Questions about Songbird vs. Firefox 3.5 (updates, security, stability, add-ons)

G'day, not hired by POTI here, but...

1) Songbird and Firefox are both based on the same engine (Gecko). However, that being said, whilst Songbird does try to remain up to date with the latest version of gecko, it isn't simply a case of dropping in a new version and it works.

For that reason, Songbird is still using the Firefox 3.0.x engine, however, there is a bug filed to upgrade to the Firefox 3.5 engine. I have requested when its planned inclusion is in the bug, although, I'm unsure if the developers even know yet. Adding new versions of gecko reduces the time available to add new features, so it is a bit of a tradeoff. Once the core feature set of Songbird has been completed (podcasts, CDripping, transcoding, video, devices), I'd imagine that keeping gecko up to date with the latest series of firefox will become a bigger priority, as there will be significantly more time available to developers.

2) Keeping gecko up to date fixes security vulnerabilities. Songbird generally releases every 2 months, and they use the latest version of gecko for each series. So whilst patches aren't fixed as quickly as Firefox, they fixed within 2 months tops. That being said, that does highlight an important point, that I think I might post a GS idea about.

That being said, its a cost/time tradeoff. The songbird core foundation is still under active development, but once complete, there will be more time available for all tasks. For that reason, its probably a good idea to only browse known safe sites at this time if security is a concern.

The toughest features will probably be complete by the end of the year (video support/podcasting are probably the last critical items that need to be added before minor items are worked on). After this, I'd imagine many items which get added would probably be primarily modules, or tweaks (other then cue support maybe)

3) Unfortunately, whilst they are both based on the same browser, it isn't that simple. The GUI of Songbird is different to Firefox's, so some things often need changing for compatibility. You could possibly override compatibility and get many of them working, but bad stuff can definitely happen (including Songbird not starting).

Either way, whilst I am not hired by POTI, and this is just my opinion. I think that once the core items get cleared up, that's when Songbird will REALLY start taking off (especially in terms of extensions).