733206 - Remove link to Windows 64-bit builds from nightly.mozilla.org since they are unsuitable for most users

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Websites :: Other, defect)

Description

[Ed Morley [:emorley]]

See my opening message on dev.planning for context:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.planning/Giij-AZfUAM

Since the Win64 builds are experimental/extremely prone to regressions, we need to make sure that users on 64-bit versions of Windows don't just think that they should be using them because they have 64-bit in the name (and thus are somehow "more correct" for their platform), and instead are able to make an informed choice.

As such, we need to do something like add the word "Experimental" next to "Windows 64-bit" and make "Experimental" link to an FAQ/explanation of the pros/cons.

Or if that's going to be too much of a squeeze, we could change the "Windows 64-bit" link such it points straight to a wiki.mozilla.org page FAQ instead perhaps?

CC'ing a few people for their thoughts.

Comment 1

[tofumatt [:tofumatt]]

I'm fine with some kind of hover text/title attribute that says "Warning: 64-bit Builds are more experimental/unstable than 32".

That said: we already advertise the Nightly builds as unstable/for testing at the top of the page and we don't link to Nightly from the channel page, so I somewhat assume folks on this page know what they're getting into.

So if others are cool with _not_ adding this, that's what I'd rather.

Comment 2

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Matthew Riley MacPherson [:tofumatt] from comment #1)
> That said: we already advertise the Nightly builds as unstable/for testing

This is under control and to some degree expected for development builds. Win64 is not under control and until it is I don't think nightly.mozilla.org should advertise it at all.

Comment 3

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Yes, we should do this. We simply don't test these builds. IMO, they should not be directly linked from nightly.mozilla.org at all. A link to an FAQ which includes the builds would be my recommendation.

Comment 4

[tofumatt [:tofumatt]]

There's a list of additional builds at the bottom of the page. It's just an FTP listing, with filenames... I think that's nerdy and unpolished enough to suggest "less stable stuff" -- and it's where all the other less stable and experimental builds are.

Let's remove Win64 (for now) and leave the user to use the FTP link in the footer to find Win64 if they want it.

Comment 5

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

(In reply to Matthew Riley MacPherson [:tofumatt] from comment #4)
> There's a list of additional builds at the bottom of the page. It's just an
> FTP listing, with filenames... I think that's nerdy and unpolished enough to
> suggest "less stable stuff" -- and it's where all the other less stable and
> experimental builds are.
> 
> Let's remove Win64 (for now) and leave the user to use the FTP link in the
> footer to find Win64 if they want it.

This sounds good to me. Thanks, Matthew!

Comment 6

[[github robot]]

Commit pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/nocturnal

https://github.com/mozilla/nocturnal/commit/9bd551f300952edf860971b1e9ce0ee69ec189ce
Remove Windows 64-bit builds (Bug 733206)

Win64 builds are way more unstable than the other Nightly builds,
so they aren't listed on this page for now. They're still available
from the footer link to all the other builds (FTP listing).

Comment 7

[Ed Morley [:emorley]]

Morphing summary to reflect decision.

Thanks Matthew for doing this so quickly! :-)

Comment 8

[tofumatt [:tofumatt]]

Code is pushed and we're good.