Interview with Christopher Blizzard

Ur@eus writes "We have just put up an interview with Christopher Blizzard of Red Hat Labs and Mozilla. The interview gives insights into many things regarding Mozilla, Linux and Blizzard's participation. The interview can be found at Linuxpower." Yes, yes... He's a Slashdot Author, too, but it's a pretty good interview. Check it out.

Comments

Dear Mr. Blizzard....

[Denor]

What emmett didn't tell you was that Slashdot was going to do its own interview with Mr. Blizzard, but they realized that it would look a lot like this:

1. Mr. Blizzard, are you considering porting Diablo II to linux?
2. While we appreciate all the testing that goes into your games, do you think that you may lose customers with the recent delays of Diablo II?
3. Is there a similar 'collector's edition' planned for Warcraft III?
4. The Mozilla project has, for its mascot, a large reptillian creature. Was this the inspiration for the Zerg?
   And finally:
5. Do people ever think that you work for Blizzard, just because of your last name? Also, could you get me in on the Diablo II beta?
   
   

Only Developers as users?

[MrEfficient]

Do you think/hope many people will use the Mozilla browser instead of the Netscape branded browser?

At Mozilla.org, we're really targeting developers more than end users. We're hoping that we can get a lot of developers using Mozilla, for sure. As for end users, I think that most of them would benefit most from sticking to a released branded version of Netscape or some other released browser version from another vendor.

I was supprised to see his answer to this question. I thought Mozilla was meant to be an open source browser for everyone. I realize anyone who wants to can use it, but I didn't think it was targeted at developers. Personally, I plan on using it as my browser just as a matter of principle. I mean, I just like the idea of using Mozilla. Although, depending on how good it is, Netscape 6.0 may change my mind, I'll have to wait and see.

Re:Only Developers as users?

[luge]

I think the distinction that is important to remember is that if you are using Mozilla, you'll be getting developer-type support- either very technical or very "RTFM" style. If you choose to go with Netscape, you'll get more professional and more user-friendly support. Everything will be one nice, happy package, with a label that the average user can "trust." Mozilla will remain more cutting edge (I hope they continue doing nightlies) and (hopefully) continue to be the source and testbed for new development and new ideas, which is something that the "standard" Netscape will never become. Think of it as the stable and unstable versions, if you will.
~luge(posted from mozilla build 2000030709)

Re:Only Developers as users?

[jonMC]

I think one of the things /. readers (and particularly posters) forget is that the tangible (as opposed to ideological) benefits of OSS are available primarily, perhaps solely, to developers, or whatever label you'd like to slap on the technically adept.

This is not a criticism, by any means. As a /.er with a fairly mixed background (non-tech education, tech job), I notice as much as anyone the perhaps unconscious over-assumption of many of my fellow slashdotters that the real benefits of Free/Open Source Code are equally accessible by all.

Mozilla is a case in point in that it is painfully obvious that the project could use more community assistance (I'll be the first to raise my hand as a hypocrite here). Despite its technical elegance and exemplary standards adherence, this is honestly a browser still tragically not ready for prime time.

For this reason it is still a developer's app, no where near idiot-proof enough for general consumption. For the good of this community, it bears upon all of us not to forget that the vast majority of computer users:

-- do not share our fascination with these machines, and

-- lack even a fraction of the computer-manipulation skills that most /.ers take for granted.

So, be humble, patient, and work to make all things Cliff Claven-friendly. =)

jMC

Re:another one?

[mce]

I must say that I agree with this. Too many interviews, and rarely with someone makes me go look at either the potential questions or the answers. The one with Stroustrup was an exception, as far as I'm concerned, but that's about it so far for (roughly) the whole of 2000.

Another problem is that if I do look at the list of potential questions, I find that far more questions already got moderated up to 5 than any interviewee will ever have time to answer. So we get tens of questions at level 5, only about 7 or so make it through the final selection (based on what criterion actually?). All this again makes me wonder why I should bother spending my moderation points on helping to select questions.

Seems like the /. interviewing process is a bit flawed, IMHO. At the very least it suffers from fixed the upper limit on moderation points per post that serves us rather well in the normal discussions.

--

Non-Netscape developers

[ggeezz]

In the interview Chris talks about the increase of non-Netscape users since Mozilla is now usable day to day for a large number of people. I think this could have a snowball effect even bigger than they might think. IMHO most people are more intimate with their web browser than any other software they use, and people like to be involved in the developement of software with which they are intimate. More people are going to be more intimate with Mozilla than perhaps any other project we've seen.

