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.