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Firefox Extension Lets You Pick the Name

Posted by michael on from the been-through-the-desert-on-a-browser-with-no-name dept.

Rovaedne writes "Mozilla Firefox , the web browser formerly known as Firebird, formerly known as Phoenix, has a new extension which allows you to change the name to something palatable. The extension called Firesomething lets users change the name seen in the browser titlebar, Help menu, and About dialog, thus erradicating all traces of "Firefox" in Firefox (currently version 0.8). There is a name change FAQ, but it currently does not mention this extension. This extension should hopefully help curb some of the criticism that Mozilla has received from its most recent choice of name."

43 of 479 comments (clear)

  1. Actually by PatrickThomson · · Score: 5, Funny

    it's primary function is to randomise the browser name to avoid name clashes. I'm currently browsing in mozilla firebunny, for example.

    --
    I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
    1. Re:Actually by ScottGant · · Score: 4, Funny

      As other have hinted below, why not take this a step further?

      Bring out an extention for other apps.

      For instance, being able to change OpenOffice to Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel. That way you can fool the higher-up's into thinking you have "what everyone else is using".

      Save the cash from buying Office and take that money and go on a vacation! Then, when you get back, and before you get charged with fraud, quit and go live in a goat farm somewhere making cheeses.

      Ok, I got way off on a tangent there...but you see what I mean.

      --

      "Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
    2. Re:Actually by Pfhreakaz0id · · Score: 4, Interesting

      would help those running pokerbots for the online poker sites... currently, the largest online poker site is blocking a bot program by not letting you log in (or kicking you off) by scanning for a window with the program name in the title. You can even go to the program's home page, and because the title bar switches, it will kill it.

      If I acutally wanted to USE this bot, it would be pretty trivial to hack it's resources to change the titlebar (actually, I'm sure the author has already randomized the title). We're going to see an increasing battle between 'bot programs for online gambling and those who run online gambling sites.

      If you're curious, to a google groups search on rec.gambling.poker for "WinHoldEm"

      --
      DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
  2. Next step for microsoft by peterprior · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Get Firefox
    2. Change name to Internet Explorer
    3. apply IE theme
    4. Release as Internet explorer 7
    5. Profi... oh ..wait... ;)

    1. Re:Next step for microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually, that is exactly what I did here in corperate..

      Attach the IE icon to it and voila... the users act as if there is no difference except it's massively faster, no popup's, no crashes, no freezes.

      It's funny, many people scream about the massive retraining required switching workers to Open Source... It's not real.

    2. Re:Next step for microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      It'd be easier to believe you worked in corporate if you could actually spell it.

    3. Re:Next step for microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
      It'd be easier to believe you worked in corporate if you could actually spell it.

      Actually, it wouldn't.

    4. Re:Next step for microsoft by praksys · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The Mozilla crowd should take a page from Microsoft's book and rename it to "Web Browser (tm)".

    5. Re:Next step for microsoft by ibbey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's a nice theory, and it is true the human brain can adjust for misspellings, but spelling errors distract the reader from the message and make one look uneducated. Every time (and it is pretty dratted often) I read some idiot using "loose" for "lose" I immediately think just that: "Idiot." Almost certainly unfair, but it's still my reaction.

      No, it's anal morons like you who distract the reader, not the spelling. I honestly hadn't noticed the misspelling until you pointed it out (and I have better then average spelling abilities). What you need to remember is that most people posting to Slashdot aren't English majors. We're usually people posting a thought fairly quickly. Even if we know the correct spelling, it's easy to make a typo when you're typing quickly. Sure, you should catch the error when you preview, but not everyone will.

      What you need to learn is that spelling & grammar != intelligence. I know several people who are smarter then me, but who can't spell worth crap. At least one is dyslexic, the others may just have actual important things on there minds.

      Good spelling important in many contexts. Fortunately for us, slashdot isn't one of them. If you're that bothered by the problem, I suggest that you go elsewhere since the problem is fairly pervasive here.

    6. Re:Next step for microsoft by rookkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This post is off-topic as is the parent.

      No, it's anal reactionaries like you who dilute the English language to the point of nonsense. Things have gotten so bad, college students commonly submit resumes riddled with typos, newspaper letters to the editor are incomprehensible, and business proposals look wholly unprofessional. And it all stems from slack usage of English in casual settings such as Slashdot.

      It's embarrassing that you think that only English majors should have a solid command of the language. It just shows what a failure today's educational institutions are. When a person makes a typo, he should immediately realize it and correct it. If a person is unsure if the word is "consistent" or "consistant," then he should make the ten-second effort to find out and commit the fact to memory. This is what educated people do.

