You can look forward to installing new versions of Firefox more frequently as the web browser is switching to a monthly release cycle.
Getting a new version of Firefox every 4 weeks isn’t too dissimilar to the current Firefox release cycle, which see a new major release issued every 6 to 8 weeks.
But by increasing the release rate Mozilla says it can “increase its agility” and bring users “new features more quickly”.
“With four-week cycles, we can be more agile and ship features faster, while applying the same rigor and due diligence needed for a high-quality and stable release. Also, we put new features and implementation of new Web APIs into the hands of developers more quickly,” Mozilla say.
The new four-week release cycle will kick into gear early next year, though there’ll be a gradual tapering towards in the meantime.
The schedule for Firefox ESR, the ‘extended support release’ that enterprise users ride, will not be affected by this change.
With an uptick in major releases there’ll naturally be an uptick in pre-release builds too. Mozilla plan to ensure there are ‘more frequent Beta builds, similar to what we have today in Firefox Nightly’ to help prevent quality from slipping.
You can find more details on Firefox’s new monthly release cycle in the writeup on hacks.mozilla.org.
It’ll be interesting to see if Google Chrome opts to adjust its release cadence in response — though as the biggest web browser in the world, there’s no real reason for it to do so.