Mozilla hits back at Firefox 3 quality slur

Mozilla has hit back at claims that multiple bugs in its forthcoming Firefox 3 browser will be ignored in order to meet release schedules.

IDG analyst Gregg Keizer reported that fixes for as many as eight in ten identified bugs would be ready in time for the scheduled release of Firefox 3 (Gran Paradiso) next year. Keizer cited notes from a Mozilla development meeting to support his claims, carried in a story in the New York Times last Thursday.

"We have 700 bugs currently marked as blockers," the notes said. "That's too many. We're asking component owners to set priorities on blockers, as a first pass of what bugs should be Beta 2 blockers. You want it to be about 10 per cent of blockers, or what you can get done in four weeks."

Mozilla defies a "blocker" as a flaw serious enough to justify delaying a release, or at least closer examination.

"We'll be doing pretty much the same thing for Beta 3, which means that something like 80 per cent of the [approximately] 700 bugs currently marked as blockers will not be fixed for Firefox 3. The hope is that by 'fixing the most important blockers' several times, we'll get to a point where we can cut the rest without feeling bad about the quality of the release. And if we do feel bad, we can add an extra beta or two," the notes added.

Mozilla developer Asa Dotzler hit back at the suggestion that Mozilla was compromising on quality in developing the next version of the open source browser.

"That claim is simply horseshit," he wrote in a blog post. "We've already fixed over 11,000 bugs and features in Firefox 3 and now we're discussing how to handle the remaining 700 issues we wanted to get fixed for Firefox 3."

Mozilla developer Mike Shaver said Keizer cited genuine notes but misunderstood the meaning of the term 'blocker'. "It appears to be an honest mistake, since a set of meeting notes did include that prediction, along with other elements that mention other approaches to the Firefox end-game," he writes. "But it’s not our intent to cut Firefox blockers from the fix list against a hard numerical target or fixed deadline."

"The 'blocking' flag doesn’t always strictly mean 'we would not ship Firefox 3 if this specific bug isn’t fixed'. It can also mean 'we should look at this in more detail before we ship'", he added.

Security bugs within the 700 flaw total will be treated as "important". Bugs that impair surfers' browsing ability will also be prioritised. Up to three beta releases of Firefox 3 are planned. The last release was an eight alpha version of the code, released in September. The final version of Firefox 3 is due out some time next year.

The superstructure of Firefox 3 alpha is built around Gecko 1.9, an updated layout engine. The browser is also due to include features held back from Firefox 2, such as the revamped Places system for storing bookmarks and a rejigged history function. ®

Microsoft lets slip Visual Studio 2008

Microsoft on Monday gave developers early access to the next version of its Windows development tools and framework, for the first time tying in both Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Sever 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

The company has released to manufacturing code for Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5, while also making code available to subscribers on its Developer Network (MSDN).

Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 are the first versions of Microsoft's tools and framework to wrap up a string of infrastructural elements that have been percolating through Redmond and slowly rolling out separately through a series of updates and new products.

The changes simplify data access and programming across Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and SQL Sever 2008 - the latter two due next February. Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 are also timed for widespread availability next February.

Arguably the biggest change is the addition of Microsoft's Language Integrated Query (LINQ) architecture, created by Microsoft's Erik Meiker, that simplifies programming with SQL object, XML and relational data models in C# and Visual Basic.NET. Syntax added to C# and Visual Basic translate and compile queries to a set of 25 standard query operators, reducing the need to pick a single data model or know all three.

ASP.NET AJAX will come as standard for web development while server-side developers get Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) templates, with WCF supporting HTTP programming without need for SOAP but adding support for JSON. Expanded web services support in WCF now includes WS-AutomaticTransaction 1.1 and WS-Reliable Messaging 1.1 with other protocols.

For the Windows Vista and Office 2007 family, there are updates to the base class library, Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Cardspace.

Previously separate tools for building Office applications that take advantage of the Office 2007 interface - regions, ribbon and panes - and extraction of data from Windows Servers are expected to feature in the professional edition of Visual Studio 2008.

Also, Visual Studio 2008 developers can build applications for versions 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 of the .NET Framework.®

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Isilon fattens clustered NAS with 1TB disks

Scientifically speaking, storage vendor Isilon systems is hugifying its clustered NAS lineup. The storage firm is expanding its modular storage pool family by fitting 1TB drives into a new pair of nodes, boasting 250TB max capacity in a single rack.

