Questions about 2.34 and 2.35

Users are wondering what’s happening with the releases and here’s what’s the holdup.

The basic issue is that the project’s infrastructure is running on systems that are ‘old’ and limited in count (aside for the Linux32/64 platforms that is).   We have three running mac minis and seven running Windows 2003 servers(vm and non-vms).

Since last December, our Windows vms/machines have not been able to build the code (as of this writing, no Windows build for all trees) due to the fact that our compiler (VS2010) is no longer supported.   Upgrading to VS2013 is not supported on Windows 2003 (which is what our Windows builders are based on) so we need to upgrade all our Windows builders to Windows 2008R2.  The coordination required for this is ‘hefty’ and with the SeaMonkey Project being a community (read: non-priority tier) project, things within Moco takes precedence (and from what I gathered, it has been a very busy period for our main RelEng go-to guy – Justin Wood (aka Callek)), so we do appreciate everyone’s patience.

Our Mac situation is concerning as well due to the fact we have a limited number of builders (3, we had 4, but one decided to buy the farm) and the fact that purchasing Mac Minis (a specific kind… 2012 I think… vintage is good I hear..) is ‘difficult’ as we’re also competing for the same types of mac as Moco (and Moco gets priority).  So builds are chugging away.  [Self note: I wonder if someone donated a Mac Pro, would we be able to use it? ;P ]

Our Linux[32,64] builders are the only infrastructure that’s working well enough. (knock on wood… pun unintended, Callek).

Now the issue here is when we get our Windows building, do we do 2.34 releases or just jump directly to 2.35betas?

  1. We could release 2.33.2 (incls fixes between 2.33 and 2.34) and then release 2.35 betas
  2. We could release 2.34 and work on 2.35betas
  3. We could skip 2.34 altogether and stick with 2.35betas

The concern with #3 is whether the ‘upgrade’ experience from 2.33.1 to 2.35 release will be a ‘smooth’ one.  At this moment, I don’t know as I haven’t watched the code changes (there has been a lot).

In any event, we’ll hopefully have an update on this situation soon.

We do appreciate everyone’s patience with us.

Thanks.

About ewong

I'm a SeaMonkey dev/RelEnger and a bit of a buildbot dev.
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31 Responses to Questions about 2.34 and 2.35

  1. Pingback: Warten auf SeaMonkey 2.34 and 2.35 | SeaMonkey-Projekt

  2. It would be great to have a very short progress report here.
    CU
    Rainer

  3. Richard P says:

    I recently discovered Seamonkey when looking for a free, usable, simple HTML editor. I was delighted to realize that it’s the successor to Netscape, which I used for many years. I hope you can keep Seamonkey going.

    One bug: often the search function (which is obviously very useful) doesn’t work on the Composer.

  4. Hi Richard P., may be your problem is this one: Bug 1062092 – Context menu search (with default search engine) does not work in the content area of a message compose or SM-Composer window ? If not it would be great if you could file a Bug Report in Bugzilla

  5. Windows
    Server 2003
    “end of life” article at The
    Register
    .

    CU

    Rainer Bielefeld

  6. gab says:

    This thing is leaving many users exposed to more and more security bugs, and maybe I’m missing something but it looks like a demented issue! I understand that nightly builds be affected by this problem but doesn’t any of the seamonkey developers have a machine with visual studio 2013 with which making a build once every few weeks?

    If there’s any seamonkey developer focusing on windows he must be compiling the software many times every day, can’t you publish one of those builds? Even a zip without installation would be much better than nothing!

    I understand that making the official builds on a mozilla machine is safer, but builds made on a trusted developer’s personal computer are surely less risky than builds with known security bugs made on a trusted machine!

    But by the way, is it really impossible to get lent a machine from another mozilla project for 10 minutes to make a build? If you have such a distant relationship with the rest of the organization I’d say it’s better that you leave it altogether!


  7. In the nonofficial German Language SeaMonkey blog you can find a hint how you can eliminate SeaMonkey’s Logjam vulnerability: you simply have to change 3 parameters in “about:config”.

  8. daniel says:

    how does it come that you weren’t able to setup a more recent Windows environment than Windows Server 2003 to get build newer Windows Seamonkey release.
    Are this the first symptoms of the end of Seamonkey ?

    • ewong says:

      It isn’t that we aren’t able to. I know we are able to.
      It’s the issue of not having the resources to get things going at a faster pace. As noted earlier, SeaMonkey is a community project and isn’t a priority with Moco and any infrastructure changes that require Moco’s attention needs to be prioritized after Moco’s needs. That’s just the way
      it is, unfortunately.

      • daniel says:

        @ewong
        do I understand you correctly, that up-to-date security fixes and Win32 release has no priority at Seamonkey.org ?

        if you can’t release Win32 & Mac OSX version currently why aren’t you releasing at least the Linux versions ?

        • ewong says:

          No, that wasn’t what I said. Up-to-date security fixes and all platform releases do have priority with the SeaMonkey project. The issue is with the priorities of those who are the ones doing the Windows setup. Since we use MoCo’s infrastructure to host our systems, their own priorities trump ours, so our plans for Windows upgrade are placed after their own priorities. That is the way with non-priority community projects.

          Also, if we were to release anything at this moment, only OSX and Linux will get the coverage. We currently cannot build on Windows.