      What is unacceptable is people that furiously type their thoughts and then do not even look over what they wrote to see if any of it makes sense.

      What you need to learn is that spelling & grammar != intelligence

      Oh, cut it out with the holier than thou bull. If a person cannot effectively communicate his intelligence, then that intelligence is worthless. Smart people cannot get far in modern times without being able to write. And smart people won't be heard if they treat the English language like a redheaded stepchild.

      By the way, have you ever considered readers not fluent in English? When they encounter a misspelled word, they have no way of initially telling if the word is misspelled or if it is a word they just haven't encountered before. How about having some consideration for foreign readers?

      By the way, have you ever considered blind readers who use screen-reading software? When you misspell words, you make your writing inaccessible to the blind. How about having some consideration for the blind?

      People used to have pride in the things they wrote. Now instead of people sucking up their egos and admitting their mistakes, we have people that now argue that making mistakes doesn't matter.

      There is a difference between making an honest mistake and continually choosing not to care. You encourage this recklessness. And now we have college graduates who think spell checking is what word processors do, and not what humans do. Even after running a spell check, students submit papers full of flagrant violations of the language. Because people continually abuse English in places such as Slashdot, they believe college papers and business proposals shouldn't be scoured of all errors.

      Good spelling important in many contexts.

      Good spelling is important in all contexts.

  3. I'm calling mine slash dot.dot by Amiga+Lover · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm calling mine slash org dot.dot so I can use slash dot dot dot to go to aytch tee tee pee colon slash slash slash dot dot dot org... Because it's no sillier than 4 name changes in 12 months.

    1. Re:I'm calling mine slash dot.dot by TintinX · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It hasn't changed 4 times, it's changed twice, and they have been necessary changes to avoid conflicts with other Open Source projects.
      Remember, FF is not yet out of Beta so a name change is trivial.
      That said, it needs to start building a brand name and that brand will be Firefox. I believe the developers have said clearly that it will not change again.
      Anyway, I love the new FF icon. Much nicer than Moz ;)

    2. Re:I'm calling mine slash dot.dot by Dan93 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, from what I understand, Firebird, Pheonix and Firefox are just code names. When the browser is released 1.0 it'll just be Mozilla Browser.

  4. Random names? by arendjr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I heard it is also possible to let it randomly generate a new name everytime you start Firefox, quite funny :)

    1. Re:Random names? by sanctimonius+hypocrt · · Score: 4, Funny

      "...brought to you by a cadre of flaming geese?"


  5. What's wrong with Firefox? by Saint+Stephen · · Score: 4, Funny

    Remember: YOU HAVE TO THINK IN RUSSIAN!

    I like Firefox. What the hell name would I change it to? Who cares anyway?

  6. No, boss... by sanctimonius+hypocrt · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is just IE 7.0. Want me to get a copy for everyone?


  7. Hmmmm.... by Yoda2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Along the lines of the post above, I could call it "Internet Explorer" and just tell my employees that M$ released an "upgrade." I could do away with the "real" IE once and for all in one fell swoop.
    /me heads for early Saturday in the office while everyone is gone

  8. Re:What about Thunderbird? by LetterRip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Probably because they are well aware of Trademark law, and realize that they would lose the case since cars are in an entirely different market from webbrowsers and email clients?

    LetterRip

  9. Better? by geekster · · Score: 5, Funny

    So now it has an infinite number of names? Great...

  10. anti-branding.. i like it! by plams · · Score: 5, Funny
    Tech: Tech-support.. how may I help you?
    Me: Hi, uhm... Well, I'm having trouble connecting to the internet..
    Tech: *groan* Ok. What browser are you using?
    Me: Eh.. It says firepanda..
    Tech: Oh? Well, try opening it...
    Me: Ok.... done
    Tech: Now, in your.. firepanda window.. try find a menu called "preferences"
    Me: Uhm.. firepanda?! it says crimsongazelle now..
    Tech: *sigh*
  11. Browser formally know as... by peterprior · · Score: 4, Funny

    All this "The browser formally known as..." stuff.
    I'm going to call my firefox "Prince" :)

  12. On a more serious note, this extension is GREAT by multipartmixed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why, you ask?

    When I set up a Windows box for a neophyte (admittedly, not often) I do everything I can to purge Internet Exploder from the system. Some might find this unjustifiable, but the only time I'm ever asked (begged) to help Windows is when a friend of my wife's computer is running badly due to six billion viruses and twenty-two trillion Spyware programs.

    Anyhow. I hunt down all the shortcuts to IE and file associations to IE (i.e. as a viewer, default browser, blah blah blah) and replace them with Firebird. Then, I swap Firebird's icon with IE's icon. (I do a similar thing with with Lookout Express and ThunderBird). I used to even install the IE theme, but it's been busted for a while.

