AMO v3 (Remora) launch delayed 24 hours

As I’m sure many of you are aware, today (Feb 12th) was the scheduled release day for Remora, which will bring localization, a more inclusive review system, and discussion capabilities to the addons.mozilla.org site. We had a maintenance window scheduled for today from 7-11pm Pacific, and during that period we discovered a number of issues related to differences between our test environment and the production one, as well as some late-breaking bugs found by our testers.

While we were able to resolve all but one of those issues to our satisfaction — and that of our test suite — we ended up making sufficient changes to the system that we wanted to take another day to test it in the production environment before we put it in front of Firefox’s tens of millions of users.

It’s a heart-breaking decision for the Remora team, but we think it’s the right thing for our users, and we’d rather have 24 hours of disappointment than put the users’ experience at risk.

On the bright side, this will give us an extended window to take updates from our intrepid localizers, as those changes are sufficiently low risk that we’re comfortable taking them during tomorrow’s test-and-test-some-more window.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and support; we’re so close now that we can taste it.

55 responses

  1. Meatball wrote on :

    I hope you guys are going to get rid of that stupid easy rider logo thing.

  2. andreas wrote on :

    “It’s a heart-breaking decision for the Remora team”

    ..?

    You guys take things way too seriously!

  3. Rizan wrote on :

    Lol whats wrong with the logo? Its not THAT bad…. right?

  4. David Naylor wrote on :

    Is it true that the number of extensions on AMO will be reduced with the move to v3?

    Sounds stupid, since half the point of this update was to better accommodate the large number of extensions available…

  5. jacotyco wrote on :

    i always wondered why there was a motorcycle in the background

  6. filthy phill wrote on :

    The chopper is bad ass but a newer look is needed.

  7. Judy Cox wrote on :

    Please advice when the new remora is ready. Thanks

  8. Ken Saunders wrote on :

    I’m excited to see the new changes coming.

    What I really would like is to clean up the site by not having the same add-on in 12 different categories. It’s highly annoying to spend your time searching through hundreds of add-ons when you keep seeing the same ones.

    It makes the pages load slower, it lowers the quality of the site for users, and like I said, it’s just annoying overkill.

  9. Theos wrote on :

    I just want to see a working search system…

  10. Wil Clouser wrote on :

    David: We’re not deleting any extensions, we’re dividing them into a public area and a sandbox area. Details are here: http://blog.fligtar.com/2006/11/21/reviewing-the-review-process/

  11. Linda H Maloy wrote on :

    I agree with Brother Ken about the clutter. It messes up the look of the site and slows down the machine. Anything that does that is singles cruisel Thanks, Mozilla!

  12. Ryan Wagner wrote on :

    I’m sure we’ll be finding out soon, but do you plan on providing a link to the sandbox on the actual extensions page. Hopefully you will otherwise people may not realize that there are more available.

  13. Jacksonville Web Design wrote on :

    Cool! I found out about the site update today… looking forward to taking that flame job chopper for a test drive! :~)
    Don’t worry be happy!

    Jim S.
    http://tentonweb.com/
    Jacksonville, FL USA

  14. Fred Schtiener wrote on :

    Yea, the extensions have gotten out of control, well at least the search for them. Maybe there needs to be the Official Tested Proven Extensions and the Your on Your Own Extensions listing? I like the extensions but there needs to be some more robust testing before some kind of stamp is placed on them.

  15. SAUL PE wrote on :

    the logo is fine, and if the guy at remora didnt take the thing s too seriously, well , we couldnt enjoya good quality browser, isnt logic? well

    bye

  16. Jacques wrote on :

    Each AMO revisions bring regressions in usability.

    New extension list is down to 5.
    No more link that shows More new extensions sorted by date, showing the newest.
    No more paging to go on the next page of new version of extensions.
    No more usable RSS feed listing by order date new extension.
    When listing extensions, the list do not show the date of the extension.

    Please, list the date of extension modification in all lists.

    Cheers.

  17. Klint wrote on :

    Hello
    Although this new version is expected to bring localization, I fully agree with previous Jacques’ comments. IMHO, I find the current AMO pages for Thunderbird far more usable than the current (soon old) AMO pages for Firefox, the main reason being the way New extensions are handled. This is the only reason I regurlarly go to AMO : to check for new versions. And these are not very well displayed in Remora ! Sorry
    But thanks a lot for the localisation
    Olivier

  18. Dave Baker wrote on :

    I thought a remora was a fish or something…

  19. bigstusexy wrote on :

    I’m going to not rant about plugins but all I’ll ask is if the new site doesn’t include this, please include not only the ability to hit the advance options to search before you submit your first query but also the ability to select which version of the program you use.

    I can’t tell you how heart breaking it is to loose an extension that you sue every day because of an upgrade, but I can at least tell that its extremely frustrating to find a possibly dynamite plugin only to find its a few versions incompatible.

  20. Bram wrote on :

    Actually, there is a very nice logo in the right top corner of this blog. It looks good and would be more relevant. Why not use it?

  21. casper wrote on :

    any update on the release? I’ve been sitting here in the virtual parking lot waiting and waiting for you to open the doors to the new site. Camping out here is getting a little dull. Any insights to the expected launch date are welcome.

