A tale of two browsers
Olga Baysal, Ian J. Davis, Michael W. Godfrey · 2011
We explore the space of open source systems and their user communities by examining the development artifact histories of two popular web browsers — Firefox and Chrome — as well as usage data. By examining the data and addressing a number of research questions, two very different profiles emerge: Firefox, as the older and established system, with long product version cycles, longer bug fix cycles, and a user base that is slow to adopt newer versions; and Chrome, as the new and fast evolving system, with short version cycles, shorter bug fix cycles, and a user base that very quickly adopts new versions as they become available. 1.