Firefox policy templates: Changes to the release process

[mkaply]

Firefox is moving to a two-week release cadence. In the past, we published a new policy template release alongside each Firefox release, even when the templates themselves hadn’t changed. This made it easy for the template version to align with the Firefox version.

Going forward, policy template releases will follow a slightly different approach. We’ll publish a new release when the templates themselves change, rather than on the Firefox release schedule.

What this means for you: We recommend always using the latest available policy template release. Templates are cumulative, so each release includes all available policies. Individual policies specify their Firefox version requirements in the Supported on field in Group Policy Editor and in the Firefox Admin Docs.

Because compatibility is determined at the individual policy level, there’s no need to match the policy template release version to your Firefox version. The per-policy Firefox requirement is the best source for determining compatibility.

One important detail when updating: be sure to update firefox.admx and the corresponding firefox.adml language files together. These files are designed to be used as a matched set, and mixing versions can prevent the templates from loading correctly in a Central Store.

We’re also making it easier to find enterprise-related release information. Today, updates may appear in several places, including Firefox release notes, policy template release notes, and the Firefox Admin Docs changelog.

Going forward, we’ll bring this information together on a dedicated Firefox Enterprise Release Notes page in the Firefox Admin Docs. This will be the primary place to find policy changes and other updates relevant to enterprise deployments. Other release notes will point to this page rather than duplicating the same information.

There will be a link to this new page with the next release of the policy templates.