Mozilla Developer News http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews Tue, 13 May 2008 13:59:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 en about:mozilla - First reader survey, Party in Japan, Offline demo, all about SUMO, Site ID button, and more http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/13/aboutmozilla-first-reader-survey-party-in-japan-offline-demo-all-about-sumo-site-id-button-and-more/ http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/13/aboutmozilla-first-reader-survey-party-in-japan-offline-demo-all-about-sumo-site-id-button-and-more/#comments Tue, 13 May 2008 13:59:21 +0000 dria http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/?p=244 In this issue…

about:mozilla reader suvey

Mozilla has been publishing the about:mozilla newsletter since November of last year. Having been at this for almost six months, we figure it’s time to gather some reader feedback which is why we’re running an “about:mozilla Newsletter” community survey.

If you are a regular reader of this newsletter, we would really appreciate it if you could take the time to respond to the survey which you can find over at the Mozilla Europe site. At the end of the survey, there’s a place for you to enter whatever additional comments, ideas, thoughts, or criticisms you may have. The more feedback you can give us about the newsletter, the better the newsletter will be in the future.

Please take the time to help us out by responding to the about:mozilla newsletter survey. Thanks!

Mozilla Party JP 9.0

The Japanese Mozilla community, the Mozillagumi, will have their 9th annual party event on Saturday, May 31st in Tokyo, Japan. Speakers include Taro Matsuzawa of the Mozillagumi, John Daggett (platform developer) and David Tenser (SUMO manager) of Mozilla Corporation, Channy Yun of the Mozilla Korea community, Nakamoto-san of Open Office Japan Project, and Dr. Hiromitsu Takagi of the (Japan) National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, among others. The event will be free and open to the public. Information in Japanese is available at the Mozillagumi site.

Firefox 3: Offline app demo

Mark Finkle has put together a simple demo that demonstrates the new offline capabilities of Firefox 3. “Offline mode” or “offline caching” is a new feature in HTML 5 that allows web applications to work even when Firefox 3 is on a machine that isn’t currently connected to the Internet. Finkle’s demo is called “Task Helper” and you can read more about it on his weblog. For more information about using offline resources in Firefox 3, see the article on the topic over at the Mozilla Developer Center.

Tristan, Firefox 3 and the BBC’s dot.life blog

Tristan Nitot was recently in London giving a keynote speech at Internet World called “The dangers of the proprietary web - Future of the Internet and Open Source”. While in the UK, Tristan also met with Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC technology correspondent who writes for the BBC’s tech blog “dot.life”. Rory interviewed Tristan about open source, the background of Mozilla, and the new Firefox 3. Read the article and check out Rory’s video of Tristan’s Firefox 3 demo at the BBC dot.life weblog.

The slow death of the press release

Melissa Shapiro, Mozilla’s indefatigable Public Relations lead, has written an interesting article talking about why Mozilla doesn’t put out more press releases and how Public Relations is changing (or needs to change) as an industry. “The PR industry needs to revisit the concept of the next generation press release more than once every few years. Media is always changing. PR needs to keep pace or it will go the way of fax blasting: still around but completely out of touch with the modern era.” Melissa’s post provides a fascinating glimpse the inner workings of Mozilla’s PR efforts, making those processes more transparent and accessible. Check out the full post over at Melissa’s weblog.

Firefox 3 Add-ons compatibility update

Alex Polvi has posted another Firefox 3 Add-ons compatibility report, outlining the current state of the top add-ons that are not yet compatible with Firefox 3. This week’s list includes: Firebug, Tab Mix Plus, FireFTP, Foxmarks, FoxyTunes, Blue Ice, RedShift V2, and ColorfulTabs, among others. Alex is looking for some help, so if you would like to get your feet wet helping out with a Firefox release, head on over to his blog and see how you can get started.

All about SUMO: Mozilla’s second community survey

The Community Survey team has started publishing the results of Mozilla’s second community survey that focuses on learning more about the community that is helping with SUMO (support.mozilla.com). In these first two articles, they outline the process behind preparing the survey, publishing the survey, and some initial analyses of the results. More will be published from this survey, but for now check out the first two articles — part 1 and part 2 — over at the Mozilla Community Survey weblog.

