this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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That's a false dichotomy. Firefox version numbering was never like that. It used the scheme
major_version.minor_version.patch_releaselike almost every piece of software except browsers still uses.The advantage of this system is that the numbers are meaningful: they tell you how significant a release is, whereas with straight versioning the version number gives you no clue about what the "119 to 120 upgrade" contains. It might be simple bugfixes, it might add some new functionality or it might be a complete overhaul that breaks everything.
The reason why browsers switched to a straight versioning scheme was never to make it easier for users to identify which release they're on. The reason was artificial version inflation (i.e. "my version is bigger than yours"), and to force users into an incessant upgrade treadmill. In the past users could for example hold back on a major release upgrade until all the kinks were worked out while still receiving maintenance for their older major release.