I think this project is going to pull a lot of people into its developement once people are using it a lot.

Re:The site is /.'d!

[Unknwn]

Yikes! I've seen /.'ings before, but this is definitely the worse one I've seen on us yet. I'm working as much as I can to keep serving pages, but the box is seriously underpowered for this kind of load. I see hardware upgrades in the future... ;)

Anyway, worse comes to worse, come back and try again in an hour or so and hopefully the effect will subside somewhat.


--
Jeremy Katz

Coming Attractions

[Green Monkey]

"KARMA"
In this controversial film (currently being protested by the Anti-Troll Defamation League), two trolls whose Slashdot accounts have been temporarily disabled discover a loophole that will enable them to return to the site -- but which will unmake the universe in the process. Can CmdrTaco patch the code before it's too late?

"HOT GRITS CLUB"
In the near future, angry young men turn to pouring hot grits down their pants to escape from their meaningless, materialistic lives. Remember, the first rule about Hot Grits Club is that you don't talk about Hot Grits Club.

"/DEV/NULLINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY"
When the DVDCCA sends cyborgs back in time to kill young Jon Johansen before he can create DeCSS, it's up to Arnold Schwarznegger to save Johansen, stop the DVDCCA, and coin as many cultural catchphrases as possible.

"THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT NATALIE"
A romantic comedy in which two guys chase after every Slashdot reader's dream girl. Features an exciting encounter between Natalie Portman and Medusa.

"THE HOLLAND WITCH PROJECT"
In October of 1994, three Slashdot editors disappeared into the library in Holland, Michigan, while writing a Slashdot exposé. A year later their story was found."

"THE SIXTH POST"
"I see trolls." Bruce Willis plays a psychologist working with a small boy who sees Slashdot posts no one else does. (Watch for the shocking plot twist, in which it is revealed that the boy is reading at -1.)

"MOZILLA 2000"
Feature bloat causes Mozilla to grow beyond its creators' control and escape to wreck havoc on Tokyo's computers. A special effects extravaganza ensues -- but will audiences return after 1998's flop "Geeko vs. Mecha-Go!Zilla"?

"TRANSMETA CRUSOE"
Linus Torvalds is shipwrecked on a distant isle and must survive with only a Rio, the Linux kernel, and an AIBO. An adaption of the classic novel.

"THE X-WINDOWS-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE"
Hemos and CmdrTaco investigate the conspiracies surrounding the development of X-Windows. Based on the hit TV series.

Re:Coming Attractions

[mick2275]

How do you do a +1 Offtopic?

isnt the title redundant? =)

[spam368]

Just some random thing i noticed that has nothing to do with anything =) Interviews: Interview with... =)

Mozilla as propaganda

[Anonymous Coward]

As an oft-cited piece of open source software, Mozilla gets considerable attention from the press, both technological and mainstream. Yet, in most pieces, the word "failure" appears, far more than in works on Linux or Apache.

Is Mozilla then a good representative of the OSS world? The Mozilla team is primarily Netscape engineers rather than the Internet users, as was initially imagined. So do we want to be associated with it? No major OSS project takes such consistent thrashings, and I wonder how well it reflects on the other projects.

-- the obvious AC

Re:Mozilla as propaganda

[JDax]

Is Mozilla then a good representative of the OSS world? The Mozilla team is primarily Netscape engineers rather than the Internet users, as was initially imagined. So do we want to be associated with it? No major OSS project takes such consistent thrashings, and I wonder how well it reflects on the other projects.

I think you just targeted part of the problem in your statement, ie., the fact that quite a few "insiders" were doing this rather than the OSS community in general.

One of the biggest impetuses that brings much of the OS Software to its highest quality is, as ESR has eloquently put it (paraphrase) - it's the programmer's desire to "scratch an itch". &nbsp If you don't have that desire from inside yourself, then it's just a job but not your job.

In all fairness to the Netscape people, they were designated as the "poster company" for Open Source and alot of us trying to push it in our jobs point to Netscape's decision. &nbsp In addition, the Mozilla group made a decison to start from scratch with the code, and they've basically built a "new" (in quotes) browser from the ground up.

One might want to compare them with a Sun, who has taken over the maintenance of StarOffice, to maybe see a different perspective on how a major company handles the Open Source phenomena. &nbsp Maybe Sun is not a good example for the moment, but time will tell on how they deal with their new product.

