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from the just-release-nightly-builds-oh-wait dept.
Mozilla is planning to speed up Firefox's current 18-week release cycle, code in multiprocess support, and phase out the XUL and XBL languages currently used to build the Firefox UI (a change that may eventually break extensions):
Mozilla is planning big changes in how it builds its Firefox web browser, including speeding up its release schedule and – in the long term – getting rid of some of the Mozilla-specific technologies that have traditionally been used to build the browser's UI and add-ons. The decisions were discussed at Moz's "Coincidental Work Week" meetup in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada during the last week of June and were made public in a pair of forum posts by Mozilla engineering director Dave Camp on Monday. For starters, Mozilla plans to ditch its current 18-week release cycle in favor of something more agile. "We think there are big wins to be had in shortening the time that new features reaches users," Camp wrote. "Critical fixes should ship to users in minutes, not days. Individual features rolling out to small audiences for focused and multi-variate testing."
Firefox 39 was released on Monday. Changes include vsync (smooth scrolling) on Mac OS X, the addition of Unicode 8.0 skin tone emoji, removal of SSLv3, improving IPv6 fallback to IPv4, and support for the ECMAScript 2015 Proxy object. Mozilla has also unveiled a "Games Technology Roadmap," which sets out goals of further improving HTML5 + JavaScript performance relative to native applications, shipping the unfinished WebGL 2.0, and minimizing common issues like audio/graphics latency and "jitter".
Google says TurboFan, a new optimizing JavaScript compiler that will replace Crankshaft, will speed up various aspects of JavaScript performance (it currently shows a "29% increase on the zlib score of the Octane benchmark"). It has been shipping since Chrome 41, but will be improved and switched on in more code scenarios over time until it completely replaces the Crankshaft compiler.
Microsoft's new Edge browser will not include ActiveX and Silverlight support, and will instead use HTML5's Media Source and Encrypted Media Extensions for "premium media", as well as MPEG-DASH and Common Encryption (CENC). Internet Explorer 11 will retain Silverlight support.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday July 08 2015, @06:32PM
I'm working on a personal project that involves a dedicated remote control for home automation (audio is my main focus, but it can control many more things). it has real buttons, a small display that is NOT touch screen and it does not have an actual o/s in the usual terms, so it does not have the problem of updates or security issues or bloat. there's no cloud and no info leaking. its lean, its fast and its custom built to be very usable.
"where is your phone app, though?" is the common question. sigh. ok, there will be a web back-end for you folks who just seem to love 'pressing on glass' instead of buttons. but I don't prefer that, myself.
long after your phone is out of style or not supported, my dedicated handheld remote will still be working, still have the same features and they will still work and be applicable in much the same way that my 25 yr old amp and preamp are still quite applicable, today (at least the UI is). I won't worry about some update changing the screen around or moving buttons or breaking things. I won't have to worry about ads or blockers or data rates and overages. I won't have to worry about a thing. I press buttons and things happen, 100% under my control (and yours too, its diy and fully open on hw and sw).
I do see a return to dedicated boxes rather than the 'generic one-box touch screen full of software'. those never do as well as dedicated things. it was an interesting experiment but it was a failure. we just have to admit it, use it for what its good at but stop trying to shoe-horn every single thing into being a glass touch screen app on some general purpose pocket computer.
while your phone is still booting or garbage collecting, my remote control has powered on, gotton device status and is now ready to let you modify it. from power off to ready in 1 second or less. when I press buttons, its spending all its time listening to ME, not polling some fucking ad server on a wan, somewhere.
phones have fooled the young kids who never had dedicated devices; but the adults in the room do remember what it was like to use actual tactile buttons and have stable well-thought out interfaces that last decades, not months.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."