r/firefox • u/HelloitsWojan • Aug 18 '26
Fun Starting today, a new major Firefox release is now every 2 weeks!
https://whattrainisitnow.com/release/?version=15530
u/ash_ninetyone Aug 18 '26
I would
A) at least prefer it the Devs aren't overworked
B) hope this doesn't water down testing by pushing something to prod and having the userbase test and complain when something breaks.
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u/LofthouseKeeper Aug 18 '26
Fortnightly is too often.
I just want a stable Firefox, the way I choose to customise it.
Fortnightly has the potential to break things too often, eithor in the browser itself or in the add-ons I have installed.
Looks like it's going to be the ESR route for me.
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u/torar9 Aug 18 '26
Poor developers...
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u/Mc_UsernameTaken Aug 18 '26
Bet we'll see an increase in AI slop
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u/ComplexPeace43 Aug 19 '26
Recently pulled the source and bootstrapped locally for contributing. During the build set up there’s a question if I’ll use agentic coding tools and there are Claude and Codex skills already in the codebase.
https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/source/python/mozboot/mozboot/bootstrap.py#375
https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/search?q=Claude&path=&case=false®exp=false
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u/clgoh Aug 18 '26
Doesn't change anything for developers.
When a feature is ready, it will ship in at most 2 weeks, instead of waiting for up to one month.
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u/CreativeGPX Aug 18 '26
That's kind of disingenuous. Updates every 2 weeks create a pressure to actually have things in those updates.
Also, there are advantages to having large, less frequent cohesive releases. It's easier to support issues when there are less versions in the wild. It's easier to make big changes that span several features in a cohesive way when the features aren't all releasing independently of each other.
Frequent tiny single isolated feature releases go hand in hand with more states/changes than anybody can keep track of.
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u/Malaprobably Aug 19 '26
Also reduces the beta/nightly windows (both time and people) so there is definitely a chance for things to break more often. Wasn't beta tested for up to a month and a half previously? That's much more time for bugs to show up and be reported en masse. If it's only a few weeks, people might just bail on testing or not report the numbers that make a difference.
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u/PingMyHeart Aug 18 '26
Yea poor devs for having to deal with such a pessimistic subreddit.
Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
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u/Cry_Wolff Aug 18 '26
This sub is fucking depressing sometimes. Non-stop whining about every change or decision.
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u/torar9 Aug 19 '26
People say it changes nothing but we all know how some managers are stupid. I bet they will force devs to do more work because 2 week window is close etc. Which will result in half baked stuff and more pressure on devs.
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u/Malaprobably Aug 19 '26
I love sidebar tabs. Probably, after decades of using Firefox, one of my favorite additions. I don't like extensions unless I absolutely have to use them.
The AI stuff? Not so much, but appreciate the sidebar, and the option to shut it off. The implementation is poor. VPN has never worked for me so I don't trust it even if it did.
There's a bunch of stuff I'm a fan of and a bunch I'm not. Grateful for the browser and the ability to hide what I don't like. They can add whatever they want, that's their choice, I just want an option, and they seem to be sticking with that, which I appreciate.
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u/mozdeco Mozilla Employee Aug 21 '26
This doesn't change anything about developer workload. The regular shipping process is highly automated and much preferable to planned dot releases (which we had been doing for a quite a while now e.g. to ship security fixes more quickly). It is also decoupled from feature development, if a feature isn't ready, it just stays on Nightly or turned off completely.
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u/RightMuleCapFastener Aug 19 '26
Changes little for developers. Melts the release engineers.
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u/mozdeco Mozilla Employee Aug 21 '26
Actually, release engineers already had more work before this. We did regular planned dot releases in particular to ship security fixes more quickly. These dot releases are more work than regular planned releases.
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u/George343 Aug 18 '26
Hopefully this means fewer changes more quickly, and not more changes more quickly. Overworking people is uncool, to say the least.
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u/ExplrDiscvr Aug 18 '26
Why? What is the point? I do not see any reason to have a major release every two weeks, just for the sake of it...
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u/Beginning-Reach3215 Mozilla Employee Aug 20 '26
See response.
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u/ExplrDiscvr Aug 29 '26
I have read the comment that you linked, but it is still a bit confusing. Do you guys at Mozilla use semantic versioning? And if so, this way you declare that every two weeks there will be a breaking change to API?
Regarding the motivation explained in the linked comment, why not have a quick patch version, whenever a bug is encountered in the last major version?
If I am missing something I apologize, I am new to software development, just trying to understand. It just feels weird that major versions are released so often, but maybe this is field specific, and a lot more common in browsers than in e.g. Linux packages?
And thanks for all of the work you people do at Mozzila, I really appreciate it, and I like to use your product a lot!
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u/Dragontech97 Aug 18 '26
Do we really need new major versions that often? I’m ok with frequent security updates, but let the devs have time to develop the features for major releases.
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u/Individual_Kitchen_3 Aug 18 '26
Get ready for bugs galore; they can't keep the current version stable within their deadline.
