Microsoft breaks with tradition, no cake for Firefox 8

By Tom Warren, on 10th Nov 11 2:38 pm with 34 Comments

Microsoft has broken away from its traditional celebratory cake for Firefox releases.

The software giant has a habit of sending cakes to Mozilla after the foundation ships an update to its Firefox browser. Mozilla’s recent Firefox 8 release has stemmed the flow of cupcakes from Redmond. Microsoft didn’t ship a cupcake to Mozilla for its Firefox 8 release. “We didn’t do it since we thought it was getting to be overkill,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “Every six weeks is a lot of cupcakes”, they added.

Microsoft originally shipped a big congratulatory cake to Mozilla in March for shipping Firefox 4. Microsoft then shipped a smaller cupcake to Mozilla in June after the company shipped Firefox 5. Microsoft’s tradition of cupcakes also saw the company ship Mozilla a small cupcake in August when Firefox 6 launched. Microsoft’s final cupcake was sent to Mozilla in late September after the company shipped Firefox 7. The cupcakes were a clear reference to Mozilla’s smaller and rapid work on the Firefox browser software.

Microsoft is currently readying its Internet Explorer 10 browser. The company unveiled a platform preview 3 version of IE10 at its BUILD conference recently. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 10 platform preview 3 build is only available inside Windows 8, for now. The company previously delivered platform preview 2 in June and has revealed that the final version of Internet Explorer 10 will only be available for Windows 7 and 8. Microsoft confirmed in April that it has no plans to offer IE10 to Vista or Windows XP users. Future platform previews of Internet Explorer 10 will be made available every 8-12 weeks.

A previous IE9 cupcake for Mozilla Firefox

  • http://twitter.com/ParkerReno Parker Ciambrone

    In other news: Mozilla decides it is too much work to frequently release firefox, refuses to comment on cupcake related matters.

  • Anonymous

    “Every six weeks is a lot of cupcakes”  -  yeah, maybe that’s why they are doing it so often now.  They love those cupcakes!

  • http://twitter.com/s_a_r_k_i_s sarkis chamelian

    I have a feeling Firefox will send out a cake on the Big 10 to microsoft ! haha !

    • Candid Calum

      I doubt it. It seems Mozilla haven’t ever been as generous as Microsoft in the cake-giving department :)

  • http://dansgalaxy.co.uk Dansgalaxy

    icrosoft eh?

    • http://www.winrumors.com Tom W

      Yes, that little known company from Seattle. Reportedly a joint venture with Microsoft ;)

  • http://twitter.com/Ukumio Nick Webster

    I always respected Microsoft for the cupcake thing, but I can see why they stopped, it’s been like 2 months since the last release and that is just too often (for me) to actually consider these major releases.

  • http://www.applexec.com Michael Stanclift

    At some point Firefox just needs to dump the advertised version numbers and adopt a more Chrome like versioning scheme.

    • Anonymous

      chrome versioning scheme is ridiculous.. by the pace they are going we will have chrome 100 by the end of next year. Any little update makes it a version, which is stupid.

    • rtcunliffe

      Version 10 of Firefox will be like Chrome updating. i.e., no user interaction; updates in the background.

    • Entegy

      I assume they mean when v10 hits the release channel. I’m on version 11 via the Nightly channel and nope, still need user interaction.

    • Penta2100

      I thought they included that in the 8th release?

    • Level380

      It’s not any little update….. Chrome has a schedule and releases are shipped every x weeks.

      It’s why they don’t bother with versions. Firefox is just copying the release cycle.

    • Anonymous

      Since when bug fixes and minor features constitute a Major version release? That’s what happens when your product managers run your source control and configuration management groups.

      I guess the new norm at Google and Firefox is to
      - Increase the build number whenever a developer yawns.
      - Increase minor release number whenever the enter key is pressed
      - Increase the major version number… Well once every 6 weeks!

  • http://techin5.com Jubbin Grewal @Techin5.com

    I think they DID sent out a cupcake. It was so small that no one can see it!

    • http://www.winrumors.com Tom W

      Some crumbs ;)

    • http://techin5.com Jubbin Grewal @Techin5.com

      That’s what I would’ve sent.

    • Owais_503

      Microsoft didnt send a cupcake becuz they new that their ie10 browser was better.

  • Anonymous

    Anyone else notice how once Mozilla got closer to IE’s version number, they suddenly found it too difficult to make these “frequent major releases?”

  • http://twitter.com/duaneadam Duane Adam

    The cake is a lie.

    • http://twitter.com/starksimon Stark

      That’s exactly what I wanted to say :D

  • Jayb Interactive

    Maybe Bing will be the default search engine of Mozilla Firefox as Mozilla-Google deal will expire this month.

  • Lord Jem

    Its a bunch of non sense… someone just ate the cup cake, thats all

    *nom nom nom*…. “Noo that was for Mozilla!”    -.-  

  • Owais_503

    Microsoft didnt send a cupcake becuz they new that their ie10 browser was better.

  • Anonymous

    They should send a cupcake to Google’s Chrome team instead.

  • Guest

    Good. It as getting kind of silly anyway. And frankly the IE team should be focused on other things, like trying to reverse their decade long fall in share or doing more than barely keeping ahead of Chrome even on W7.

    • Emi Cyberschreiber

      wow…. yeah! you are right!!!!!! because the same programmers that work on IE team, are the same that get stuff to bake the cake, taking days off for that… and of course they have to deliver it themselves… /s

      stupid people with stupid comments…

    • Guest

      Are you reading impaired? They should focus on their many issues and not what version release FF is up to. It’s not about who sends the cake. It’s about being hard core about winning.

  • Anonymous

    They can’t bake fast enough to keep up with releases.

  • Brandon

    Well. Now i know that firefox 8 is out ima go upgrade from the beta

  • Gunny

    i asked Microsoft for a cake… i got no reply :(

  • Me

    I’m still using Firefox 4, and I won’t upgrade until Google toolbar is supported in later versions of Firefox.

    • LSD

      good luck with that, google stopped supporting it

  • Patrick Wijntjes

    If Microsoft will stick with its Metro interface for Desktop PC’s (as opposed to tablets and other touchscreen computers where it makes some sense), their revenue will go down so much that they couldn’t even send Mozilla any cupcakes at all anymore.