Firefox 3: Site Identification button

One of the most exciting new security features of Firefox 3 is the Site Identification button. The button replaces and builds upon the ubiquitous “padlock” icon that has for so long been the primary security indicator used in browsers. Rather than just displaying a padlock, Firefox 3 finds out as much as it can about the sites being browsed, and makes that information easily accessible through a single click of a button. Through this feature Firefox 3 presents users with information that covers a range of different security levels. For lots more information about the new Site Identification button, check out the full article over at Deb Richardson’s weblog.

Processing.js

John Resig, part of Mozilla’s Evangelism team, has (in his spare time, no less) ported the Processing visualization language to JavaScript using the Canvas element. This project was launched last Thursday on John’s weblog, and his write up includes details about the project’s development and the Processing API, a host of demos, links to the full source code, and instructions on how to use it. The demos all work in the latest Firefox 3 beta, which you can download from the Firefox beta page. Lots more information is available at John’s weblog.

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]]> http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/13/aboutmozilla-first-reader-survey-party-in-japan-offline-demo-all-about-sumo-site-id-button-and-more/feed/ Firefox 3 Release Candiate 1 Code Complete! http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/10/firefox-3-code-complete/ http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/10/firefox-3-code-complete/#comments Sat, 10 May 2008 11:10:23 +0000 schrep http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/?p=243 Thanks to all the hard work of the Mozilla community as of 9:15 AM PDT today we are code complete for Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 (RC1). New nightly builds are available - if you are a nightly tester/Minefield user you can help test these builds by selecting “Check for Updates” from your help menu.

Assuming no new issues are found today the build team will start official prep work for Release Candidate 1 (RC1) tomorrow. QA will start their extensive RC1 test pass on Monday. If all goes well we should have the Release Candidate publicly available in late May.

RC1 is intended for wider scale public testing. Our 1.2M+ active beta users will automatically get updated to RC1 when it is released. If no new showstopper issues are found in RC1 it will become Firefox 3 final. If we find any critical issues we will continue to release new Release Candidates until we are ready for final ship.

]]> http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/10/firefox-3-code-complete/feed/ about:mozilla - SUMO, Thunderbird, Weave, Embedding, Add-ons, Labs, Summer of Code and more! http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/06/aboutmozilla-sumo-thunderbird-weave-embedding-add-ons-labs-summer-of-code-and-more/ http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/06/aboutmozilla-sumo-thunderbird-weave-embedding-add-ons-labs-summer-of-code-and-more/#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 16:08:54 +0000 dria http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/?p=242 In this issue…

Firefox Screencasts Contest!

SUMO (support.mozilla.com) and Spread Firefox are joining forces and putting on a Firefox Screencasts contest! “Starting the morning of May 19th on Spread Firefox, we will present the 100 most popular support articles from the SUMO knowledge base and ask YOU to create screencasts for one, two, three, or all of them!” You will be allowed to submit screencasts for as many articles as you like, but only one per article. The contest will run until June 15th.

The most exciting part? There will be a winner for each of the 100 articles, and each of the 100 winners will receive a special Firefox Screencast Contest t-shirt. Only 100 of these t-shirts will be made, so this contest is the only way to get this exclusive collector’s item. For more information, head over to the SUMO blog and read the full contest announcement.

Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 Released

As part of Mozilla’s ongoing stability and security update process, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as a free download from www.getthunderbird.com. Due to the security fixes, we strongly recommend that all Thunderbird users upgrade to this latest release. For a list of changes and more information, please review the Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 Release Notes.

If you already have Thunderbird 2.0.0.x, you will receive an automated update notification, or you can apply the update manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.

If you’re still using Thunderbird 1.5.0.x, this version is no longer supported and contains known security vulnerabilities. Please upgrade to Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 as soon as possible.

New Weave weekly meetings

Starting this week, the Weave project will be holding public meetings once per week. The first meeting will be Wednesday May 7th at 1:00pm Pacific (4:00pm Eastern, 21:00 UTC). Meeting agendas and dial-in information can be found on the Mozilla wiki’s Weave Meetings page.

