Jazilla Milestone 1 Released

mcbridematt writes "Many of the long time Slashdot readers will remember the Jazilla project to rewrite the Mozilla browser in Java. It went into hibernation in 2000 and I took it over last August. I have completely rewrote the browser which now follows a more Mozilla-like architecture. The Result: Jazilla Milestone 1 has been released. Download it from here. No prizes for guessing that it's Alpha software." Read on below for a list of what Jazilla can do, so far.

"Significant (implemented) features include:

• chrome:// support
• JavaScript implemented for the GUI thanks to the Mozilla.org Rhino engine. HTML Scripting coming.
• GUI in part, uses XUL and W3C DOM
• Written in 100% Java
• Open Source
• Uses the NetBrowser renderer, which is actually based on Jazilla-classic work."

Comments

Slashdot = Microsoft Bitch

[Anonymous Coward]

Look: as a Linux user and open source developer, I like to bash Microsoft just as much as anyone. Their business practices are at best unethical, and at worst, flagrantly illegal. Over the past few years I have come to rely (in part) on Slashdot for its irreverant and challenging views on the Microsoft Monopoly. Say what you will about Slashdot's editors (poor spelling and grammar, blatant editorializing on a so-called news site, etc), but I really have come to believe that Slashdot represents an important and much-needed voice among today's corporate hype-driven media.

Until now, that is. While helping my 16-year-old son (also an avid Slashdot reader) do research for a term paper on technology and journalism, I stumbled across some information that made me change my views about Slashdot completely. In a nutshell: Slashdot, and more accurately, its parent company VA Software, has deep and mutually influential ties to the Microsoft Corporation. In fact, Slashdot's own editors are paid (albeit indirectly) out of the coffers of Microsoft.

Yes. It's hard to believe. At first I couldn't believe it. But a few simple Google searches and 45 minutes' research on Lexis-Nexis (as well as a couple of phone calls to a friend of mine at the SEC) revealed the following:

• Three of the eight directors at VA Software also sit on the board of a privately-held company called Murberry-Slocomb, which as far as I can tell is some kind of stealth incubator/VC firm. Murberry Slocomb was founded in 1996 by none other than Paul Allen, and is a subsidiary of Allen's company Vulcan Ventures.
  
• Most (>80%) of Murberry's funding, including compensation for its directors, comes directly from Microsoft Corporation.
  
• In 1998, VA Software (parent company of OSDN, which is the parent company of Slashdot) receieved an investement of $3.8M from Murberry-Slocomb.
  
• The 1998 annual report for VA Software actually mentions this, and goes on in detail about how this infusion of capital has helpled them maintain and operate OSDN.
  

At first I was more amused than shocked; I mean, the technology industry is notoriously incestuous and its leaders, even those who are in competition, often sit on the same boards and are members of the same organizations. So what if a few board members of Slashdot's parent company are also directors of a company funded by Microsoft? Well, it gets more interesting.

As it turns out, in May of 1999, VA Software submitted to the SEC Form 5506-D, Application for Direct Non-Ownership Subsidization. This is the form that a corporation will submit to the SEC when it wants to directly fund a subsidiary from its own parent corporation. (It's basically a tax shelter for companies with a lot of subsidiaries) The application was approved in July 1999. The applicant name? OSDN. In other words, Form 5506-D basically eliminated the middleman between OSDN and Murberry-Slocomb. Following the money, I now saw that OSDN was being funded directly from an infusion of captal that Murberry-Slocomb has received from Microsoft!

Weird. I know. But what does this all mean? Honestly I have no idea. I'm not the custodian of any privileged information. A look at VA Software's web site and a Google search is all anyone needs to find the same information that I found. Are Slashdot's staff being paid through Microsoft? I sincerely hope not. But the facts are there and it sure looks like it. More importantly, what does this mean for the future of Slashdot? Can any grain of objectivity or journalistic ethics be preserved? What happens when the company you are bashing, nay, the very company that you preach the loudest against, Microsoft, is the same company that signs your paycheck? Could there be a deeper link still? Who knows. As far as I'm concerned, I'll never look at Slashdot the same way, ever again.

Re:Slashdot = Microsoft Bitch

[xerid]

Sorry, but I didn't find anything for 5506-D by VA Software (not in May 1999 or any other date). I didn't bother to google for it. Are you sure your link/information is correct?

Re:Slashdot = Microsoft Bitch

[Chromodromic]

Well, obviously.

Slashdot gives so much freakin' free publicity to Microsoft, that it's only obvious that there must be some ties. I mean, really, Slashdot's tagline is "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." If Slashdot editors feel a primary interest of nerds is Linux/BSD/Unix related, well, fine, there's an argument for that. But if what Slashdot really wants to do is online advocacy--and that is what it really is all about--then some of the best work they could do would be just to ignore Microsoft completely. As it is, if an employee at Microsoft has a problem with indigestion, Slashdot posts a story: "MICROSOFT EMPLOYEE PURCHASES ANTACID--SUN RESPONDS BY INVESTING IN PIZZA HUT".

What's most interesting is how so many little Slashdot geeks read this stuff and then take action, DDOSing SCO's servers, signing people up for massive snailspam attacks. They're like a little pocket protector mob, asserting all the kinds of bullying and enforcing of their views on the world that happened to them in high school--and middle school--and elementary school.

So yes, Slashdot is Microsoft's bitch. But what is more interesting to me, is how many Slashdot readers are, by proxy, also Microsoft's bitches, as they loudly gather and proclaim otherwise. Quick! Let's all go read what Microsoft did now!

TurdZilla or FecalZilla

[Anonymous Coward]

I want a TurdZilla or FecalZilla browser that's all brown and makes fart sounds when you click on things. The whole browser window would be unique, a window hewn from a turd image instead of the usual boring generic window of regular browsers. That's right, the border of the windows would be rounded in chunks to make up the whole window which is a huge turd. Joystick feedback would be added for each very loud fart which would make the joystick shake so hard you'd drop your pants and start pooping yourself only to discover it was only the browser!

It would be open source of course, and it would be nice.

Any programmers interested?

MOD PARENT UP: +5, TRUTH!

[Anonymous Coward]

Case in point: Why not make one or two *good* window managers instead of 30 shitty ones?

PL/1...now that brings me back.

[John3]

Wow...PL/1. Brings me back to my college days at MIT, studying PL/1, FORTRAN, and LISP(!), and playing Zork on the old PDP machines in the AI labs.

Re:More give Us More

[TKinias]

Admiral Burrito:

Um, no... Microsoft is Mordor. (Duh!) Sun is Isengard.

Hmm. One hates to be pendantic... no, who'm I kidding, this is /.! One loves to be pendantic!

Redmond is Mordor, BillG is Sauron. You know:

One OS to rule them all
One OS to find them
One OS to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them
In the land of Redmond where the shadows lie...

Gnome es mucho m�s que ape

[Miguel de Icaza]

considere la mala licencia con KDE
todos sus tableros del escritorio son ahora pertenecen a mí

amor, paz, esperanza, muelle
Saludos
miguel