I’ll be getting off the Trunk here real soon now. After several months of using the nightly builds of Firefox 3 (called "Minefield"), the first release candidate went into lockdown on April 8th which basically means no more new feature or function changes, beat any showstoppers into submission, send to build and QA, QA, QA.
It should be out soon is what I mean.
So why does that mean I’m going to finally chuck the Trunk? This is why…
The Trunk always remains the Trunk irregardless of the release schedule. Trunk builds are what you might call the "cutting edge" of developing software where fixes are incorporated and released on a nightly and very often an hourly basis. Every morning I have a new upgrade to my browser I get to download and install. But once Firefox 3 is delivered in it’s final form sometime in June, the Trunk will go on while the developers continue work on the next version (like 3.5 for instance). I ran the Trunk builds of Firefox 3 for these reasons…
- I’m not satisfied with simply waiting for new beta builds to be released (I want it now! Okay?).
- I was bored (c’mon…let’s be honest here).
- I like to see new features and functions as they are implemented and professionally critique them (ha-ha-ha-arf-urf-woof-woof-woof-fall off chair).
- I enjoy offering my two cents worth to the developers (and I do).
- They in turn get to work off some of that pent up frustration by telling me to get stuffed (and they have).
- I like having new features before anyone else does. I really like having new features before anyone else does.
- I’m obsessed with upgrading (yes…I am…I admit it)
- I’m just an old tech head who craves new things (drool, foam at the mouth, pant-pant-pant, etc)
But now it’s time for all that to end. As soon as RC1 is released I’m off the Trunk and onto the Branch waiting for June and the final release. The reason is simple. The Branch consists of the released versions only, not the developer’s builds and only the Branch will be finally upgraded to the final release of Firefox 3 so when RC1 shows up it will be time to back up all my bookmarks and such, remove "Minefield" from my OS and install RC1 in it’s place. Then I can re-install my plugins and extensions and I’m ready for when Firefox 3 final comes out. The Trunk will be done with Firefox 3 quite awhile before the final release ever hits the streets so the time to get off the Trunk is now.
So you all know the difference between branches and trunks now. The branches are the long gangly things that stick out into the air and have leaves at the end and the trunk is that big, cylindrical, wooden like thing that comes out of the ground that the branches are attached to. Sometimes there are bugs running around on it. Hope you all paid attention, there might be a quiz later.
Leave a Reply