Mozilla Embedding meet-up, May 8th + 9th

Chris Blizzard would like everyone to know that there is going to be another Mozilla Embedding meet-up in Mountain View on May 8th and 9th (this Thursday and Friday). The goal is to start scoping a new Embedding API and getting some actual code put together. This will be run as an open meeting, so if you’re in the area and you want to attend, please contact Chris. For more information, see Chris’s blog post about this meeting, and his earlier post about the previous meet-up.

Pascal Chevrel speaking at University of Sevilla, May 9th

On Friday May 9th, Pascal Chevrel will be speaking about the organization of the Mozilla project at the Concurso Universitario de Software Libre, organized by the University of Sevilla in Spain.

Add-ons compatibility update

Alex Polvi has started posting a weekly “State of the Add-ons” report wherein he talks about the status of the top 10 add-ons that are not yet compatible with Firefox 3. This week’s list includes: Skype Toolbar for Firefox, Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer, FoxyTunes, Firebug, and PicLens, among others. For the full list, further details, and information about how to help, read Polvi’s blog post.

Mozilla Labs, Higher Education, and New Opportunities

Aza Raskin has posted some of Mozilla Labs’ goals for this year, which are centered around bringing the open-Web innovation process to a wider community. They’re working on a number of new programs, one of which is a more formal way for engaging with higher education. The Labs team is really excited to find new groups in academia to collaborate with, and this blog post outlines a few of their early efforts. Read the full post at the Mozilla Labs weblog.

MozillaLinks interviews MicroB developer, Antonio Gomes

Antonio Gomes, a MicroB developer, has been interviewed by Percy Cabello of MozillaLinks. Percy writes, “While Mozilla is gradually turning more attention to mobile platforms to expand its presence in the web, there’s another project, MicroB, that is already providing a Mozilla based solution for the Nokia Tablet PC platform.” In the interview, Antonio talks about the MicroB project, the interactions between MicroB and the Mozilla project, MicroB’s relationship to Mobile Firefox, and more. Read the full interview over at the excellent MozillaLinks weblog.

Mozilla Summer of Code project information

The Google Summer of Code (SoC) 2008 is in progress. Over the past three years, SoC has brought together 1500 students and 2000 mentors from 90 countries worldwide. Mozilla has a number of SoC projects underway, ranging from “Natural language parsing for automatic calendar event creation” to building OpenID support into Bugzilla. With eleven projects in all, it’s going to be another exciting and productive summer for Mozilla projects. For more information, including detailed descriptons of all the projects, check out the Mozilla SoC information page.

2008 Linux Journal Reader’s Choice Awards

Both Thunderbird and Firefox have won 2008 Linux Journal Reader’s Choice Awards in the categories of “Favorite E-mail Client” and “Favorite Web Browser”, respectively. Nearly 6000 readers voted this year, so these are really great awards. The official announcement was made on May 1st, and the article announcing the winners can be found over at Linux Journal.

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]]> http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/06/aboutmozilla-sumo-thunderbird-weave-embedding-add-ons-labs-summer-of-code-and-more/feed/ Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 security and stability release now available http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/01/thunderbird-20014-security-and-stability-release-now-available/ http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/01/thunderbird-20014-security-and-stability-release-now-available/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 22:22:14 +0000 ss http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/?p=241 As part of Mozilla Corporation’s ongoing stability and security update process, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as a free download from www.getthunderbird.com.

Due to the security fixes, we strongly recommend that all Thunderbird users upgrade to this latest release.

If you already have Thunderbird 2.0.0.x, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.

For a list of changes and more information, please review the Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 Release Notes.

Please note: If you’re still using Thunderbird 1.5.0.x, this version is no longer supported and contains known security vulnerabilities. Please upgrade to Thunderbird 2 by downloading Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 from www.getthunderbird.com.

]]> http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/05/01/thunderbird-20014-security-and-stability-release-now-available/feed/ about:mozilla - Mitchell’s keynote, Firefox in Europe, AMO changes, Marketing news, Firefox bookmarks, and more http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/29/aboutmozilla-mitchells-keynote-firefox-in-europe-amo-changes-marketing-news-firefox-bookmarks-and-more/ http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/29/aboutmozilla-mitchells-keynote-firefox-in-europe-amo-changes-marketing-news-firefox-bookmarks-and-more/#comments Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:06:30 +0000 dria http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/?p=240 In this issue…

