Three-digit version numbers for Chrome and Firefox will cause major problems, according to Google and Mozilla, the organization behind Firefox.
When visiting websites, browsers send a so-called User-Agent string, which contains information about the browser and the user’s system. Thus any website can warn about using an outdated browser.
Web developers use a variety of technologies to manipulate these strings, from proprietary code to so-called Arabs libraries† But these libraries will not always be able to recognize a three-digit browser code.
Chrome 100 will be released in March, and Firefox 100 in May. Since almost all major browsers are based on Chrome or Firefox, problems with Opera or Microsoft Edge can also be expected. Only Apple’s Safari was affected.
The problem has been compared to the year 2000 bug that hit computer systems in 2000 (but did not cause major outages).
When going from a single-digit version number to a two-digit version number twelve years ago, there were similar problems.
already exists Fully tested† Sites like Yahoo and T-Mobile (Poland) don’t respond well to 100 versions. In some cases, the user will be told that the browser is not supported, and in other cases the site will not load. Coordination abnormalities were also observed.
Of course, these problems can be solved, but this takes time. If it turns out that version 100 continues to cause widespread problems, Google and Mozilla may decide to switch to version 99. to undo†
