Mozilla has made some changes to the Firefox program, and it looks like it's going to give developers more time between upgrades.
One of the biggest changes Firefox has ever made was its continuous release of updates, which meant much more flexibility. This started four years ago, when Firefox was at version 3.5. It's now at 44 and will likely continue to push forward with this crazy schedule. The main difference is that it will no longer have a six-week release schedule.
There are some huge gains with this model. For example, users no longer have to wait months for certain features to land in the stable branch, and everything is implemented at a much faster pace. The downsides can't be ignored. Developers are working against a clock, and new versions of Firefox are also landing with bugs and other security issues.
This change is apparently made to give developers more time to work on each new release. They have increased the time available from two weeks. The basic idea is to aim for a six-week development period, with an extension to eight if necessary.
Mozilla also revealed the estimated release dates of future Firefox upgrades:
01/26/2016 – Firefox 44
03/08/2016 – Firefox 45, ESR 45 (6 week cycle)
04/19/2016 – Firefox 46 (6 week cycle)
06/07/2016 – Firefox 47 (7 week cycle)
02/08/2016 – Firefox 48 (8 week cycle)
09/13/2016 – Firefox 49 (6 week cycle)
08/11/2016 – Firefox 50 (8 week cycle)
12/13/2016 – Firefox 50.0.1 (5 week cycle, placed in critical fixes as needed)
01/24/2017 – Firefox 51 (6 weeks from previous release).