Mitchell Baker’s Web 2.0 Keynote

On April 24th, Mitchell Baker gave a keynote talk at the Web 2.0 conference. Doug Turner has written up some of the highlights, and provides an embedded video of the talk on his weblog. From the talk: “[T]here is only one web. Firefox is the best and most effective platform for getting to that one web. We are building Firefox for mobile to spark innovation and excitement. We need an open web based development platform to do this. We view Firefox as this platform.” For more, watch the full video, head over to Doug’s weblog, or check out some of the other media articles:

Firefox progress in Europe

Tristan Nitot has blogged about some of the latest statistics available regarding Firefox market share in Europe. “According to Xiti, Firefox is getting close to 29% in Europe. The increase is 4.5 percentage points on the past 12 months.” Also, “According to Gemius (Rankings.hu), Firefox 2 is now the leading browser version in Hungary.” For more market share news and links to these stories, see Tristan’s blog post.

Changes to Featured and Recommended Add-ons on AMO

Basil Hashem has written a post about the recent changes to the “Featured and Recommended” add-ons part of the addons.mozilla.org (AMO) website. “One of the changes that was introduced with the latest AMO redesign is the ability to highlight a wider variety of add-ons. Instead of a single list, recommendations are now on a per-application, per-category and a per-locale basis. This gives the community greater flexibility and increases the face time and exposure that an add-on can have.” For more information and details about these recent changes, see Basil’s weblog.

Getting ready for the launch of Firefox 3

Paul Kim has blogged about the plans for marketing Firefox 3. “As with every previous version launch, we will be utilizing a combination of traditional marketing and PR programs with community and grassroots outreach. This combination has served us well over the past four years to drive adoption to over 160 million people worldwide, build the Firefox brand, and provide meaningful opportunities for participation at launch.” For more about the Firefox 3 launch marketing plans, check out Paul’s post.

Firefox 3 Bookmarks

Last week Deb Richardson wrote a great introduction to Firefox 3’s new bookmarking features. Like most people, she talks about being frustrated with the state of bookmarks in older browsers, where they end up as a junk-drawer of forgotten links. “Firefox 3 introduces a few new features to bookmarks that make them much, much easier to use, more useful in general, and much more useful in particular for catastrophically disorganized folk like me.” If that sounds like you, check out the whole article.

Flickr Uploadr, a developer’s story

Richard Crowley, the developer of Flickr’s XUL-based cross-platform uploader utility, has written a great article outlining the reasons they chose XUL and the hurdles he’s had to overcome throughout development. Included is a list of links to detailed blog posts he wrote during (and about) the development of the project. It’s a great article and well worth a look — check it out over at the Flickr developer blog.

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]]> http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/29/aboutmozilla-mitchells-keynote-firefox-in-europe-amo-changes-marketing-news-firefox-bookmarks-and-more/feed/ about:mozilla - Firefox 2.0.0.14, Camino 1.6, Privacy policy, AMO, Security metrics, and more http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/22/aboutmozilla-firefox-20014-camino-16-privacy-policy-amo-security-metrics-and-more/ http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/22/aboutmozilla-firefox-20014-camino-16-privacy-policy-amo-security-metrics-and-more/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:31:36 +0000 dria http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/?p=239 In this issue…

Firefox 2.0.0.14 released

As part of Mozilla Corporation’s ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 2.0.0.14 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux as a free download from GetFirefox.com. It is strongly recommended that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release. If you already have Firefox 2.x, you will receive an automated update notification. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.

If you are still running Firefox 1.5.0.x, you are highly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 2, as Mozilla ceased supporting Firefox 1.5.0.x in May 2007. Simply choose “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu to begin the upgrade process. For more information about this release, see the DevNews blog post.

Camino 1.6 released

The Camino Project is proud to announce Camino 1.6, a major update to the Camino web browser. This release includes a number of new features and improvements, including a customizable toolbar search field, a find bar, software update, a scrolling tab bar, and enhanced AppleScript support. For more information about this release, see the release notes and the official release announcement.

Proposed changes to Mozilla’s privacy policy

In February, Basil Hashem blogged about some proposed changes to Mozilla’s privacy policies. After considering the feedback and commentary that arose then, the proposed policy has been revised, and Basil has blogged about it again. “The new policy conforms to the commitments laid out in the earlier discussion. Absent any major objections, we plan to update the policy as proposed and implement the web analytics tool immediately. [The] most notable difference this time around is that Google Analytics is not in the picture. Only Omniture is under consideration.” For more information, and for a copy of the revised policy, see Basil’s latest blog post on the topic.

