Ridiculous Updates: Firefox 5 and Chrome 12

Firefox released a new version yesterday: Firefox 5.0. For those who want to update, go for it. I have, and . . . it's pretty much no different than before. (You can update here, for what it's worth.) It's been three months since Firefox 4.0 came out, and supposedly in another three months, Firefox 6.0 is on its way.

Folks, this has to stop. Version numbers are supposed to mean something, not just be a marketing gimmick. When you go from 1.0 to 2.0, that means there's a significant upgrade. Significant enough that you'll likely have to relearn how to do some things. The speed will be faster, there'll be a lot more functionality. If the update is less than that, then the main version number shouldn't change. It should go from 1.0 to 1.1. That means some significant bump ups, but still pretty much the same experience. Even more minor changes get extra decimals. 1.0.0 to 1.0.1

That's how it's worked for years, and we're all happy with that. But then Google starts churning out new versions of Chrome every other weekday. (Seriously--they're up to version 12 now. 12?!? The first version came out in December of 2008. That means they've had a "new version" every other month or so. Come on. Get real. At this rate, we'll have Chrome 24 on its fifth birthday.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned or crotchety, but to me, this "new version" craze is as bad as the "As Seen on TV" branding of infomercials.

Blah.

Anyway. Firefox 5. Yay? Update if you want to. It'll be marginally faster, and it should run some web pages better. I'm not saying you shouldn't update, but just don't think you're going to get a brand new experience.