Mozilla closing Firefox Test Pilot program

    Mozilla closing Firefox Test Pilot program


    Posted: 16 Jan 2019
    For the last three years Firefox has invested heavily in innovation, and our users have been an essential part of this journey. Through the Test Pilot Program, Firefox users have been able to help us test and evaluate a variety of potential Firefox features. Building on the success of this program, we’re proud to announce today that we’re evolving our approach to experimentation even further.

    Lessons Learned from Test Pilot

    Test Pilot was designed to harness the energy of our most passionate users. We gave them early prototypes and product explorations that weren’t ready for wide release. In return, they gave us feedback and patience as these projects evolved into the highly polished features within our products today. Through this program we have been able to iterate quickly, try daring new things, and build products that our users have been excited to embrace.

    Graduated Features

    Since the beginning of the Test Pilot program, we’ve built or helped build a number of popular Firefox features. Activity Stream, which now features prominently on the Firefox homepage, was in the first round of Test Pilot experiments. Activity Stream brought new life to an otherwise barren page and made it easier to recall and discover new content on the web. The Test Pilot team continued to draw the attention of the press and users alike with experiments like Containers that paved the way for our highly successful Facebook Container. Send made private, encrypted, file sharing as easy as clicking a button. Lockbox helped you take your Firefox passwords to iOS devices (and soon to Android). Page Shot started as a simple way to capture and share screenshots in Firefox. We shipped the feature now known as Screenshots and have since added our new approach to anti-tracking that first gained traction as a Test Pilot experiment.

    So what’s next?

    Test Pilot performed better than we could have ever imagined. As a result of this program we’re now in a stronger position where we are using the knowledge that we gained from small groups, evangelizing the benefits of rapid iteration, taking bold (but safe) risks, and putting the user front and center.

    We’re applying these valuable lessons not only to continued product innovation, but also to how we test and ideate across the Firefox organization. So today, we are announcing that we will be moving to a new structure that will demonstrate our ability to innovate in exciting ways and as a result we are closing the Test Pilot program as we’ve known it.

    More user input, more testing

    Migrating to a new model doesn’t mean we’re doing fewer experiments. In fact, we’ll be doing even more! The innovation processes that led to products like Firefox Monitor are no longer the responsibility of a handful of individuals but rather the entire organization. Everyone is responsible for maintaining the Culture of Experimentation Firefox has developed through this process. These techniques and tools have become a part of our very DNA and identity. That is something to celebrate. As such, we won’t be uninstalling any experiments you’re using today, in fact, many of the Test Pilot experiments and features will find their way to Addons.Mozilla.Org, while others like Send and Lockbox will continue to take in more input from you as they evolve into stand alone products.

    We couldn’t do it without you

    We want to thank Firefox users for their input and support of product features and functionality testing through the Test Pilot Program. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our users who are the reason we build Firefox in the first place. In the coming months look out for news on how you can get involved in the next stage of our experimentation.

    In the meantime, the Firefox team will continue to focus on the next release and what we’ll be developing in the coming year, while other Mozillians chug away at developing equally exciting and user-centric product solutions and services. You can get a sneak peak at some of these innovations at Mozilla Labs, which touches everything from voice capability to IoT to AR/VR.

    And so we say goodbye and thank you to Test Pilot for helping us usher in a bright future of innovation at Mozilla.


    Source: Evolving Firefox's Culture of Experimentation: A Thank You from the Test Pilot Program - The Mozilla Blog
    Brink's Avatar Posted By: Brink
    16 Jan 2019



  1. Posts : 1,384
    Win 7 Ult 64-bit
       #1

    Horsefeathers. Too bad they didn't care enough about their "passionate users" to keep "user-centric product solutions and services,"such as XUL extensions and css tweaking ability. And we already know how to take screenshots and block tracking.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 0
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #2

    The tossing out of XUL was bunk. But I use Pale Moon anyway since FF's complete GUI change to match Chrome.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 1,384
    Win 7 Ult 64-bit
       #3

    How does PM compare to Seamonkey?
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 0
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #4

    Hmm, not too sure. If Seamonkey uses webextensions for add-ons, then that would be a main difference between Seamonkey and Pale Moon as PM uses XUL add-ons.

    Bad thing about PM is its useragent, and due to that, a lot of websites discriminate other browsers if it's not Firefox or Chrome. In fact, when you go and solve a Recaptcha in PM you have to do it like six times. Where's in Firefox or Chrome you only have to solve once or twice. I even forge my useragent to make it look like I'm using the latest FF, yet despite that the Recaptcha pulls some other signature from the browser that knows you're not using one of the big two browsers, i.e Firefox or Chrome.

    For the most part PM works well, but there are times where websites don't like it and act up, like Facebook. Although, I don't use FB anymore and thank God for that. What a total asinine waste of time. I'm on and off Twitter more or less these days, and it comes in handy getting a hold of companies and what not. Especially Github announcements and Stop Forum Spam announcements. I even follow some hacker accounts to help stay abreast of vulnerabilities and what's hackable out there and how to stop it.

    If Pale Moon acts up in a website I'll just use my plain vanilla install of Firefox to do what I need to do. Always great to have at least two browser installs. Works well when your testing your own website and need a clear cached browser to work with and test a setting, etc.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 1,384
    Win 7 Ult 64-bit
       #5

    I think SeaMonkey is still on XUL.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 0
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #6

    Found this:

    Switching to ESR means we can work on bugs in the current tree for a while longer without having to fear that they are carried over into a release. They need to be fixed for the next ESR of course.
    The most critical issue is to support web extensions in one of the next
    releases. It is unclear how long we will be able to support classic extensions.
    There are a number of Gecko Forks in the wild. We do not plan to switch over to one of them as the basis for SeaMonkey. We think that they currently do not have enough developers themselves to cope with the changes Mozilla plans. Web technologies are also evolving all the time and we fear that they are not able to keep up.

    The State of the SeaMonkey Union! | SeaMonkey Project Blog
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 0
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #7

    Now the 64 thousand dollar question: Why can't a browser use web extensions and XUL extensions at once? I guess it's in the nature of the engine?
      My Computer


 

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