  22. shed wrote on :

    i think you should appreciate what they do for us i am happy and 24 hours is not long considering the reasons

  23. Wil Clouser wrote on :

    casper: I’ve posted another update here:

    http://blog.mozilla.org/webdev/2007/02/14/amo-v3-remora-delay/

    But as an update to the update: Things are looking pretty good this morning.

  24. casper wrote on :

    Wil — thanks for pointing this out …. I’m just so excited to see what you do with the site. With the explosion of add-ons the old one had lost it’s ability to support this community. I’m looking forward to finding new add-ons.

    It’s like waiting for Star Wars to be released…. and I want to be in the front row!

  25. Tom Steiner wrote on :

    Thanks for updating the site. I really appreciate your work!

    Maybe you should add some pictures of you guys? I am not even sure who is actually doing all the work…

    Tom

    PS: Did you know that there are even several Firefox add-ons for web testing? Try for example https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3863/ or http://www.kevinfreitas.net/extensions/linkchecker/ 😉

  26. Jacksonville SEO wrote on :

    I have had some luck finding outdated/updated extensions at this site, the Extensions Mirror…
    http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?s=d6c89485a967220fde1c1e9652295bd9&showforum=2

    It’s now late Valentine’s Day… I can’t wait to see what the new site looks like!

    Jim S.
    http://tentonweb.com/
    Jacksonville, FL USA

  27. Vinit Nair wrote on :

    It’s feb 15 th and no AMO v3 (Remora) yet.
    I’m excited to see the new changes coming.
    do it quickly guys.

  28. Jade wrote on :

    As long as its done by the 17th every things good.

  29. Isaiah wrote on :

    it looks cool dudes but get more add ons for firefox and themes for firefox

  30. SemanticSam wrote on :

    A day late and a dollar short….

    Take a look at osx.iusethis.com for a great interface. Allows you to maintain the portfolio of what apps you use, see others comments, see similar users, etc. Very nice.

  31. DiegoDD wrote on :

    So it is here…

    Today is feb 15, and the site is already there, right?

    Well, i didn’t like it!!! Where the hell is the option to save the extensions to the hard disk via right click!!?!?!?! I WANT IT BACK!?

    Would you add that option soon, or you have just eliminated it?

    anyone knows how to save the extensions now that the option has been removed?

  32. Alyssa wrote on :

    I agree with DiegoDD. PLEASE bring back the right click option! I manage many computers and this is how i install the “basic setup” for firefox on these computers; via a thumb drive.

  33. Matthew Wilson wrote on :

    addons.mozilla.org still points to this announcement, not the newer announcement of the extended delay.

  34. Frédéric Wenzel wrote on :

    Diego and Alyssa: There has been a related bug filed. It’s in the works.

  35. Kurt Rusaw wrote on :

    Thanks for helping me with all of this it is very nice of u people to give me a new Firefox. And just want to say thanks for it, but i have not reseevd it yet…..

  36. diegodd wrote on :

    Mathew, and wich site is the newer one? please, can you post the URL? thank u

  37. Mansour wrote on :

    The site doesn’t look updated to me either, what are you people talking about?

  38. Fabian wrote on :

    I just want to say thank you… and thank you very much…. It is such a nice feeling to think I have a choice when it comes to going into the Internet. I feel so much free. You people are doing a great job. The likes me feel nothing but gratitude and truly freedom and with class, probably like the rider on your front page. I find your logo speaks volumes. Thank you mozilla.
    Fabian

  39. Chorchix wrote on :

    rightt.. heart breaking k thanks dont break the site now

  40. htd_635 wrote on :

    Can someone please tell me where the new site is.

  41. DiegoDD wrote on :

    to mansour and htd_635…

    it seems that the update has been rolled back to the previous site, and wont be released until it is bug-free and ready.

    It was released on feb 15 for some time (as far as i know, because that very same thay i noticed the change), and then, after a lot of problems trying to open it and to download several extensions, it seems that they just got back to the ‘old’ version we all know…

    I don’t have an idea on when the new site will be launched, but the site (url) is supposed to be the same.

    Just check it regulary ( https://addons.mozilla.org/ )

    For further information, you also can check:

    http://blog.mozilla.org/webdev/2007/02/14/amo-v3-remora-delay/

    and

    http://blog.mozilla.org/webdev/2007/02/18/amo-deployment-this-week/

    As of Feb 19, 2007

    Hope the info was useful. Bye

  42. Bryce Scott wrote on :

    Yeah… heart breaking is stretching it a little… lolz…..

  43. Djallel wrote on :

    mozilla firefox? very cool, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you .
    see you soon.

  44. Graham C. Whiteford wrote on :

    I am fairly new to computers. I do hope that your Mozilla Firefox is user friendly due to the fact that I am still trying to learn all that I can about this truly amazing tool. I would like to think that I had a place to turn to for help when I might need it . thank you kindly,good day. GCW

  45. kussoumie wrote on :

    sheeze… 24 hours shore ain’t what it used ta be. Is this related to mercury retrograd? Come Back…. be blessed….HariBol…..

  46. spezza wrote on :

    any news?

  47. lol wrote on :

    Fabian, try opera, it’s free too!

  48. Wilbur K Allen wrote on :

    Thank you

  49. Wilbur K Allen wrote on :

    Thank you for the choice you have given me

  50. intel36x88 wrote on :

    Is this some kind of a joke? First you said the new stuff will be avaiable on 13th ferbuary and now…..hm?

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