Firefox/Win64

Agenda

• Background and Objectives
• Go to market
• Work outline
• Risks
• Discussion

Background Summary

• Firefox has been doing 64 bit builds for Windows for years. We once even had a 64 bit distro.
• Development is mostly complete. Releng work is small.
• The outstanding engineering work to complete 64 bit on Windows is: finish test coverage, plugin compat work, and installer work. The last two are significant obstacles.

Market Landscape

Internet Explorer has 64 bit. Chrome is launching 6 in v37.

• Chrome for Windows: http://blog.chromium.org/2014/08/64-bits-of-awesome-64-bit-windows_26.html
• Chrome for Mac: http://blog.chromium.org/2014/08/mac-chrome-when-im-sixty-four-bits.html
• Goodbye, NPAPI: http://blog.chromium.org/2013/09/saying-goodbye-to-our-old-friend-npapi.html
• Chrome is doing us a huge favor by setting NPAPI expectations in the market. There isn't a huge "first-mover" advantage with 64 bit. While it offers huge tech. advantages, itt's not a consumer feature for most users. We have a great opportunity to get things right and learn from their rollout.
• The timing is finally right for Firefox 64. 50% of Fx users on Windows run 64 bit OS. We've reached a threshold where the effort makes sense.

Objectives: Why launch Win64?

• Take advantage of a limited window of opportunity in gaming and performance browser apps. Signal to game devs that our browser will accommodate them

Offer our users a better experience with improvements in stability, performance, and security.

• Remain competitive with the rest of the browser landscape.

Industry Speculation: Get ahead of Windows 9, in case they retire 32 bit OS: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2220221/microsoft-subnet/windows-9-details-are-already-emerging.html and http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new-product/windows/3496959/windows-9-release-date-price-features-beta-uk-30-september-event/

Users and Their Problem

64 bit is incredibly exciting to those of us who understand what it offers in stability, performance, and security. We're the minority. Most of the world has no idea what 64 bit means. They can already do everything they want to do online. Many will only notice 64 bit if their experience breaks. Our job is to deliver the benefits -- even if they're invisible -- and avoid the breakage.

64 bit users groups to consider for our rollout:

• 1ish% Power users (gamers, developers, security folks, high memory users) who know exactly what 64 bit is and why they want it.
• Everyone else:
  • Users who have plugins/add-ons that may break in 64, and
  • Users who don't user plugins/add-ons and won't notice if we drop support for some