Mozilla - From Browser to Desktop Environment?

Posted by Cliff on Monday May 10, 2004 @07:45AM from the gecko-promotion dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "A while ago OEone released a thingy called Penzilla which was basically a Mozilla desktop environment like GNOME or KDE. Everything was written in either DHTML or XUL and ran within the Gecko engine. Recently a new project, Robin was released that is basically a desktop running within Mozilla using XUL as well. There is NetWindows that attempts something similar for more interactive web applications. What advantages would a 100% Mozilla engine desktop hold and what are the disadvantages compared to much more complex environments such as GNOME or KDE? Is a Mozilla desktop possibly more elegant or efficient for the typical user? Is the XUL runtime environment more robust than troublesome C/C++ widgets? It seems like most applications could make the transition as the growing collection of Firebird extensions like ChatZilla and Gnusto and have shown."

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Re:unnecessary by Eneff · 2004-05-10 08:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

Mozilla != the UNIX philosophy.

The point behind Mozilla always was to have a platform from which people could create full fledged cross-platform applications using CSS, HTML, ECMAscript and XML.

It just so happens that the first major application was a web browser.

I'm starting to subtly push taking advantage of Mozilla's front end capibilities within my company's application, myself.
*sigh* by tolan-b · 2004-05-10 08:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

How many times do people like you have to be corrected before you get it?

There's nothing wrong with integrating your browser with your desktop. It's when you do so in a way that can't be undone to leverage your monopoly position to kill off a competitor that it becomes bad.

Who the hell modded that insightful?