Despite what some people are saying about Mozilla Update, the Mozilla Foundation has focused the right amount of energy in the right direction.
Before focusing fully on AMO, a concentrated effort had to be made to upgrade their Software Update architecture and user interface (AUS). Critical/security updates to the application core take precedence over extensions in any update system, and the Mozilla Foundation is no exception.
Great strides have been made towards the next version of AUS, and the rewrite of AMO v2.0 has been well underway.
The first version of AMO has been plagued by poor performance, UI difficulties and lack of robustness. What the project lacked in the very beginning was a technical lead that understood how to make a scalable web service. That was not there because Mozilla Update in many ways was an afterthought in the wake of the success of Firefox 1.0. It barely had its head above water, covered in the whitewash of the 1.0 wave.
Now that the smoke has cleared, Mozilla Update (AMO) is seen for what it is – a nice try.
Was the Mozilla Foundation wrong in letting the community release early and often? No. I feel this is just a necessary first step in the right direction, and I hope that in the midst of v2.0 and all the bickering and complaining, everyone involved in v1.0 at least learned from the experience and might understand what to watch out for this time around.
For me, it’s been a wild ride, and I look forward to the completion of v2.0. There is a lot of work left, but I’m going to work hard to do my part.
Stop worrying about who to blame, just fix the problem.