Charlie Gavin (Blank Pixels) has compiled a simple four-item list as to What Makes Firefox So Great. With all this talk about Google’s impending “revolutionary” web browser and it’s potential threat to Mozilla’s best selling (er… open-source) web browser, I think it’s time to go back and take a look at what made Firefox so great in the first place. A direct descendent of the Mozilla Application Suite (and the only current surviving member) Firefox has been favored by geeks — and most everybody else — since it’s initial release in 2004. Here are Charlie’s reasons: It’s Reputation It’s Competition…
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Wow, I have to say I am impressed at the number of comments I have received on the Google Chrome post. Further it has been a while since this blog has gotten this much traffic. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about what could cause Chrome not to recognize I have Firefox and import my settings. My first thoughts were may be because I am running a Nightly Build version of Firefox 3 (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3pre) Gecko/2008090306 Firefox 3/3.0.3pre ID:2008090306). However it may have to do with the version of Firefox, based on these comments from PatrickD,…
The big news today is the release of Google’s new web browser, Chrome. The big ‘selling point’ for Chrome is it is faster because of the way it handles the tabs. Unlike Firefox, IE, Netscape, Opera, etc. where the browser is one huge process, Chrome allocates a process to each tab. So if there is a problem says JavaScript is hung-up in one of the tabs, only that tab will go down, not the entire browser. However, something doesn’t seem to make sense here. The screen shot below of my task manager was taken with Chrome open with 6 tabs,…
Firefox 3 has taken the honour of taking 21st place in PC World’s: The 100 Best Products of 2008 Award. Unlike Thunderbird, the review for Firefox 3 is a little more current, even if it is for Beta 1 (release November 2007). On an interesting side note, Flock took 6th place and was the top in the browser category. Flock is based off of Firefox 2 with the integration of several social networking and other web services. News Source: Mozilla Links
AT&T is trying to get in the to the web browser market now with their own browser called Pogo. Before you run out and download this keep in mind, it is still in development and in limited private beta. You can sign up to be notified when the public beta will be opened. Further, unless you have a really powerful machine don’t even bother as the performance would stink. I am sure you are thinking “It is a web browser, how powerful of a machine would I need?” Well, the minimum requirements are 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a…
There has been one feature lacking in Firefox for some time now, the ability to ‘run’ or ‘open’ a downloaded file. The main difference is this file is downloaded to a temporary folder (where it will eventually be deleted) and immediately ran. Firefox allows you to download the file (to your default downloads folder or the folder of your choice) then you have the option to open/run the file. The OpenDownload add-on gives you the functionality like you would fine in Internet Explorer. Depending on what type of file you are downloading you will be presented with one of two…
March 31, 1998 was the official beginning for Mozilla (then Netscape Communication Corp) with first developer release of Netscape Communication 5.0. Over the next 10-years the source code ended up being completely re-written. Here’s the press release: MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (March 31, 1998) — Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:NSCP) today announced that the first developer release of its Communicator 5.0 source code is available for download from the mozilla.org Web site. Targeted at the developer community, this unprecedented release of the client source code promotes acceleration of the evolution of Communicator 5.0 development by allowing the company to harness the creative…
Usually, it is the application performing the Illegal Operation. However if you were to install Safari on your windows PC, you would be performing the Illegal Operation. According the Safari License Agreement (below) you are allowed to, “…install one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer…” I know many consumers never bother to read the End User License Agreement (EULA) when they install software, but apparently Apple hasn’t bothered to read their own EULA for Safari. Looks like they are recycling the old EULA from when Safari was Mac only application when they pushed it out to…
A couple of my pet peeves with software are applications that once installed, are very difficult if not impossible to completely remove from your system without nuking you hard drive. The other type of software is the kind that makes a mess on your system when it is installed. Case in point for this post, is QuickTime. Since I use iTunes, I have to have QuickTime on my system. I never use the QuickTime player as I use GOM Player (QuickTime videos via the QuickTime Alternative codec) for all my video player needs. So I launched iTunes which I hadn’t…
In December AOL announced they would discontinue support of Netscape in February. Now with the release of Netscape 9.0.0.6 comes the official end of support as users will be greeted with this screen with their first launch after installing the upgrade: However it turns out AOL is not going to force you to upgrade as the Netscape Blog explains: The “Remind me later”, followed by clicking the “Stay with Netscape” button, can be used in case one wants to keep Netscape 9 after the end of support date. For those who are keeping Netscape, the Navigator 9.0.0.6 release contains the…