It appears that the version number for Firefox which currently can be found in the "About" dialog box isn't going to be given the boot. The entire idea that the version number might no longer be found in the "About" box was apparently just a misunderstanding.
Last week Asa Dotzler, a Firefox director filed a bug report asking for the removal of the version number. It seems that Dotzler was under the impression that the Mozilla user experience team had directed the move. Dotzler's impression was incorrect and the bug report was prematurely filed.
Mozilla user experience engineer Alex Faaborg explained to ReadWriteWeb that there had been no final decision about how the version number would be presented. The impression that Dotzler had about the change being finalized was a misunderstanding. It seems that some of the user experience team had been calling for the change but a final call about versioning hadn't been reached.
That misunderstanding spurred some violent controversy from users. People left nasty comments and even insulted Dotzler himself. The huge outburst over this simple change is more than likely due to general discomfort over Firefox shifting to a more incremental development model. Once Firefox 7 launches, we'll have a better idea if this new rapid release model makes sense for both users and developers.