AMO 3.2: The Road Ahead

Madhava Enros, User Experience lead for the addons.mozilla.org (AMO) redesign, has posted a detailed discussion about the reasoning behind and road ahead for the AMO 3.2 release. “In the 3.2 redesign, our goal was to improve the experience for people new to the idea of add-ons as well as the large and growing set of people who want to stop in, quickly find something to improve their online experience, and be on their way again. All of that said, … [a] successful AMO must support add-on developers and those advanced users who are at the forefront of add-on testing and reviewing.” To read more, see Madhava’s blog post.

Community Survey results

At the end of 2007, Stats Malolepszy and Seth Bindernagel closed Mozilla’s first community survey and began analyzing the responses and drawing some conclusions from the data collected. They have finally reached a point where they are ready to publish some results. Much of the raw data has been presented earlier, at FOSDEM in February, but they have taken the time to refine what they have learned. These refined conclusions are being published as a series of blog posts, the first four of which are: Measuring the Temperature of the Community Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Security metrics that matter

Asa Dotzler, as part of the For the Record project, has written a detailed blog post discussing security metrics, and what security metrics actually matter. “A number of press articles…are offering the confusing and incorrect conclusion that the effective security and safety of web browsers can be measured by simply counting the number of vendor disclosed software flaws. This kind of measuring is flawed for several reasons, all related in that they make it more difficult for consumers to make informed decisions about their online safety.” For more of this article, please see Asa’s post at For the Record.

Firefox wins “Browser” category of the Webware 100

The 2008 Webware 100 Awards recognize the best Web 2.0 sites, services, and applications available today. After receiving more than 5,000 nominations for inclusion in the Webware 100, the editors selected 300 finalists which were then voted on by Web users, who voted nearly two million times to select the 100 top products — 10 each in 10 categories — from the list of 300 finalists. We are proud to announce that Firefox has been voted as the winner of the “Browser” category this year. For more information about the award, check out the Firefox Webware 100 web page.

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]]> http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/22/aboutmozilla-firefox-20014-camino-16-privacy-policy-amo-security-metrics-and-more/feed/ Firefox 2.0.0.14 security and stability update now available for download http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/16/firefox-20014-security-and-stability-update-now-available-for-download/ http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/16/firefox-20014-security-and-stability-update-now-available-for-download/#comments Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:07:41 +0000 ss http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/16/firefox-20014-security-and-stability-update-now-available-for-download/ As part of Mozilla Corporation’s ongoing stability and security update process, Firefox 2.0.0.14 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux for free download from http://getfirefox.com.

We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release. If you already have Firefox 2.x, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.

For a list of changes and more information, please review the Firefox 2.0.0.14 Release Notes.

If you are still running Firefox 1.5.0.x, you are highly encouraged to upgrade to the Firefox 2 series as Mozilla ceased supporting Firefox 1.5.0.x in May 2007. Simply choose “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu to begin the upgrade process.

]]> http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/16/firefox-20014-security-and-stability-update-now-available-for-download/feed/ about:mozilla - Firefox 3 RC1, New tinderbox trees, Fennec reviewed, Web analytics, AMO, and more http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/15/aboutmozilla-firefox-3-rc1-new-tinderbox-trees-fennec-reviewed-web-analytics-amo-and-more/ http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/15/aboutmozilla-firefox-3-rc1-new-tinderbox-trees-fennec-reviewed-web-analytics-amo-and-more/#comments Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:00:46 +0000 dria http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/15/aboutmozilla-firefox-3-rc1-new-tinderbox-trees-fennec-reviewed-web-analytics-amo-and-more/ In this issue…

Firefox 3: Tree in lockdown for RC1

On April 8th, the Firefox tree entered a lockdown period in preparation for delivering Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1. The same process will be used for this release as for past betas — the blocker lists will be driven to zero, and only patches with explicit approval will be allowed to land in order to more tightly control potential for regressions. For more information, please see the DevNews blog post.