The new clustered NAS offerings are the IQ 12000, a performance-oriented system; and the EX 12000, a capacity extension.

Each box contains 12 Hitachi 1TB SATA II disk drives, providing (yes, we'll do the complex math for you) 12TB capacity in each 2U node. They usurp Isolon's IQ 9000 as capacity king, which holds 750GB drives from Seagate.

The IQ 12000 uses Isilon's OneFS operating system that allows up to 1.6PB of data in about 60 nodes to be managed as a single volume and single file system. The EX 12000 is a storage extension node for those requiring the addition of capacity rather than all out performance.

The minimum configuration is five node cluster.

The hardware uses standard NAS file sharing protocols over Gigabit Ethernet for front-end connections, and InfiniBand for intracluster communication. Features include nearline archiving, disk-to-disk backup and restore and asynchronous replication for remote disaster recovery.

Isilon sees their clustered NAS storage fitting into the Web 2.0 crowd, where huge amounts of storage may need to be scaled at the drop of a hat.

The storage firm faces competition in the clustered NAS market from startups such as Panasas and ActiveStor, as well as storage giants, NetApp and EMC.

The Isilon IQ 12000 has a list price of $47,250 per node, while the EX 12000 lists at $29,250. But Isilon says they are willing to lower prices to the golden-tongued during negotiations — with a price as low as $2,000 per TB.

Isilon's storage ramp-up comes during turbulence, as the storage vendor suffers growing pains in its transition to a public company. They swapped heads last month — with founder Sujal Patel moving from chief technology officer into the CEO spot to satisfy a boardroom unhappy with sales since its IPO last December. ®

Google builds very own Ethernet switches

Google seems to be building its very own Ethernet switches. But you already knew that. We told you in June.

On Friday, a blog post from telecom/datacom research outfit Nyquist Capital breathlessly announced that Google is using Google-designed switches to link servers inside its top-secret data centers.

"It is our opinion that Google has designed and deployed home-grown 10GbE switches as part of a secret internal initiative that was launched when it realized commercial options couldn’t meet the cost and power consumption targets required for their data centers," wrote Nyquist analyst Andrew Schmidt.

But this is old news to The Reg. We first reported on the custom networking gear back in June, when discussing Google's "orgiastic" acquisition of PeakStream, a startup that built tools for speeding single-threaded apps through multi-core CPUs. Oh, and we were the first to report the PeakStream buy too.

As previously pointed out, the world's largest search engine has penchant for building its own hardware. "Google now shakes up the hardware industry as a whole on an unprecedented scale," we wrote. "For example, many of you have likely heard that Google consumes the most processors and hard disk drives after the top server vendors. Google uses the components to craft its own servers rather than buying gear on the street like other red-blooded service providers.

"In addition, it has crafted so-called White Trash Data Centers of its own where shipping containers are filled with servers and transported around the world, while the likes of Sun Microsystems and Rackable try to turn this model into an actual business. Lastly, we understand that Google plans to make its own switches and other networking gear."

Since then, the company has nabbed a patent for those White Trash Data Centers - which has surely annoyed Sun and Rackable. And it would seem that Google is now quite serious about building its own switches.

"Through conversations with multiple carrier, equipment, and component industry sources we have confirmed that Google has designed, built, and deployed home-brewed 10GbE switches for providing server interconnect within their data centers," Schmidt continued. "Google realized that because its computing needs were very specific, it could design and build computers that were cheaper and lower power than off the shelf alternatives."

According to Schmidt, Google's switch design is based on a 20-port 10GbE switch from Broadcom and uses SFP+ interconnects. But it looks like the company eschewed the standard SFP+ setup in favor of something cheaper, and Schmidt believes this do-it-yourself approach could rattle the commercial switch market.

"This decision by Google, while small in terms of units purchased, is enormous in terms of the disruptive impact it should have on 10GbE switching equipment providers and their component supply chains," he said. "This non-standard and very low cost optical format should prove just as attractive to other data center customers."

We asked Google if it was indeed building its own switches. But it didn't respond. We also asked Schmidt for an interview. But he didn't respond either. Clearly, he's jealous that we broke his news first.

As we understand it, however, it's not all custom work at Google on the networking front. Our sources indicate that Google has purchased a mega 10GigE system capable of supporting thousands of ports from an as of yet undisclosed Silicon Valley start-up. ®

Source: The register