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1. Comment - Can Mozilla escape a premature endgame for Firefox?

   (Mar 24, 2009 - 6:09 PM)

   I have sad news for the FF fans that think the addons are what is important and that blocking ads is important to the survival of FF. While I still like my FF I have done some more digging which is always fun and Chrome supports XPInstall and grease monkey.
   
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPI
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Gears
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greasemonkey
   
   Yes, I like using the wiki as a shortcut to typing an explanation that is more complex than a line or two. If it supports JAR's also then FF has to compete at them same level as Chrome. This is serious for FF and it could be as simple as a pre-install war. It has to be a popularity contest based on speed, support, and addons that people like. FF makes it easy to mod the code and Mozilla has more than FF on their side so it could be something that would be a problem for them to keep up on. The way the code is built though it would be a fairly easy fix if someone were to write it.
   
   If Google were to push a gears development tool with an extreme ease of use, then eclipse and 7-Zip would look like tinker toys. Heck, just saying that gives me the creeps but I like to find what people seem to think is not possible. I use all kinds of toys to edit code and if G-GIDE were to pop up and it were something that could be used in a way that makes VB look hard then FF is going to be on a spit. I edited it for spelling errors.

2. Comment - Can Mozilla escape a premature endgame for Firefox?

   (Mar 22, 2009 - 5:15 PM)

   Wow, hot button topic here. I have read most of the posts here and basically found that most people here must be under the age of 40 or so. SF3 seems pretty good but I will have to say that of all the browsers to date FF has lasted the longest in some form or another.
   
   http://en.wikipedia.org/...rcomputing_Applications
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_web_browser
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Navigator
   
   Just in case no one believes me. FF lives and breaths based on all that and possibly on some of this too.
   
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaya_(web_browser)
   
   So, far have not seen anyone mention it and figured it would be fun to see what people know. As for how the combat strategies came about. It is pretty simple yes beat your opponent but and make sure they can not rise again to beat you. FF is based on something that AOL bought because MS was killing them on their own. Navigator, Communicator, & Composer were born of Mosaic (Wonder if Mozilla got their name as a derivative) which was created to render SGML & later HTML a subset. All this creation of course started when the NCSA openned its doors. So, we can sit here and talk about motives for all kinds of things but FF started free, became proprietary and died, and then became reborn into freedom where it lives today.
   
   In case you are I have the source for all this crap being a pack rat and all. I have been using BSD and Slackware for years while still using MS products. I have seen things come and go and most things that stay around, stay because people get to care about them and play with them. This happened with things like Wolfenstien and Star Trek games of all kinds (Like Armada and A2). The more you can tweak something the longer it lasts.
   
   CP/M died the same way Netscape died with the simple fact that things were not pre-installed. DOS was pre-install and before Warp. When IBM found out how popular it was they wanted the riches for themselves and tried to out do DOS with PC-DOS. The major problem was that it was competing against itself similar to the XP vs Vista problem. The fact is people like computers to be easy to use tools and the cheaper and easier they are to use the better. Having things ready to use means no work so MS learned from their earlier triumph and created IE. It had an up hill battle against the popular Navigator which died due to the pre-install monopoly. If you have one why get something else that means you have to look for it.
   
   Now, when it comes to the pre-install wars we have the eeePC that comes with a console like Xandros and FF as the default browser. While to some this use of FF could be a shock Konqueror is the file browser similar setup to Knoppix and other KDE products. FF could die and while it is possible they have it seems learned from MS-pre strategy. The FF has also been bundled in every version of Linux that uses Gnome or KDE. I have played with it on Slackware too but I do not browser with that machine so not really needed (it being WRT54).
   
   Chrome is super small and fast but it has to come to the dark side and preinstall. The preinstall is the biggest way to get people locked in and started. If people then dislike you enough to make the effort to switch then you really need to improve. IE is only going to change but if more people continue to migrate to Linux and possibly FreeDos (yeah right) then IE and MS will suffer. Just remember the primary reasons things die in computer world are mostly due to lack of grassroots, lack of user love, and lack of pre-install.

3. Comment - Can Mozilla escape a premature endgame for Firefox?

   (Mar 20, 2009 - 9:04 PM)

   FF is awesome yes that is true, IE was never good but it was a forced universal. The fact is FF is more adaptable to changes in interface than most browsers. I have used Navigator, Mosiac, Lynx, and well you name it. FF wins out because if there is a feature missing I can make it for FF and then if someone else might like it then good to work with. It is always a good thing to be able to build and rebuild things in accordance with need. Then there is the issue of how open and simplistic it is so if you want to tool around with XUL runner or the ECMA engine (js) then you can. If you want FF to work well with encrypted applets and store them then you can rebuild FF.
   
   Chrome is a BSD instead of a GPL. This whole thing creates a bigger problem in one sense but it means that I do not have to tell them how I change or that I change chrome. The only thing that really is a problem is that it is really hard to find the source and it is huge. V8 is huge and then there is the porting issue. You have to know how to compile it for your system if you do not run the standard windows. Then there is the lack of a tweak engine of any kind. No XUL means no ability to add tools or encrypt your cache. It also means no gmail addons even though Chrome runs ECMA quite well. If V8 or something like it were to suddenly be added to FF Chrome would seriously lose its edge. That is the fun when it comes to non proprietary source code. I will say it is low to do though.
   
   http://dev.chromium.org/developers
   
   Just for fun.