{"id":16386,"date":"2012-07-09T10:17:30","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T08:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=16386"},"modified":"2012-07-09T10:17:30","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T08:17:30","slug":"rapid-releases-killed-firefoxs-reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2012\/07\/09\/rapid-releases-killed-firefoxs-reputation\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapid releases killed Firefox’s reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Via this LWN post<\/a> I came across a very insightful blog post by Brian Jono<\/a>, one of those many people who develop Mozilla Firefox. \u00a0In his blog post Brian talks about Firefox’s rapid release cycle and how it drove a lot of people to Google Chrome. \u00a0There’s nothing new to that. \u00a0But Brian’s post is a must read for anyone involved in software development – there are several lessons to learn. \u00a0Here are a few bits that I found interesting.<\/p>\n

On updates in general:<\/p>\n

I’ve been thinking a lot about the fundamental disconnect between the developers and the users. I think it comes down to: Software developers have a perverse habit of thinking of updates\/new releases as a\u00a0good<\/em>\u00a0thing.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to convince a software developer otherwise: their salary depends on outputting a constant stream of updates, so of course they think updates are good.I used to believe it. Only after I heard from dozens of different users that the rapid release process had ruined Firefox did I finally get it through my thick skull: releasing an update is practically an\u00a0act of aggression<\/em>\u00a0against your users. The developer perspective is “You guys are going to love this new update we’ve been working on!” The user perspective is “Oh god here comes another update, is there any way I can postpone the agony for a few more days?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On changes to the user interface (UI):<\/p>\n

So many companies release updates which radically change the interface for no significant gain — they seem to be moving sideways rather than forward, changing things around for the sake of change. Maybe their UI designers are bored and need to do something to justify their jobs, I don’t know. After years of aspiring to improve software usability, I’ve come to the extremely humbling realization athat the single best thing most companies could do to improve usability is to\u00a0stop changing the UI so often<\/em>! Let it remain stable long enough for us to learn it and get good at it. There’s no UI better than one you already know, and no UI worse than one you thought you knew but now have to relearn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On competition-driven development:<\/p>\n

I have another theory, too: When software companies get to a certain size, they start taking their users for granted. They start treating their users as pawns in a battle against some other company. Faceless millions. Gotta copy everything the other company does, or risk falling behind. So they end up doing everything the other company does\u00a0whether the users want it or not<\/em>, and probably doing a crappy job to boot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On user loyalty:<\/p>\n

Software companies would do well to learn this lesson: anything with the phrase “users love our product” in it isn’t a strategy, it’s wishful thinking. Your users do\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0“love” your software. Your users are\u00a0temporarily tolerating<\/em>\u00a0your software because it’s the\u00a0least horrible<\/em>option they have —\u00a0for now<\/em>\u00a0— to meet some need. Developers have an emotional connection to the project; users don’t.<\/p>\n

All software sucks. Users would be a lot happier if they had to use a lot less of it. They may be putting up with yours for now, but assume they will ditch you the moment something 1% better comes along — or the moment you make your product 1% worse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s more. \u00a0Just read the whole thing<\/a>, it’s well worth it.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

Via this LWN post I came across a very insightful blog post by Brian Jono, one of those many people who develop Mozilla Firefox. \u00a0In his blog post Brian talks about Firefox’s rapid release cycle and how it drove a lot of people to Google Chrome. \u00a0There’s nothing new to that. \u00a0But Brian’s post is … Continue reading Rapid releases killed Firefox’s reputation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,18,62],"tags":[20,2302,1673],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-16386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-programming","category-technology","tag-browsers","tag-firefox","tag-software-engineering"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15010,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2011\/06\/01\/google-push-for-modern-browsers\/","url_meta":{"origin":16386,"position":0},"title":"Google push for modern browsers","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"June 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a quote from this Google blog post: [...]soon Google Apps will only support modern browsers. 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[...] the real problem isn't the code. The code, like a newborn babe, is blameless and innocent the minute it is written into the world. Code isn't our enemy. You want to see the real enemy? Go look\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10218,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2006\/06\/24\/daily-del-icio-us-bookmarks\/","url_meta":{"origin":16386,"position":3},"title":"Daily del.icio.us bookmarks","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"June 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user tvset on 2006-06-23 Mozilla Firefox Cheat Sheet Tagged as: browsers documentation firefox guide hints keyboard mozilla navigation productivity references shortcuts tips tricks tutorial web Software Wars -- Excellent maps of Open Source Software wars. From 1998 and to this day. 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