[gentoo-user] Firefox

[Daniel D Jones]

Can anyone explain why it takes so long for Firefox-bin to be unmasked?  
That's not intended to be a rant or finger-pointing, but a serious question.  I 
can certainly understand the issues involved with ensuring that a complex 
package compiles on various systems with all sorts of different drivers and 
set-ups.  But the -bin package is a precompiled binary that's merely 
installed.  It seems like it should be pretty simple and straightforward to 
ensure that it works and unmask it.

Firefox just released 5.0 and announced that all development, including bug 
fixes and security updates, had halted on 4.0.  They plan to hold to similar 
short-release cycles in the future.  It's been four months since 4.0 was 
released and it's still masked.  If future releases see similar delays in 
unmasking, Gentoo users will soon be two or three versions behind.  We'll be 
forced to either manually install, unmask the masked package, or run a 
potentially buggy, insecure version.  Any insight into the delay of unmasking 
the binary verion that would help me understand the issue greatly appreciated.

-- 
"It seems to me that it is madder never to abandon one's self than often to be 
infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive and a slave, than always to walk 
in armor." - Margaret Fuller