Linux 64bit versions

[olenz]

Hi!

Does anyone have an idea why the Firefox download sites e.g. at
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/beta/ only provides the 32bit
version for Linux and not the 64bit (x86_64) version?
Currently, the only way to get the x86_64 variant is via the FTP site
at http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/ (and its mirrors),
and finding the beta release is pretty hard even then (found it at
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/11.0b1-candidates/build1/).
Is there a good reason why the 64bit variant is carefully hidden, or
whom should I contact on that behalf?

Olaf

[Makoto Kato]

You can download from ftp site, not http.
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/

[Art Kocsis]

Why is it that people don't or won't read?

Olenz clearly asked:

"What is the reason ..."

NOT

"Where can I download ..."

He obviously knows where to download as he even provided links.

This happens way too often here, on other forums and tech support
sites. People do not respond to the question asked but to something
else entirely. Are people too busy, under a quota system or is it a
language problem? Makoto is trying to be helpful but, by not answering
the question asked, misses the target completely.

Art

[Jared Wein]

I *think* the reason is that it just hasn't had enough testing yet and not enough plugins are compatible.

- Jared

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[Kevin Brosnan]

The main reason is that it is a lot of work to change the download
page for a small number of users. The vast majority of the Linux users
get Firefox from their distro. Linux is in an odd spot where it is the
only pure x64 version that is released. Mac is an unified binary with
32/64 in the same dmg. Windows is 32 bit only. There is an oldish bug
[1] to have downloads for x64 shown.

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=527907

Kevin

[Benoit Jacob]

2012/2/15 Jared Wein <jw...@mozilla.com>:

> I *think* the reason is that it just hasn't had enough testing yet and not enough plugins are compatible.

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I wanted to say that that argument
doesn't work: Linux distros have long been pushing x86-64 as the
recommended choice for most users (32bit is often advertised as "for
old computers") and are typically shipping 64bit builds of Firefox.
For example, that's the case of Ubuntu.

So, definitely, on Linux, 64bit firefox receives _more_ testing than
32bit firefox.


2012/2/15 Kevin Brosnan <kbro...@gmail.com>:

> The main reason is that it is a lot of work to change the download
> page for a small number of users.

I don't understand that. We invest significant resources to develop
and maintain the Linux version of Firefox. Why can't we also update
the download page?

> The vast majority of the Linux users
> get Firefox from their distro.

Exactly! It's not just about making Firefox 64bit download link easier
to find for the small number of Linux users who install Firefox
manually, it's about officially supporting the build that is /de
facto/ the most used Linux Firefox build. My understanding is that
currently, Firefox Linux 64bit is not officially supported, despite it
being what people use the most on Linux.

> Linux is in an odd spot where it is the
> only pure x64 version that is released. Mac is an unified binary with
> 32/64 in the same dmg. Windows is 32 bit only. There is an oldish bug
> [1] to have downloads for x64 shown.
>
> [1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=527907

Thanks, replying to that bug.

Benoit

[Benoit Jacob]

2012/2/24 Benoit Jacob <jacob.b...@gmail.com>:

> 2012/2/15 Jared Wein <jw...@mozilla.com>:
>> I *think* the reason is that it just hasn't had enough testing yet and not enough plugins are compatible.
>
> I'm a bit late to this thread, but I wanted to say that that argument
> doesn't work: Linux distros have long been pushing x86-64 as the
> recommended choice for most users (32bit is often advertised as "for
> old computers") and are typically shipping 64bit builds of Firefox.
> For example, that's the case of Ubuntu.
>
> So, definitely, on Linux, 64bit firefox receives _more_ testing than
> 32bit firefox.
>
>
> 2012/2/15 Kevin Brosnan <kbro...@gmail.com>:
>> The main reason is that it is a lot of work to change the download
>> page for a small number of users.
>
> I don't understand that. We invest significant resources to develop
> and maintain the Linux version of Firefox. Why can't we also update
> the download page?
>
>> The vast majority of the Linux users
>> get Firefox from their distro.
>
> Exactly! It's not just about making Firefox 64bit download link easier
> to find for the small number of Linux users who install Firefox
> manually, it's about officially supporting the build that is /de
> facto/ the most used Linux Firefox build. My understanding is that
> currently, Firefox Linux 64bit is not officially supported, despite it
> being what people use the most on Linux.

I was wrong on this point, 64bit Linux is officially supported as a
tier 1 platform:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Supported_build_configurations

So it really doesn't make sense to me that it's not advertized on the
site, or that we're still arguing about it "not receiving enough QA"
or "having performance issues" :-/

Benoit