633380 - Firefox security update version numbers are confusing.

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[patrickjdempsey]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2.14) Gecko/20110121 Firefox/3.6.14
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2.14) Gecko/20110121 Firefox/3.6.14

Many people are confused by the Firefox versioning system and end up reverting to older builds after the security updates pass 9.  Probably the most simple fix would be for versions less than 10 to be prefixed with a 0.  So the first security update for the upcoming Firefox 4.0 would be: 4.0.01, or if Mozilla is abandoning "minor releases" it would be: 4.01.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Do you have any articles about "many people"? I work in tech support and have never run into anyone confused by this. And that is out of the most "grandma factor" people you can imagine. they might not know what the versions mean, but most people don't care, and if they do, they know that 14 comes after 13.

Comment 2

[patrickjdempsey]

But do they know that 3.6.13 comes after 3.6.2 even though in the computer files sort order it comes after, and in their mind numbers with periods in them are decimals, and decimals go up to nine and then roll over?  On various support forums there was confusion about this after 3.5 crossed the .9 mark and after 3.6 did the same.

Comment 3

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

with the new rapid release process, I highly doubt this would be an issue.

Comment 4

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

Now release process or not, I agree with wontfix.