Literally the same reason why Ford sells 150s and 250s and Volvo sells 70s and 90s: They are different products and don’t base the version numbers on their competitor.
Actually, Firefox version numbers were totally independent for most of their history, but Mozilla recently adjusted them to roughly align with Chromium versions to reduce confusion for developers.
2004 - Firefox 1.0, no Chrome yet
2010 - Firefox 4.0, Chrome around version 8
2011 - Firefox switches to rapid releases
2020 - Firefox and Chrome both around version 85, just by coincidence
2024 - Firefox jumps from 124 to 126 to align with Chrome 126
2025 - Firefox 126+, Chrome 126+, version numbers now track similarly
Literally the same reason why Ford sells 150s and 250s and Volvo sells 70s and 90s: They are different products and don’t base the version numbers on their competitor.
Actually, Firefox version numbers were totally independent for most of their history, but Mozilla recently adjusted them to roughly align with Chromium versions to reduce confusion for developers.
2004 - Firefox 1.0, no Chrome yet 2010 - Firefox 4.0, Chrome around version 8 2011 - Firefox switches to rapid releases 2020 - Firefox and Chrome both around version 85, just by coincidence 2024 - Firefox jumps from 124 to 126 to align with Chrome 126 2025 - Firefox 126+, Chrome 126+, version numbers now track similarly
Probably more like AMD naming processors XP, moving to 3 digits to match Intel, and stuffing AI into the model name.
Hell, even the Linux kernel is not immune
https://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1107.2/01843.html
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