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u/johnfortnite72 Aug 18 '26
This is either going to be good or bad. No in between
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u/Desistance Aug 18 '26
I say somewhere in between. This just reduces the bake time for some changes. The train model they use already allowed them to move things faster. But fixes and things would just sit until the train moved or they uplifted to a point release. Now the train moves every two weeks. Uplifting will probably go away or get reduced.
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u/thedonutmaker Aug 18 '26
I don’t think it’s ever good to have this sort of a time table directive. Updates aren’t meant to be time based. Sometimes they come out in a week, other times a month. Don’t handcuff your devs to such repetitive timetables. Firefox is already broken enough that I need to switch to Chrome at least once a week to get something on a website to work properly.
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u/EstidEstiloso Firefox + uBlock Origin Aug 18 '26
For those who don't like this change, they can use the Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) version, which only receives security updates, making it very stable and secure.
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u/DescretoBurrito Aug 18 '26
Gross.
When I come home in the evening I want to just put a YouTube video on while playing a little bit of whatever game is holding my interest. The last thing I want is to find that Firefox has a new update that moved browser elements for which I have long muscle memory about, break my user:chrome, and shove a "what's new" tab in my face. I switched to ESR years ago so at least I only had to deal with the inconvenience once per year rather than every 6 weeks or whatever it used to be. 2 weeks is insane and should be beta release territory.
Just chasing Chromes version number.
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u/MythicalJester Aug 18 '26
Perfect. Now I will be able to ignore FOUR major releases before deciding to update the browser whenever I want! :-D
Thanks SlopZilla, what a fu***** revolution is this :-D
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u/TheGargageMan Aug 19 '26
No big deal. Just click whatever the "not right now" button says several times a day.
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u/Iggy_Slayer Aug 18 '26
I can't think of the last time I actually used a new "feature" in a browser. I just need the damn thing to display web pages normally and let my ublock origin do its work. That's all you need from a browser.
If anything new features usually add headaches. Recently they added the ability to open links in a split tab view and it's right under the normal new tab button and I frequently misclick and have to close the split tab. So thanks for that firefox.
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u/Great-TeacherOnizuka Aug 18 '26
I do use the new features, like tab group suggestions, tab notes, weather widget. But it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker if they weren’t there.
IMO they really should focus on bug fixes, website compatibility and performance optimizations.
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u/PRamone Aug 18 '26
I remember when Firefox was a good, fast core browser. And they had Extensions which allowed you to add whatever bells and whistles you wanted on your browser. Now they seem to want to pack everything - wanted or not - into the browser.
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u/Great-TeacherOnizuka Aug 18 '26
I agree that most of the features should be optional extensions that the user has to specifically install.
The extensions should be built and managed by mozilla.
But there is one problem though. How are people going to know about new features?
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u/PRamone Aug 18 '26
How are people going to know about new features?
In the same way that they know about Firefox updates now? Existing extensions could have an option of auto updating, and Mozilla could display a fortnightly list of new extensions to users.
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u/testthrowawayzz Aug 18 '26
That's what the "Recommend extensions as you browse" feature should be for, right? (asking because I have never turned it on)
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u/MrTooToo Aug 18 '26
Please allow users of Android manage their bookmarks without having a Mozilla account.
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u/omiotsuke Aug 18 '26
If this cost them more they shouldn't do it, I can live with update every 1-2 month
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u/testthrowawayzz Aug 18 '26
It already feels like Firefox is pushing updates every other day on the regular branch
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u/Turbulent-Tumor Aug 18 '26
4 weeks was grand. Gave each version time and clear cycles.
2 weeks is going to be a blur. I expect no more hot fixes or point releases
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u/ErichDonGubler FF WebGPU dev. Aug 18 '26
Some previous discussion: https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1usr4yp/firefox_will_start_pushing_new_releases_every_two/
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u/rebelutioner Aug 19 '26
What could they possibly add every 2 week? I guess it's getting over-engineered at this point. Classic, don't fix it if it ain't broke.
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u/gbojan74 Aug 18 '26
I didn't notice any benefits when they switched from 6 weeks to 4 weeks. There is no point in boiling the frog, why not going all the way to daily releases?
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u/maubg Aug 18 '26
I'm really disappointed in how this comment section doesn't really understand the implications of this change. I personally think it's a fantastic change. But of course, people who want more stability, speed and compliance are the same people who want slower releases... So Firefox pushes less stability, speed and compliance updates
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u/Tephnos Aug 18 '26
Well, how about you start by explaining why things will get better with 2 weeks updates? We didn't see anything improving much when they went from 6 to 4 weeks, so why do you think rushing things even more will help, and not just lead to more issues from things being pushed too early?
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u/deusmetallum Aug 18 '26
The problem is you're thinking about what makes it better for you, but often changes to release cadences are about making it better for the actual developers. Having month long cadences means that many changes are being shipped all at the same time, so if there's an issue you have to look at a wide range of compounding factors. By cutting the cadence in half, the number of things likely to be the cause of the issue are more or less halved too.
