Early reaction to "shredder" branding
JoeS
I reacted negatively to the naming when it was originally proposed, and I guess others agree.
Some quotes from mozillazine forums:
> Is *Shredder* a new development build name for Thunderbird ?
> Just found the new name in today's build:
> Yes I am seeing shredder as well, after the last update (nearly 8 meg)
> I was asked if I wanted to make shredder my default email, and now my old thunderbird is gone,
> icon is different. I'm suggesting this is a boo boo perhaps
> The new trayicon of Shredder is confusing, I always think there's a new mail when glancing at it
> I have decided to go back to nightly branch until the shredder goes away I think
Names (branding) are important. It reflects both an image for the product, and also expectations.
--
JoeS
Justin Wood (Callek)
There should be no stability/useability expectations for nightlies,
hence why the alternative branding is needed. Of course, dogfoodable
nightlies are _very_ useful (which is why TB is getting more and more
automated tests to try and trap common code issues).
--
~Justin Wood (Callek)
Mark Banner
> I'm generally not one to say "I told you so" but in this case it applies.
>
> I reacted negatively to the naming when it was originally proposed, and
> I guess others agree.
So, has anyone pointed these users at why we've made this change?
(Unfortunately I haven't got time to go into those forums today). Like
Justin said, its to make it clear that we're not providing a QAed
product each night, and that it may destroy all your email one night.
> Some quotes from mozillazine forums:
>
>> Is *Shredder* a new development build name for Thunderbird ?
Yes, in the same way that Minefield is the development build name for
Firefox.
>> Just found the new name in today's build:
>
>> Yes I am seeing shredder as well, after the last update (nearly 8 meg)
>> I was asked if I wanted to make shredder my default email, and now my
>> old thunderbird is gone,
>> icon is different. I'm suggesting this is a boo boo perhaps
The default mail client part is strange - I'm a bit surprised at that
(unless they installed it from scratch, which I doubt as they mentioned
"update"). It is probably worth filing a bug on that.
>> The new trayicon of Shredder is confusing, I always think there's a
>> new mail when glancing at it
The "new" trayicon isn't actually new, its just that we've not shipped
nightlies with unoffical branding for a while. As David Ascher posted,
we want a new icon for the shredder builds:
http://ascher.ca/blog/2008/05/13/shredder-icon-and-artwork-needed/
This hasn't happened quite yet (though I think I may have seen some
movement on the bug), but we decided to go for the renaming (at least)
in time for alpha 2 - again, to make it clear that this is intended as a
test/development version.
>> I have decided to go back to nightly branch until the shredder goes
>> away I think
Shredder will not go away for nightly builds, though like I said above,
the artwork will change. I expect we will be shipping the official
Thunderbird branding for betas and final.
> Names (branding) are important. It reflects both an image for the
> product, and also expectations.
Yes, and the image we want to portray here is that this is not a formal
release. Its a testing/development release. Users are welcome to
download and test it, but we're not going to put our stamp
("Thunderbird") on it and pretend its a good version - it may just shred
your email.
Standard8
Ron K.
> JoeS wrote:
>
>>
>>> Yes I am seeing shredder as well, after the last update (nearly 8 meg)
>>> I was asked if I wanted to make shredder my default email, and now my
>>> old thunderbird is gone,
>>> icon is different. I'm suggesting this is a boo boo perhaps
>
> The default mail client part is strange - I'm a bit surprised at that
> (unless they installed it from scratch, which I doubt as they
> mentioned "update"). It is probably worth filing a bug on that.
>
>
>
I can confirm the oddity of a Default dialog box popping up and it was
pre-checked for mail while RSS and News were also checked and grayed
out. Since my nightly profile (aka Nighthawk) has POP3 auto-polling
turned off, I had to clear the dialog. Seems in one way Shredder is
forgetting it's antecedents and trying to act like a third competitor
for default status.
I did the normal update, just like i did Thursday night, so it was not a
scratch install. Also, FWIW we may have gotten a bug in the restart
procedure. Whether it was theme swapping or extension changes, the
Restart button only closed Shredder. I was forced to resort to manually
restarting the Shredder install.
--
Ron K.
Who is General Failure, and why is he searching my HDD?
Kernel Restore reported Major Error used BSOD to msg the enemy!
Eddy Nigg
>
> Names (branding) are important. It reflects both an image for the
> product, and also expectations.
>
That's on purpose and is exactly what should happen. Shredder is not an
established product for general consumption.
--
Regards
Signer: Eddy Nigg, StartCom Ltd.
Jabber: star...@startcom.org
Blog: https://blog.startcom.org
Eddy Nigg
>
> The default mail client part is strange - I'm a bit surprised at that
> (unless they installed it from scratch, which I doubt as they mentioned
> "update"). It is probably worth filing a bug on that.
>
I can't confirm that. It didn't happened here.