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Mozilla's Joy Of Naming
An anonymous reader writes "Thought the Firebird naming conflict was over? Think again! (If you thought, "What naming conflict?", go to the back of the class and read Slashdot's, previous coverage.) MozillaZine has got an exclusive interview with Christopher Blizzard, mozilla.org staff member, Red Hat employee and author of the Mozilla branding strategy. It's one the first official statements from mozilla.org (Mitchell Baker published a letter that she sent to the Firebird database project admins a few days ago). As well as the interview, MozillaZine also takes a look at some of the more recent media coverage of the conflict, which is overwealmingly biased in favour of the Firebird database project (who still haven't adequately explained how it was different when they picked the same name as the older Firebird BBS). Compare and contrast with MozillaZine's interview of Ann Harrison of the Firebird database project."
Nevertheless, we do intend to change the name so that the browser now known as "Mozilla Firebird Browser" becomes the "Mozilla Browser."
The gal getting all worked up about naming is kind of barking up the wrong tree. Yeah, that's the project's name for the time being. However, Firebird will fall out of regular use here within the next few months...
Matthew P. Barnson
I learn what I think when I read what I write
There's a perfectly good precedent for settling this sort of dispute.
Remember when Carl Sagan complained about the Apple project codenamed "Sagan"?
Why not change the codename to Butthead DB?
I've said this before...
W3C cames up with XForms - The Next Generation of Web Forms in 2002, but XForms - a GUI toolkit for X has existed for a long time (initially here).
the point was that it's not a new-comer, experimental, this-is-my-phd thesis database system. it's not abandoned, and its development is still going strong.
... transaction support is practically optional (most data warehouses aren't one at the same with the online oft-updated production database.)
... there'd be no room for debate. it had to happen -now- to avoid future problems.
and yes, someone -does- know firebird. now you do.
as to datawarehousing, however, the dominant technique (star) isn't really a relational technique -- it's an optimization via older, hierarchical methods. as such, i wouldn't recommend directly using a database designed for normal relational operations -- in fact, i -would- recommend something like mysql: designed for speed over simple operations
as to the naming (you'll notice i was kind enough not to say anything about that?) you should realize that, as a trademark, the name must be defended, or it will be diluted. if 'firebird' were going to be anything more than an internal code-name for a particular version of the mozilla browser product, you'd have a serious problem coming: firebird's name would be taken over by a more popular product, such that eventually, someone would inevitably claim that the database project had stolen the browser's name. impossible, you claim? if the mozilla team is so attached to the name now, imagine how it'd be a year or two down the line when questions were asked
the firebird team is working just to have their own little corner. they're not good at advertising themselves, but the least the rest of us can do is leave them alone. you don't like it? fine, don't use it. but you don't name your projects in such a way as to make it even harder for others to gain recognition -- say, naming your popular [x] software "mysql" when at a time when it's still a fledgling project. (they, however, are really quite good at advertising.)
and 'denial of service' isn't a product name, now is it?
"The Mozilla team has decided to produce a mail client and a stripped-down browser missing most of the really cool features of Mozilla."
What Mozilla SeaMonkey browser (Navigator) features are missing in Mozilla Firebird? There are certainy a lot of preference settings no longer exposed in UI and there are a few differently exposed features but I'm confused by your characterization of Mozilla Firebird as "stripped-down" and missing *most* of the really cool features of Mozilla (Navigator/SeaMoney browser).
Some cool features from the application suite's browser:
1. tabbed browser
2. pop-up blocking
3. bookmark custom keywords
4. great privacy controls
5. fine-grained js controls for saying no to sites that want to take over the status bar or raise and lower/resize windows, etc.
6. support for themes
7. image blocking
8. view selection source
9. search on selection
10. type ahead find aka find as you type
11. great layout engine
12. XUL extensions for all kinds of great additional features.
13. sherlock-like search plugin support (see mycroft.mozdev.org for 300 or so search plugins).
Those are a most of the "cool" features I use in Mozilla Navigator *browser* and every single one of them is available in Mozilla Firebird (and some are even better/more usable in Mozilla Firebird).
In addition, Mozilla Firebird has quite a few really cool features that the Mozilla Navigator browser doesn't. Customizable toolbars, a XUL extension manager, inline form auto-completion, "clear all" privacy mechanism, more themes, etc.
If you're talking about things like an email client, the dom inspector, the js debugger, chatzilla, an html composer, etc. those aren't going anywhere. They aren't browser features though. They are applications. And they won't be "missing". We'll continue to support them as Mozilla applications or extensions to Mozilla applications.
The only "cool" features, that are actually browser features (and not other applications or preference settings), that I can think of are html sidebars, the site navigation (formerly "link") toolbar and an author style sheet switching mechanism. All three of those are planned to be included in Mozilla Firebird.
What are all of these other "really cool features of Mozilla" that were stripped out of Mozilla Firebird?
--Asa