New Tinderbox trees for LeakTest and UnitTest

Chris Cooper and Dave Miller recently added two new trees to tinderbox.mozilla.org: UnitTest and LeakTest. As you might guess, these new trees will house the staging environments for the unittest machinery, JavaScript test machines, and the leaktest machinery. You should look there if you’re looking for something on MozillaTest that is missing.

While he was at it, Chris added two new machines to to the Firefox tinderbox tree to improve our unittest coverage on Windows. Named qm-win2k3-02 and qm-win2k3-03, these new machines should provide added information and help diagnose single-machine failures. For more information, see Chris’ weblog post.

Ars Technica reviews Fennec

Ars Technica has reviewed the first pre-alpha test builds of Fennec, Mozilla’s initial mobile Firefox prototype. “With Firefox 3 right around the corner, Mozilla’s top lizard wranglers are turning their attention to the next step in their plans for world browser domination. The Mozilla Mobile initiative, which was first announced last October, has reached the functional prototype stage. The developers have released pre-alpha test builds of a mobile Firefox prototype, codenamed Fennec, which we tested and discussed with Mozilla Mobile director Jay Sullivan.” Read the rest of article over at Ars Technica.

Mitchell Baker video interview in Paris, part 1/2

A couple of weeks ago, Mitchell Baker was in Paris for a keynote she gave at the French Senate. After the conference, she and the Mozilla Europe crew did a series of press interviews, and in the time between Tristan Nitot recorded two video interviews with Mitchell. The first of these interviews has now been posted to Tristan’s weblog.

Mozilla websites, web analytics and privacy

Mitchell Baker has written an article about the application of web analytics tools to Mozilla websites. “We live in a world of data; we should be thinking carefully about that data and its impact. [A] core of the Mozilla community is intensely focused on privacy and the individual person’s ability to understand and control personal information. With this in mind, I’ve put together a discussion of a particular data-gathering proposal, together with the safeguards that make me comfortable with it.” You can read the rest of this article at Mitchell’s weblog.

Feedback on the recent AMO release

Since the release of addons.mozilla.org 3.2, the AMO team has been actively reviewing the feedback users have sent in through a number of channels. In response to some of that feedback, Mike Morgan has posted an explanation of the rationale and trade-offs made with the new design and its attempts to balance the needs of various audiences AMO has to address — first-time users, seasoned experts, and add-on authors and publishers. Basil Hashem has also written a post about the feedback the team has received, summarizing the top concerns they’ve heard and outlining plans for the next iterations of the AMO site.

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]]> http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/15/aboutmozilla-firefox-3-rc1-new-tinderbox-trees-fennec-reviewed-web-analytics-amo-and-more/feed/ Tree is entering lockdown for Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/08/tree-is-entering-lockdown-for-firefox-3-release-candidate-1/ http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/08/tree-is-entering-lockdown-for-firefox-3-release-candidate-1/#comments Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:51:06 +0000 beltzner http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/08/tree-is-entering-lockdown-for-firefox-3-release-candidate-1/ As discussed at today’s Firefox 3 / Gecko 1.9 meeting, as of 11:59pm PDT tonight, the tree entered a lockdown period in preparation for delivering Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1.

We’ll be using the same process that has been used for the past betas. The blocker lists will be driven to zero, and only patches with explicit approval will be allowed to land in order to more tightly control potential for regressions. After taking the final blocker, we will likely enter a short bake period before handing over to build.

The tree rules have been updated to reflect that at this time the only patches that may land are:

  • patches with approval1.9+
  • patches that do not affect the Firefox build (tests, NPOTB changes)

The approval queue will be monitored frequently, but if you feel like you’re not getting the response time you require, feel free to find one of the “endgame drivers” on IRC or poke them over email.

We encourage interested parties to follow along with the progress of the Firefox 3 RC1 release.

