Summary
This page captures all workflow and other issues with the installer and channel switcher. We understand that there are tradeoffs and no solution will be perfect. The goal here is understand how it works today, the issues, where we want to end up long term and figure out what changes we can make for Firefox 5 to make sure we can ultimately provide the right experience for all our users.
Specifically we will detail..
- The goals from a marketing perspective.
- How things work as of today (5/13/11).
- Overview of all the various usage scenarios.
- Analysis of the problems we run into.
- Breakdown of the technical issues.
- Options for improvements in the 5.0 timeframe and beyond.
Marketing Goals
Ideally from a marketing perspective, we would like to be building a brand around all the channels and keep this consistent across products (Firefox & Mobile). This also applies to all platforms (Mac, Windows). The Nightly channel is less important here but will be included just for completion. Here's what we are aiming for.
| Channel | Icon | App.name | About box |
| Nightly | Nightly icon | Firefox Nightly | Nightly branded about box |
| Aurora | Aurora icon | Firefox Aurora | Aurora branded about box |
| Beta | Beta icon | Firefox Beta | Beta branded about box |
| Release | Firefox icon | Firefox | Firefox branded about box |
Basically this is saying that we would like to use the app name, icon, about box, startup pages etc to convey a distinct brand to our users.
Current State
Today, this is the behavior we see.
Branding
Mac:
| Channel | Icon | App.name | About box |
| Nightly | Nightly icon | Nightly | Minefield branded about box Bug 649526 and Bug 648368 |
| Aurora | Aurora icon | Aurora | Minefield branded about box Bug 649526 and Bug 648368 |
| Beta | Firefox icon | Firefox | Firefox branded about box |
| Release | Firefox icon | Firefox | Firefox branded about box |
Windows:
| Channel | Icon | App.name | About box |
| Nightly | Nightly icon | Nightly | Minefield branded about box Bug 649526 and Bug 648368 |
| Aurora | Aurora icon | Aurora | Minefield branded about box Bug 649526 and Bug 648368 |
| Beta | Firefox icon | Mozilla Firefox | Firefox branded about box |
| Release | Firefox icon | Mozilla Firefox | Firefox branded about box |
Installer/Updater Use Cases
I didn't break these down by user since I thought it was easier to list all the various use cases and the resulting behavior then we can figure out what groups are effected by each use case.
- 1. User installs and runs the Nightly build.
- Nightly runs side by side with other releases. Users are prompted for regular updates.
- There is no access to the channel switcher from the nightly build.
- It doesn't matter what other versions the user has installed.
- 2. A user downloads the Aurora build from the download page
- The user may or may not be on the Aurora channel.
- 3. A user downloads the Beta build from the download page.
- The user may or may not already be on the Beta channel.
- 4. A user downloads the Release build from the download page.
- If the Release build is put in the same directory at the Beta build, it replaces it since the app name is the same.
- If I put the Release build in a different directory, I can have multiple versions of firefox.app.
- 5. A user runs the Release build and uses the channel switcher to change to the Aurora channel. They select "Apply and Update" and the update is downloaded.
Problems
1. If I user were to come along install Aurora from the download page, then use the channel switcher to switch to Beta, the logo of the app changes but the text will forever show Aurora.
- I actually found a bug here. I had Aurora on my desktop AND in the mac dock. I switched to Beta to get 5.0b1, the logo on the desktop updated but NOT the doc one. I restarted and still it was the same. If I clicked the Aurora icon on the doc (which I knew was really 5.0b1), then it changed to the Firefox icon.
- If the user started out by