    This will help to complete the illusion.

    Of course, when I'm done, I just tell them I put on a new version of "The Internet" called Mozilla to help them not get viruses and spyware in the first place. I make sure they hear the brand at least a dozen times when I'm talking to them, because I want to build brand recognition. Maybe they'll tell their stupid friends how great Mozilla is and their friends will download it and use it. (Wishful thinking, I know).

    But we all know that telling a Windows user to use Mozilla Fire* instead of IE will far on deaf ears; these people will click that stupid fuckin' blue E because they want to "get on the Internet". You have to make them use something else, or they WILL succumb to temptation and get infected again.

    So far, nobody's come back. Either they hate me now, or they are relatively virus-free; I really don't care which.

    At least my daughter was easier to set up. She knows to use Mozilla (full suite) instead of IE/OE. If she truly *needs* to use IE (i.e. one of her favourite sites doesn't work with Moz), she can ask me to add it to IE for her. I do this by modifying the automatic proxy configuration URL -- if it's on my safe site list, it points to Squid; otherwise it points to an inetd->shell hack which tells her to come and see me.

    --

    Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
    1. Re:On a more serious note, this extension is GREAT by Anders · · Score: 5, Funny

      At least my daughter was easier to set up.

      Yeah, the initial set up is quite easy (especially if you are not the female). But just wait for your daughter to become a teenager.

    2. Re:On a more serious note, this extension is GREAT by Tokerat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I like Firefox, but as long as certain websites require IE you're doing your "neophyte" friend a disservice by "purg(ing) Internet Exploder from the system."
      No, you'r hurting businesses that ecide to set up websites that require Internet Explorer, and I see this as a Very Good Thing (tm). Not because I'd like to specifically be anti-Microsoft, mind you, but there is absolutely NO REASON that any website this day in age shouldn't be able to funciton on all browsers. The web is designed to be a system for delivery of cross-referenced marked-up "documents", which, while having much more/different uses and purposes than their tree pulp counterparts, are quite easily designed to a specific standard. Breaking that standard is breaking the Web, same thing.

      Banking on the Web should be IE only? Imagine the parking lot at the local bank will only allow Fords. What do you do with your BMW then? It runs better, smoother, faster, looks nicer, doesn't include clunky features, and follows the same 4 wheels/brake pedal/steering wheel/etc. standards needed for road use...

      I'd like to hear any good reasons why a website should function in IE on Windows only. Anyone who replies "ActiveX" should be modded +1 Funny.
      --
      CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
    3. Re:On a more serious note, this extension is GREAT by ameoba · · Score: 5, Funny

      Mozilla is, what we refer to, in theorerical computer science, as, 'Emacs Complete'. This means that it would be a fairly straightforward exercise to implement Emacs in XUL.

      The upshot of is is that, if somebody were ever able to implement Mozilla in a non-bloated way, we'd have a non-bloated Emacs & by extension, have non-bloated versions of countless other programs.

      --
      my sig's at the bottom of the page.
  13. Diluting Mindshare by Apple+Acolyte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unfortunately, it will not do wonders for Firefox's name recognition if most of its users decide on proprietary appellations. Let's try to increase mindshare by sticking to its official name, and as an added benefit we'll always know to which browser we're referring! Just MHO.

    --
    Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
  14. Cool by anonicon · · Score: 5, Funny

    I really like this, hadn't know it existed. Now that I'm running FireBush, my entire browsing experience has become faster, leaner and a whole lot less intrusive.

    Here's to hoping that the Mozilla hackers keep up the technical and political innovations. :-)

  15. Linux branding oppoptunity. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This extension is just what we need to make Linux distributions more freindly to Joe User.

    Whenever you get a Linux distribution, it insalls about 5 differeent web browsers with confusing names such as Konqueror, Mozilla, Lynx, Galeon and Epiphany. There is no need for all those web browsers. And don't scream CHOICE either, you are only going to be using ONE, so why have 5 installed?

    This is where this extension comes in. Linux distributions could now just ship one browser, but customised with their experiance. Imagine Debianavigator, Fedora the explorer, SuSEscape, Webdrake, Genfox and Slackzilla web browsers, with their own themeing, but still firefox internally, and "hardcore" users could still change it back if they wanted by downloading the extention.

    Lindows already ship a customised Mozilla known as "Lindows Internet Suite", so why can't other Linux distributions do this? They already brand KDE/GNOME/ETC with their menu layouts, icons and apps, so why not do web browsers?

  16. Just call it OpenSourceBrowser... by cnelzie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...and be done with it. No need for going all ga-ga about naming it something new every two weeks because the 'Geeks that Be' don't bother doing a simple Google Search to make certain they aren't trouncing on someone else's software product name...

