Will Firefox follow Thunderbird to drop zip-builds?

Discussion about official Mozilla Firefox builds
jemm
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Post by jemm »

ntd wrote:Chase's Blog:
If you're a Mozilla developer and love the .zip files, rest assured they aren't going away completely. While we won't issue the .zip package with the rest of the major release files, we will still issue these packages in their standard nightly form.

Can enyone tell if:
- nightly builds are intended for prodution environments (I guess not)
- nightly zipped builds of the release date have been exactly of the same quality as releases of that date
jemm
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Post by jemm »

Cusser wrote:
jemm wrote:The main point in zipped builds is that you can 100% preconfigure them and with one script install remotely to hundreds of PC's without any human interaction and without any Microsoft specific installation tools. Can you do that with msi?

Well you could just install to one PC, then zip up the folder afterwards, profile included if you wish. Nothing's stopping you making your own zip :)

Sure ... possible, but I would call it a workaround, and not a methodologically right approach.
nrthomas
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Post by nrthomas »

jemm wrote:
ntd wrote:Chase's Blog:
If you're a Mozilla developer and love the .zip files, rest assured they aren't going away completely. While we won't issue the .zip package with the rest of the major release files, we will still issue these packages in their standard nightly form.

Can enyone tell if:
- nightly builds are intended for prodution environments (I guess not)
- nightly zipped builds of the release date have been exactly of the same quality as releases of that date

You would need to be very careful where you got the nightly build from. For example, a nightly is usually taken to mean a Trunk nightly in this forum, whereas a release almost always comes from a branch. That said, directories like
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/ ... iary1.0.1/
are nightly builds from the long-lived 1.0 branch, and where 1.0.2 will be from despite the 1.0.1 in the path. Confused ? Most people are !

Also zip and installer builds have slightly different contents, but in a mostly trivial way (extra garbage in the zip). This doesn't make any difference unless you tried to update your 1.0 zip build with a 1.0.1 installer, which broke Firefox.
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BenBasson
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Post by BenBasson »

jemm wrote:nightly zipped builds of the release date have been exactly of the same quality as releases of that date

In theory they should be no different. Peter would be able to give you more info on this though.
Last edited by BenBasson on March 23rd, 2005, 9:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
nrthomas
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Post by nrthomas »

Err .. when did I say that ?
Nick Thomas - Mozilla Release Engineer
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BenBasson
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Post by BenBasson »

Oh god, I'm doing it again. N/m... I'm going to stop copying from other people's quoted replies.
nrthomas
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Post by nrthomas »

It's alright. I don't disagree with what you put, as long as it is recognised that you don't get the same results out of the zip and installer (even excluding the registry changes).
Nick Thomas - Mozilla Release Engineer
elliptic
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Post by elliptic »

Cusser wrote:This kinda sucks. I always use zip builds on my own computer. Still, if they're issuing nightly builds, we should (in theory) still be able to grab the equivalent nightly for a release... right?


And where is the corresponding nightly zip for, say, Firefox 1.0? The nightly release directory contains only builds for the last two weeks, and it appears to be a revolving archive (I don't know, because I've never downloaded a nightly build). As a fairly typical Firefox user and part-time extension developer, I don't scan the nightly release directory every day, and I often don't bother to download a new stable release until several weeks or more after it's out.

It would seem to be a simple solution to publish the zip file versions of a release (along with a cautionary note) somewhere that would be less visible to the casual Firefox user, but still accessible to those who desired them.

Charles
srichard
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Post by srichard »

I like zipped versions and use them whenever I can
They're great to recover from crashes
Sariyan
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Post by Sariyan »

Kylotan
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Post by Kylotan »

I only use the zips because the installer is crap.
VirtualLarry
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Post by VirtualLarry »

I use the ZIP'ed build, because you don't have to agree to the stupid worthless EULA like in the installer. :P
That's probably why they are killing the ZIP builds, for the "official" releases. If it were truely for any other reason, they would drop the ZIP builds altogether, for both nightly and official builds.
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Spewey
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Post by Spewey »

Firefox New Version Rule #0:
There always has to be a crisis.
wmcbrine
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Post by wmcbrine »

Yet another bonehead decision by the Mozilla Foundation. I love the browser, but I'm really starting to hate the management.

Coolest thing about the zips: No assinine EULA (another bonehead idea). Larry, I share your suspicions, especially in light of the ever-increasing "branding" nonsense (bonehead idea #1).

I haven't even used a zip since Firebird, but it was my introduction to the browser (if you don't count Seamonkey), and a really neat idea besides.
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Spewey
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Post by Spewey »

How does not clicking through the EULA absolve you of your responsibilities contained within the xPL/yPL/zPL License?
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