          As for why aren’t we releasing at least the Linux version, we’ll be getting flak from the Windows and OSX users (ala “do I understand you correctly that Win32/OSX release has no priority at SeaMonkey?”)

          In any event, we do appreciate your patience with the project. We’ll try to get a release out as soon as we can.

  9. Carsten Hütter says:

    @ewong and all the other members of the seamonkey project team: You are doing a great job. I’ve been using Netscape Navigator 1.x since the 1990s. This is two decades agos. Or almost two decades – doesn’t matter. Have been awaiting the first Seamonkey release for quite a while. Have been waiting for Seamonkey 2.x for quite a while. Will be patiently waiting for 2.34 or 2.35 or whatever will be next. And I will be quietly pleased with the the warmth of the cozy fireplace and the pleasant smell that Seamonkey and Lightning offers. Even if I have to go logs once in a while. So to speak… 😉

  10. bibbi says:

    To ALL the members of the SeaMonkey project team.
    KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK 🙂
    I don’t see this being an end to the SeaMonkey browser…Not at all ..just a delay.
    Am eagerly awaiting the next stable release! 😀
    Am almost 100% sure than many of us SeaMonkey users are going to cheer and jump up and down when the next release is available to download/update!
    This is my all time favorite browser. 🙂

  11. izntmac says:

    Thank you for keeping SeaMonkey going. I will try to give a little money to support the project. I have used SeaMonkey for years since Netscape days and like having the email, web page design, and browser all in one program. Hope you get your Windows server problems solved soon and that you are able to release a new Windows version soon. All keep the interface which is clear and consistent and hasn’t suffered the “Google Chrome” look of the later Firefox versions.

  12. LuvKomputrs says:

    @Rainer Bielefeld
    “We are going to get some progress with unofficial Trunk Test builds, see “Bug 1169140 – Make available existing private WIN32 builds for testing”.
    This sounds very promising. 🙂
    Also wanted to commend the team at the SeaMonkey Project for their EXCELLENT work.
    Thanks! und Vielen Dank! 🙂

  13. Do we have Mozilla infrastructure build machines?
    … what would mean Mozilla contribution is done, rest is SeaMonkey-team’s work.

    Or do we NOT have machines available?

    • Barbara says:

      Are the SeaMonkey team having any luck with getting a build machine yet?
      I also use Ubuntu and am able to use SeaMonkey on my laptop
      Would love to have an update for my desktop for Windows.
      *five thumbs up!* to the members of SeaMonkeyproject.org. 😀

    • ewong says:

      Right now, we’re still working on the Windows build machines.
      In the meantime, we’re hoping to find a temporary way of getting some Windows builds done, but that too is taking a bit of time.

  14. Herzel says:

    *SeaMonkey Windows Builds, if you wish.
    Relatively current, at least relative to today, & in even more so considering anything we’ve had in the long distant, now, past ;-).
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B04dWkRZkXcrWlZHWmYxclhsQ2s/view?usp=sharing&pli=1
    seamonkey-2.37a2.en-US.win32.zip
    This is a recent comm-aurora build BuildID=20150522012631
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B04dWkRZkXcrYjF1eUgxUGlULVU/view?usp=sharing&pli=1
    seamonkey-2.38a1.en-US.win32.zip
    BuildID=20150523065810
    You may need the MS VC 2013 runtimes installed, if you don’t have it already (otherwise you’ll crash on startup).
    Or you can simply pull the needed files from a FF 38 (or greater) install & just copy them into the SeaMonkey instalDir: msvcp120.dll & msvcr120.dll.*
    Am using SeaMonkey 2.37a2 and am having no issues. 🙂
    Could these possibly be officially used on the Mozilla FTP server until you get the Mozilla build machine?
    All of you at the SeaMonkey project are SUPER and doing A GREAT JOB 😀

    • @Herzel: Would you be willing to publish Trunk and/or Arora WIN Builds regularly for a while? I could offer soruceforge.net upload permissions and some assistance for Marketing and so on. Any other place would be ok, too, but it should be some kind of a website with additional information (may be similar to this) , newsfeed “new Nightly available” and similar. Those direct download links to drive.google only can be an emergency solution.

      • Herzel says:

        Forgot to add in my post that these builds were provided by Ratty.
        Who is AFAIK Philip Chee.
        *00ps* Sorry about the confusion. :blush:
        Looking forward to the release of SeaMonkey 2.35! 🙂

  15. daniel says:

    SeaMonkey/StatusMeetings/2015-06-09:
    “We plan to release SeaMonkey 2.35. Initially at the end of May but put back to June. ”

    which year ?

    • ewong says:

      Cynical, aren’t we? 😀

      Considering that you quoted the 9th June 2015’s Status Meeting, I would’ve figured it’d be obvious that we’re talking about 2015.

      So, to answer your question. June 2015. (Tentative date.)

  16. Mook says:

    Hi there! Just curious why you need that specific version of Mac Mini; I imagine that getting _something_ up would take precedence over sensible test run results. Actually, if there are issues finding build machines, are the tests running?

    Of course, I’m finding this a bit over a month after the initial post, so maybe this is resolved already. 🙂

  17. Monkey Sea says:

    Hmmm no updates for 4 months and hoping it’s not the end for this browser. Firefox sux, there’s no way I’m doing chrome and IE is only used when I have to.

    Thanks for the ride…

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