Mozilla X frontends

[AT]

What shape are the various X-based Mozilla frontends in? I understand GTK+ is considered the primary Mozilla toolkit, but there are also Qt and Motif frontends as well. Are they obsolete with the XPFE? Additionally, what is the status of the Mozilla Xlib frontend? I understood this was to reduce the dependancies on toolkits by merging some of the basic functionality into a toolkit independant frontend.

Re:Mozilla X frontends

[Kaufmann]

Uh, dude, I hate to disappoint you, but this isn't one of those Slashdot interviews where you post your question and hope it gets moderated up and answered. It's a link to an interview with the guy, on Linuxpower, which already took place. If you want to ask him something, go look for his email address and send him a message.

(Not a troll, not flamebait. Just pointing poor Andrew to the right direction.)

People

[delmoi]

This is not a shlashdot interview. You don't need to ask questions. This story is just a link to an interview at http://www.linuxpower.org/display.php?id =168. Unfortunetly, the server is being slashdoted right now :(

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

Suggestion - What to do with slashdotted sites...

[jmv]

As Slashdot grows, the problem of Slashdotted sites becomes more important... I agree that we can't just copy the linked page on Slashdot, since this would (rightly) be copyright violation. However, many of the linked pages are not copyrighted (or have a liberal license) and most of the slashdoted sites are small (often OSS sites) which would allow their pages to be copied on Slashdot.

So why not ask some OSS (and other small) sites whether they'd allow their pages to be copied on Slashdot. This would benefit both those sites and Slashdot readers. If something of the like is not done, it would mean that eventually slashdot could only link to major sites, which would restrict a lot (in terms of point of view) the information available to slashdot readers.

Re:Red Hat/Cygnus office in Toronto?!?!

[Pope]

Hey, come on--Toronto has only got one (1) underground line; go figure...

No, 2: Bloor-Danforth, and Yonge-University.
The Scarborough RT ain't a subway, it's LRT like Calgary and Edmonton.

Pope

Re:Suggestion - What to do with slashdotted sites.

[A Flaming Peterson]

I was searching on google the other day... and one of the handier features that I noticed when I was trying to extract some information from a dead site was the fact that they store a cache for most of the sites that they list, and they make that available to the searchers.

Now I noticed that they said that they remove cached pages for people who request, but I get the general feeling that they didn't (and probably couldn't have) asked for permission before posting on their webpage from the cache. So if they can do that without violating copyright laws (which for all I know, they may very well be) why can't slashdot? I don't really see the distinction.

--

Bandwidth is what it takes

[raph]

Well, my experience was atypical. My server was more than powerful enough, being a dual Celeron 400 with 256M, but the pipe in was a measly 128k upload DSL. This caused major problems. Even when I turned off the httpd, the bandwidth of denying incoming requests (at 1.5Mbps) was enough to saturate my uplink. The Linux network implementation isn't happy about this kind of asymmetry. I had to /etc/rc.d/init.d network restart twice.

Oh yes, and the page being served was dynamically generated from an XML database. Even so, at the peak of the slashdotting, load never went over 1. That is what happens when the web server is in C rather than some hoggish scripting language.

Re:another one?

[SuperG]

A comment may receive more moderator points than it takes to get to 5. This probably happens because it is intended (for such a situation as this, or also because it is possible for a moderator to use "redundant" etc. flags to lessen the score after the fact), rather than a bug (where multiple moderators are moderating on a page - while they are doing this a comment they will moderate up is set to 5, so they add superfluous points).

Re:Why does Netscape on Linux Crash?

[ghazban]

Get the libc5 version of netscape. It doesn't crash. Ever. I mean it. I think it was a malloc bug in glibc that caused bus errors in netscape.

COM on non-MS platforms?

[dlc]

This statement caught my attention:

• Mozilla has chosen to use a well defined component system, Microsoft COM. They've actually created a cross platform implementation of COM called XPCOM.

This interests me, not because I give a shit about micros~1, but because D?COM is one of things standing in the way of full compatibility between IIS and the like and real webservers. If there was COM on other platforms, then all those IIS applications could be picked up and moved, whole hog, to other systems. This is interesting to me. Plus, I feel that a cross-platform version of almost anything is preferable to a single-platform stranglehold, even if I personally will never use it.

Cthulhu for President!