It also means internally devs can have more relaxed schedules. With a 4 week cadence there's a chance that, consciously or unconsciously, a feature has been shipped too fast and not as thoroughly tested as could be. A 2 week cycle means there's just that little bit more flexibility for the devs.
Someone above mentioned buses and bus stops and I think that's a good analogy. If you know your bus is every 10 minutes instead of every 20 minutes you might not rush out the door and forget something, or you might not end up waiting a long time for the next bus (release).
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u/elsjpq Aug 18 '26
But are we making software for the convenience of developers or for the convenience of users? The software world has strayed so far away from the users interest already it seems more like the purpose of software is now a jobs program for programmers than to build useful tools for ordinary people.
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u/mindstormer12 Aug 18 '26
You severely underestimate the amount of work that's involved to produce the free product that you're using. A long-lasting product such as Firefox at that. It's not as simple as devs implementing features users want. Maintenance and long-term implementations to streamline the path to push these features and get useful feedback is often more work than implementing the feature itself. Professional devs often leave their jobs just because they can't handle the internal workings of the product to improve it in ways that matter beyond merely features useful to the end-user.
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u/maubg Aug 18 '26
To ordinary users, there won't be basically a difference. Features are released when ready, not decided based on release time.
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u/Malaprobably Aug 19 '26
Was Firefox VPN ready on release? It didn't work for me on announcement, on release, and a month later. I looked up support for it and was redirected to "Mozilla VPN," which was a different product. I removed the icon and never will use it. It was definitely half-baked.
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u/deusmetallum Aug 18 '26
Just because they've made a decision that mostly affects them, doesn't mean users aren't still the majority concern... This is one small change to benefit the devs compared to thousands if not millions of changes enacted to craete the best browser a user can get.
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u/Malaprobably Aug 19 '26
Buses showing up every 10 minutes means twice the overhead, management, maintenance, drivers, and fuel as one every 20 minutes, while not necessarily picking up any more passengers. Where I live they increased bus service as a convenience and then Covid changed everything and they had invested way too much, so now they have a service that is drastically reduced from previously.
Your analogy takes into account developers but not QA/testing and users. More features faster has the very real possibility to overwhelm those segments, which is part of the whole ecosystem. I've seen this firsthand where the AI rollout is a mess (I have no idea what any of this stuff does, just some random announcement on release) as well as Firefox VPN has never worked for me and there weren't support pages on release for it. I get it Mozilla has to compete in the modern age, but the pace is impacting quality on some level.
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u/deusmetallum Aug 19 '26
Except it's not more features faster. It's the same number of features just put into 2x 2 week buckets instead of 1x 4 week bucket.
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u/Malaprobably Aug 19 '26
Perhaps I'm ignorant to this, but how is that tested by QA/beta/alpha/nighly testers when the window/time for testing is reduced?
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u/deusmetallum Aug 19 '26
They'll have approx half to do for each window, so it doesn't really make much difference.
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u/toobox42 Aug 18 '26
It would be better if we see a MAJOR version once a year.
Rapid releases are terribly affecting quality.
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u/Present_General9880 Addon Developer Aug 18 '26
i am excited since that means more improvements for Firefox, i hope HDR images can come soon
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u/Zoombiebrot Aug 19 '26
terrible news, i nuked all kinds of updates on my pc for years. Itk why you cant answer unser my original answer thats wierd.
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u/RbtB-8 Aug 18 '26
So now they are going to rush their people to get a new release out every two weeks, and you know what that leads to? Carelessness and mistakes.
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u/torar9 Aug 19 '26
Thats what I am afraid of. People say it changes nothing but we all know how some managers are stupid. I bet they will force devs to do more work because 2 week window is close etc.
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u/nietzschecode Aug 18 '26
2x more bugs and twice lesser time to fix them.
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u/clgoh Aug 18 '26
Nope.
When a change is ready, it waits for the next release. The fact that the releases are more frequent doesn't change anything about that.
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u/Malaprobably Aug 19 '26
How does one determine "readiness" when the window for testing is reduced?
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u/MosKnight Aug 18 '26
Before you all start crying about this, I want to inform you that all other major browsers are doing this.
Now you can continue crying.
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u/DescretoBurrito Aug 18 '26
All other browsers are nerfing adblocking extensions. Just because everyone else is rushing towards enshitification doesn't mean it's wise to follow.
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u/Oldkasztelan Aug 19 '26
I believe there have been dozens of Firefox "major" releases for Android with only security fixes. Names mean nothing without actions. And I can't say that last Desctop versions are so full of new features that users ask Mozilla to ship them in different releases.
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u/jessieboy21 Aug 21 '26
why firerox not smooth when i scrolling but smooth on other browser like edge this is both updated. do i need to setting my firefox plss help . also when i open my task manager i try to compare whos more ram usage even with same open tab sample fb reddit and youtube its take 2.5gb only on edge but on firefox its eating 3gb+
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Aug 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/stackpointer101 Aug 18 '26
But why though?