing share as fast as ever, Chrome has been racing up faster than any browser in history, and several of the "minor" browsers are grabbing enough of the pie to register. That is not a healthy picture for Firefox.