Mozilla Firebird Roadmap

Mozilla Firebird Roadmap

Ben Goodger

July 22, 2003

Work to be done

Mozilla Firebird will be one of the most critical delivery vehicles for Gecko technology in the coming months. In order to get the best return on the years of effort that has gone into creating the platform upon which our software is built, exacting standards of quality and performance must be met. Our target for our 1.0 release is "best of breed" browser product on Windows and Linux, and before we can make that claim, a number of things need to be done. Some of these things include:

Download System Upgrade [ben, 0.7-0.8]
XPInstall System Upgrade [ben, 0.8]
Security UI Review [ben, bryner, 0.8/0.9]
Password manager [bryner, 0.8]
Installer (new GUI + remote downloader) [pending new UI spec]
Create Install Options (Enhanced Browsing Pack {gestures, etc}, Developer Pack {inspector, js debugger}, etc) []
Page Info Window []
UI Text Review [Blake]
Bundled Extension UI Review (Inspector, JS Debugger) []
Plugin Finder experience review + ensuring that Flash is bundled []
Smart deployment scheme
Extension stabilization, establishment of best practices to prevent collision [hyatt?]
Browser start pages for mozilla.org

As well as numerous other polish and small feature additions to the browser and other windows. Basic mail integration.

TBD - 1.0 PRD spelling out remaining required features, assignees and target milestones.

Release Plan

As outlined in the Mozilla project roadmap [ http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap.html ], the Mozilla Firebird browser will eventually replace the Seamonkey browser as the premiere end-user browser from mozilla.org. As part of the journey towards that goal, from milestone 0.7 onward Firebird 0.x releases will occur at the same time (or approximately the same time). A branch will be made for each Firebird milestone and stability updates (0.x.x releases) will be made from these branches.

As we predict more work required for a 1.0 moniker than remaining milestones left, after Firebird 0.9 we will continue numbering in the 0.10, 0.11, 0.12... style. This prevents us from overloading the 0.x.x numbering system, leaving it for incremental updates based on 0.x branches.

Marketing

With client products now among the most important delivery vehicles for Gecko technology, we will be building up an aggressive campaign to market the Firebird browser. The why [ http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird/why/ ] document was a successful start to our marketing efforts. A number of other initiatives including a new product site [ http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird/ ] will be rolled out over the coming milestones.

Support Network

Mozilla Firebird has a tremendous community following, and we wish to highlight the following two sites - Mozilla Firebird Help for a wide selection of Firebird extensions, themes, and other helpful information; and MozillaZine Forums - our premier discussion site for users and developers.