Firefox Turns Off 64-bit Development for Windows

Mozilla developer, Benjamin Smedberg has requested Firefox developers to disable the 64-bit Windows nightly builds.

The developer has given a list of the various ways in which Windows 64-bit builds have been a constant source of misunderstanding and frustration. He complained that many plugins are not available in 64-bit versions and those that are available don’t work properly on Firefox. It is reported that the builds often collapse and the crash reports between 32-bit and 64-bit builds cannot be easily distinguished by the stability team.

“I also think we should consider disabling the win64 builders completely, but I’m also willing to shelve that proposal for another time if it is controversial. If we don’t disable win64 hourlies, I plan on adding –disable-plugins to their configuration,” said Benjamin Smedberg, in a post of a developer thread on the Google Groups discussion board, titled “Turning off win64 builds“. “We basically ignore a set of nightly “topcrashes” because they are 64-bit only,” he added.

The developer also added that this is frustrating to users and has made them feel second-class. A custom update that will help win64 users to move back onto win32 is expected to be published very soon. Firefox released a new Social API with Facebook Integration a few days back.