]]> http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/08/tree-is-entering-lockdown-for-firefox-3-release-candidate-1/feed/ about:mozilla - Firefox 3 Beta 5, SUMO Day, Thunderbird Bugdays, Labs updates, and more http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/08/aboutmozilla-firefox-3-beta-5-sumo-day-thunderbird-bugdays-labs-updates-and-more/ http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/08/aboutmozilla-firefox-3-beta-5-sumo-day-thunderbird-bugdays-labs-updates-and-more/#comments Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:07:15 +0000 dria http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/04/08/aboutmozilla-firefox-3-beta-5-sumo-day-thunderbird-bugdays-labs-updates-and-more/ In this issue…

Firefox 3 Beta 5 released
Firefox 3 Beta 5 is now available for download, and you should read the Release Notes and Known Issues before installing. This milestone is focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3 can be followed at the Firefox 3 Planning Center, as well as in mozilla.dev.planning or on irc.mozilla.org in #granparadiso. For more information about the release, see the DevNews blog post.

Get involved with Firefox 3!
Hearing all the great things about the upcoming Firefox 3 release and wishing you’d been a part of it? It’s not too late! Even when all the development and testing is done, there’s still a very important job left to do. Providing user support can help make sure the release goes smoothly for users who are updating or trying Firefox out for the first time.

On April 11th the SUMO (support.mozilla.com) team will be hosting a day all about getting to know SUMO and how to use the site to help other Firefox users enjoy their favorite browser. If you’ve ever thought about helping out with Firefox user support but haven’t been sure where to start, this day is for you. For more information and details see the SUMO blog post and the SUMO Day information page.

New Thunderbird Bugdays
As part of its growing focus on users and quality, the Thunderbird team has announced that Thunderbird Bugdays will be held every Thursday. The purpose of these bug days is: 1) to reduce the number of bugs in the bugzilla database to a more manageable level, 2) to respond to and assist bug reporters in a more timely manner, and 3) to improve the quality of bugs in the database so they can be acted on more easily by developers.

Bug day brings together both new and veteran Thunderbird users for a day of bug squishing. #bugday on irc.mozilla.org is where experienced bug hunters will mentor new participants, and is where everyone can help each other, gang up on bugs, and have fun.

The Thunderbird team needs your help to make bug days effective and fun, so please take a look at our planning document and add your thoughts to the wiki or post to the developer newsgroup.

Mitchell Baker interview at The Guardian
Earlier this year, Jack Schofield interviewed Mitchell Baker in London for an article in the Technology section of the Guardian. He has now posted a longer rough transcript of that interview on the Guardian Technology blog. In it he and Mitchell discuss Mozilla and Microsoft, things that are more important than chasing market share, why Mozilla isn’t using Firefox to push Thunderbird more, and why Mozilla is taking a serious look at mobile. Read the full article at the Guardian blog.

David Baron on the Acid3 test
The Acid Tests are a series of “web standards compliance” tests put out by the Web Standards Project. The most recent of these is Acid3, which tests JavaScript, DOM, and SVG compliance (amongst other things). David Baron, prominent Mozilla developer and member of the W3C CSS working group, has blogged his opinions about the Acid3 test, how he thinks the test should be used as a measure of the various browsers, and what Mozilla’s strategy is as to completing the tests. You can read more at David’s blog.

Mozilla Labs updates
Chris Beard, head of Mozilla Labs, has posted a short update about what’s going on over in the laboratory. Last week saw the launch of major updates for a number of Labs projects, including Weave and Personas. They have also introduced the new Test Pilot project, aimed at strengthening the user testing framework and community around Labs projects. Additionally, Chris has been interviewed a few times recently, resulting in two articles that are worth checking out: Firefox 4 will push out the edges of the browser, and Mozilla wants to put a Firefox in the cloud and in your pocket. For more details, check out Chris’ blog post.

Crash reporting system changes
The Mozilla WebDev team has recently pushed some important updates to the crash reporter system (codename: Socorro) aimed at improving both system usability and performance. These changes include a widespread refactoring of the processor code (1/3rd of the Breakpad server architecture) and an update allowing for instant queuing of requested reports. For more details, see the post at the WebDev blog.

10th Anniversary party pictures
On March 31st, the date of the original Netscape source code release, we marked the 10 year anniversary of the beginning of the Mozilla Project. While we’re celebrating “10 years of Mozilla” throughout all of 2008, there were a few parties on the 31st to help celebrate the occasion, and naturally there were more than a few digital cameras present. Pictures from the events have been posted to Flickr, including under the “Mozilla Anniversary” keyword, the “mozillaturns10” keyword, and directly to David Rolnitzky’s account. It would appear that a good time was had by all.

Developer calendar
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Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

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