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Mozilla 1.4RC2 Released
levell writes "Mozilla 1.4RC2 has been released. It looks like the final version of 1.4 may be out soon. It looks good although there are some problems with java on old linux systems (discussed here). 1.4 will be a long lived branch that some distributors will base versions of their own software on (e.g. Netscape planned release, codenamed "buffy"). 1.4 will be the last version of Mozilla released as a suite, after that the switch to separate browser, e-mail etc. applications will take place."
Interesting that the last great, stable RH is considered too "old" for mozilla...
Or am I just overreacting? I like my 7.3 boxes, dammit.
Don't sweat the petty things. But do pet the sweaty things.
So instead of monolithic systems that try to do everything, this sounds like a swing back in the direction of discrete programs that only do one thing. (And hopefully do it well.)
I very much like the idea of being able to install my web browser of choice without being forced to simultaneously fill my hard drive with "extras" that don't quite do what I want, but can't be removed either. And browsers and office suites are just two places I'd like to see a little less of the "Swiss army knife" approach. (Sure, it's cool, but do you really need a telephone that can take pictures, program your VCR and mow the grass?)
Don't get me wrong, I agree that interoperability is a Good Thing. I just don't want to be forced to take on the clutter of tools I won't use.
From the release notes (emphasis mine):
Mozilla 1.4 requires Sun J2SE v 1.4.2 Beta to run Java applets
Why would they make a decision to make a browser dependent on an unreleased version of Java? 1.4.1_02 isn't good enough?
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
MathML. It's supported, but only in pure XML pages. This means that on legacy HTML sites, like Slashdot and K5, I can't fully get across the brilliance of my scientific and mathematical ideas, which is a lose-lose situation.
HTML doesn't support namespaces, which makes picking out your embedded mathml a little problematic. Ideally the <OBJECT> tag would support XML (or HTML). In the meantime, use an iframe -- true, it won't work on slashdot, but slashdot won't accept your mathml anyway.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
Sometimes when I am fishing I wonder if fish sometimes bite knowing they are going to encounter a hook. Anyway, I get tired of the "give us news, stuff that matters" rants.
There is an awful lot of information out here on the net. It is your job to sift through it all, determine what is of interest to you, and IGNORE THE REST. Along the way, if you feel you have something to contribute, please share.
Really, if this story is of no interest to you, move on to the next one. I think, as I'm sure many other people think, that announcing releases on a site with a high geek population is a good way to recruit quality beta testers who will fill out useful bug reports and help to drive the software development process forward. This means you get your free software faster and with less bugs. It's fine if you don't feel like taking the time to help out yourself, but give us the few tenths of a second it should take you to read the headline and decide to skip the story. Think of it as your way of helping to keep free software moving forward.
If you take the time to click on the headline, scan down to the bottom of the comments, and compose a mini rant about how you didn't feel you needed to know the information the story provides, people might get the impression that you just felt like whining.
It seems a bit hypocritical to rant about wanting stuff that matters within a post that almost everyone will consider noise, not signal.
Have a nice day.
Won't the users pay the price in the long run when corporations see that 99.9% of their website visitors are IE users, and implement future IE-specific features that Microsoft has made sure alternative browsers are unable to implement?
As I see it, this is similar to other forms of discrimination -- people are being forced to look like the majority (in this case, IE users) so that they don't get treated differently.
More of a case than you'd think. See if that page works in a screen reader or a braille converter. If it rejects non-IE user agents, odds are that it doesn't.
Mozilla isn't really intended to be an enduser product.. its primary purpose is for testing. However, because of its stability and major releases, it seems to be appealing to endusers.. but mostly tech-saavy power users IMHO. Netscape is the product for the masses, it will have a more polished interface than mozilla and it has name recognition. It will also undergo more testing (both bug and usability) than an average milestone of mozilla. Then there is the matter of application support, netscape7 will be supported more often than mozilla. Even though anything that works with NS7 should work in mozilla, name recognition and specific quirks with releases make this somewhat important.
Notice how NS7.02 is still based on a very early build of mozilla, the focus of Netscape 7 is on stability (in terms of the interface and functionality) and not on cutting edge features that are typically found in mozilla milestones. Most people do not need the features found in mozilla, which makes netscape 7 very appealing.