    Yeah, OpenSourceBrowser isn't very 'sexy', neither is OpenOffice.org, but that seems to work for them...

    --
    If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
  17. Fire-star by tverbeek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This plug-in is kinda funny, and I hope the Mozilla folks can take a joke and enjoy the laugh. But treating "the criticism that Mozilla has received from its most recent choice of name" as if it were a serious issue suggests that the submitter of this article could stand to lighten up and look around. The vast majority of Browser Formerly Known As users seem to have taken to the the name "Firefox" pretty well. As the album cover says: 205,000 Google hits for "firefox browser" can't be wrong.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  18. Re:Black and white vs colour by Teddy+Beartuzzi · · Score: 4, Informative

    Try this anime style one:

  19. New open-source strategy? by plams · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could this be used as legal immunity for linux? So, when SCO decides to sue someone for having an unlicenced linux kernel, they just reply with something like, "Sorry sir McNeal, but I checked this morning.. and what do you know, we actually run Mozillix, Fenix and Bollox... but not linux?"

  20. i see it differently by G27+Radio · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not a very big fan of Mozilla at all--not since Phonix/Firebird/Firefox came out. Mozilla renders quickly, but it just feels clunky and slow to get started.

    I like Firefox because it's trimmed down and has a smaller footprint. If I want to use mail I just start up Thunderbird. The calendar plugin works from both Thunderbird and Firefox.

    I suppose if I regularly needed all the features in Mozilla I'd feel differently. No disrespect to Mozilla, but I really prefer using Firefox and Thunderbird.

  21. Letting employees go has never been so easy! by stienman · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Hey Carol, why is my browser named 'Fired' and defaults to loser.com?"

    -Adam

  22. Re:finally, a reason to switch from... by zonix · · Score: 4, Informative
    I must be missing something in the enthusiasm for firefox.

    Try some of the extensions like AdBlock (block flash, iframes, etc.). The extensible search engine bar is really cool to (get imdb search, DHL tracking, etc.). Not to mention the quick search feature (keyword bookmars)!

    z
    --
    What would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
  23. Finally by TooLazyToLogon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Finally I can run Internet Explorer in Linux. Now if i can just get a name change extention for OpenOffice.org

  24. My browsers name is now... by Den_onda_kotten · · Score: 4, Funny

    Firefly!

    You can't take the sky from me.

  25. What's in a Name? by The+Monster · · Score: 4, Informative
    Bring out an extention for other apps.
    I'm not sure how much of an 'extension' is really required here. I make it a matter of policy in my shell scripts to do
    Self=`basename $0`
    and use that value in the script itself as its name. This way, if anyone ever wants to change the name of the script, they, uh, change the name of the script. The -[Hh]* option for help, as well as any log file names based on $Self , then correctly specify the new name.

    Of course we don't have executables with names like "Mozilla Firefox", because that's not geeky enough. Still, it should be trivial for any app to allow configuration of the name it displays in the title bar.

    I can imagine what would happen, just for example, if The Bride of Monster (Personnel Manager at a sheltered workshop, dealing with handicapped adults) installed a copy of The GIMP on a computer at work, to save their tight budget the expense of buying Photoshop for working up sales brochures and such... Being able to change it so it says 'GNU Image Manipulation' or just 'GNU Image' might save her from the wrath of uptight Politically Correct types.

    --

    [100% ISO 646 Compliant]
    SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.

  26. unpalatable by WhiteDragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What is so 'unpalatable' about Firefox? I personally like that name. And the animal it is named after, the Red Panda is pretty neat as well. I just switched my mom over to firefox on windows, and she loves it! No more popups! She certainly didn't complain about the 'unpalatable' name.

    --
    Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
  27. This would really be funny by lone_marauder · · Score: 4, Informative

    If it randomized the broswer ID in the referrer as well. Unfortunately, I just checked, and it doesn't.

    --
    who are those slashdot people? they swept over like Mongol-Tartars.
  28. Re:Internet Explorer, The browser formerly known a by mooman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, I was thinking of using this plugin to rename Mozilla to something like Mosaic 0.93b

    I bet few folks these days would get it but other old fogies like me would probably appreciate the tip o' the hat...

    --
    In the Portland, Ore area and like card games? Check out: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/portlandgames/
  29. KDE can do this too by polyp2000 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I only discovered this recently so i'm not sure how far back it goes (Im running KDE3.2)

    many Kde applications can be started to display a different name. For example, if you were feeling particularly sadistic you could run konqueror like this ...

    %> konqueror --caption "Internet Explorer"

    although something like

    %> juk --caption "iTunes"

    is probably more palatable

    nick ...

    --
    Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp