So, Heartbeat would not be effective for this sort of thing, for a few reasons. Since this still seems to be an idea, I'll actually go in-depth into why we don't do this:
The Simple reason is, we don't want users to not update. Not updating is bad for users, bad for the web, and bad for Mozilla.
Bad for Users: Staying on an out of date browser (Firefox or any other browser) does three things for users. One, it leaves them vulnerable to security holes (https://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox.html). Two, it leaves them on old technology. If a user isn't running a modern browser, and then goes to a website that is trying to use a web standard that wasn't implemented in that old version, the user won't be able to use that website (Remember IE6?). It also forces users to use slower browsers, especially as web tech evolves, a browser that was fast two years ago can't handle modern websites as quickly, so the browser actually slows down with age without updates.
Bad for the Web: Security holes on a personal computer leave that computer open to infection by botnets, or other malicious software that can be used to attack the web. Users using old version of software is the root cause of 90% of security breaches and DDOS attacks today. It also places undue burden on web devs. If a developer has to support ancient browsers as well as modern ones, they have to maintain a much more complicated website and test suite than if they knew all users were on modern web browsers
Bad for Mozilla: While we are very proud of our work over the last decade plus, we don't try to say that Firefox 3, which came out 10 years ago, is a pinnacle of modern browsers. Software evolves, and users who have bad experiences with Firefox just because it isn't up to date reflects poorly on Mozilla.
That being said, we understand that massive updates are hard for users, which is why we try to keep them to a minimum. Firefox 29 was the last major redesign, and before that, Firefox 4. Actually, the switch to web extensions, while painful in the short term, will actually make things better for users in the long term, as they can update Firefox without worrying about their extensions breaking (The API's in WE are more stable than old style extensions). It is great to educate users, which is why we invest development resources on the onboarding tour (check it out for your self, install 56 in a fresh profile, then update it. The tour is pretty slick) but having a heartbeat message saying "Are you ready for Quantum" would do nothing but decrease the percentage of users who actually update. I'd rather a user stop using Firefox and go to Chrome than stay with an old version of Firefox and not update. It isn't good for anyone.
Hopefully this clears it up.
So, Heartbeat would not be effective for this sort of thing, for a few reasons. Since this still seems to be an idea, I'll actually go in-depth into why we don't do this:
The Simple reason is, we don't want users to not update. Not updating is bad for users, bad for the web, and bad for Mozilla.
'''Bad for Users''': Staying on an out of date browser (Firefox or any other browser) does three things for users. One, it leaves them vulnerable to security holes (https://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox.html). Two, it leaves them on old technology. If a user isn't running a modern browser, and then goes to a website that is trying to use a web standard that wasn't implemented in that old version, the user won't be able to use that website (Remember IE6?). It also forces users to use slower browsers, especially as web tech evolves, a browser that was fast two years ago can't handle modern websites as quickly, so the browser actually slows down with age without updates.
'''Bad for the Web''': Security holes on a personal computer leave that computer open to infection by botnets, or other malicious software that can be used to attack the web. Users using old version of software is the root cause of 90% of security breaches and DDOS attacks today. It also places undue burden on web devs. If a developer has to support ancient browsers as well as modern ones, they have to maintain a much more complicated website and test suite than if they knew all users were on modern web browsers
'''Bad for Mozilla''': While we are very proud of our work over the last decade plus, we don't try to say that Firefox 3, which came out 10 years ago, is a pinnacle of modern browsers. Software evolves, and users who have bad experiences with Firefox just because it isn't up to date reflects poorly on Mozilla.
That being said, we understand that massive updates are hard for users, which is why we try to keep them to a minimum. Firefox 29 was the last major redesign, and before that, Firefox 4. Actually, the switch to web extensions, while painful in the short term, will actually make things better for users in the long term, as they can update Firefox without worrying about their extensions breaking (The API's in WE are more stable than old style extensions). It is great to educate users, which is why we invest development resources on the onboarding tour (check it out for your self, install 56 in a fresh profile, then update it. The tour is pretty slick) but having a heartbeat message saying "Are you ready for Quantum" would do nothing but decrease the percentage of users who actually update. I'd rather a user stop using Firefox and go to Chrome than stay with an old version of Firefox and not update. It isn't good for anyone.
Hopefully this clears it up.
