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{ 2006 04 20 }

Looking at FTP sites for Mozilla releases: Part II

Back in November, I posted about the dangers of looking at the Mozilla FTP server for new Mozilla releases.

With Thunderbird 1.5.0.2, 1.0.8, and Mozilla 1.7.13 expected soon, I’m surprised at the amount of people stating the those versions have been released, just because they see the directories on the FTP server.

What if there’s a problem updating one or more mirrors? You may see the release, but others won’t. Even worse, what if a problem is found with the uploaded builds, and they need to be re-spun before the new release is officially announced? You’re directing end-users to bad builds. And so, I’d like to reiterate that new versions have not been officially released, until the website is updated.

I don’t know exactly what is keeping Thunderbird 1.5.0.2, 1.0.8, and Mozilla 1.7.13 from being official, but I did just read a message in mozilla.dev.planning: Thunderbird 1.0.8/1.5.0.2 delayed until Friday or Monday.

It was nice of Tim to post an update on the situation, and I think we all should show our appreciation by not directing users to the new version, until it is officially released.

Posted by Chris Ilias on Thursday, April 20, 2006, at 3:30 pm. Filed under Mozilla. Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

{ 7 } Comments

  1. Anonymous | April 20, 2006 at 6:00 pm | Permalink

    Hmmmm…
    Tb 1.5.0.2 Release Notes
    Release Date: April 18, 2006

  2. Chris Ilias | April 20, 2006 at 6:17 pm | Permalink

    “Release Date: April 18, 2006”
    Which was obviously uploaded before the problems were found.
    The webpage to look at is:
    http://www.getthunderbird.com/
    (ie. http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/)

  3. Anonymous | April 21, 2006 at 1:05 pm | Permalink

    hm, i just wait until the auto-update kicks in, I presume that that counts as an offical realease?

  4. Chris Ilias | April 21, 2006 at 1:55 pm | Permalink

    Yes, waiting for auto-update is probably the best thing to do.

  5. Preed | April 21, 2006 at 4:32 pm | Permalink

    Even worse, what if a problem is found with the uploaded builds, and they need to be re-spun before the new release is officially announced?

    And this is exactly what happened with 1.5.0.2 Linux bits.

    If you get an auto-update notification, then the release is definitely official (as long as you haven’t changed your update channel, which… if that makes no sense to you, you haven’t. ;-)

  6. Caspar | April 21, 2006 at 9:08 pm | Permalink

    “just because they see the directories on the FTP server”

    Why don’t you create some more ‘future’ directories in advance like 1.5.0.3, 1.5.x, 2.x, 3.x … and be done with it.
    Maybe add an empty ‘README.TXT’ or ‘INDEX’ to tell visitors it’s not done yet?

  7. Chris Ilias | April 22, 2006 at 7:08 am | Permalink

    Creating the directories in advance won’t work, because at some point the release builds will have to be uploaded, in preparation for the release. People will watch for that, instead of the creation of a new directory.

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