Slashdot Mirror


Ars Technica Interviews Scott Collins

SnoopTodd writes "Ars Technica has an interview with Scott Collins of Mozilla. 'That's the thing I learned to lust after as a programmer. It's not my ability to solve one problem, to plow this field, but the ability to build a plow that every farmer uses. The ability to make something that touches not ten people, not a hundred people, not a thousand people but a hundred million people. I want Mozilla to be there again. IE is a browser with no soul. I want it to be Mozilla because I think that people who care deserve a browser with a soul.'"

15 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. Nice to see by cbrocious · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's really nice to see this sort of passion, and such an ambitious goal for an F/OSS project.

    --
    Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
  2. I don't care how many people Mozilla touches or... by Dagny+Taggert · · Score: 4, Insightful

    if it has "soul" or not. I want something that's better than IE, not because I don't want to use an MS product, but because I know it's mediocre. Why is it mediocre? Because it can be---the general public uses it anyway because it's right there on the desktop. I want IE to be innovative the way Mozilla and Opera have been. Why? because good, innovative products make for better competition.

    --
    Don't be a looter...and yes, I know that it's spelled with an "A" instead of an "E".
  3. That's good. by Progman3K · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I imagine a lot of developers at Microsoft would also like to feel that way, but corporate cutthroat agendas being what they are, they cannot really "do the right thing".

    Whereas in open-source, free (as in speech) software, it's encouraged.

    It's hard to see where it will end, this development-with-social-consciousness, but considering we've had the soulless variety for so long, I say we give it a shot.

    --
    I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
  4. A soul? by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't need a "soul" in my browser; I need a good, standards-compliant and stable rendering engine in my browser.

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  5. I don't think that means what you think it means by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think he means that the people working on the program have soul, which could yield a great product.

    --
    stuff |
  6. I correlate that... by Mz6 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... into casual sex. I mean, casual sex is fine and all, but you want it to be GOOD. If you are used to lackluster casual sex... well.. so be it.

    --
    Hmmm.
  7. History repeating itself. by SinaSa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is a guy here on slashdot, and his sig is

    "The only thing a liberal has to do to become a conservative is to not change views for twenty years"

    Or something similar. The point is, Netscape was crap by 4.7, and Internet Explorer was fresh, new, fast and hade the exact same pricetag.

    But now, Internet Explorer is, well, you know how it is :P and Mozilla is coming back in a big way. Fast, clean, lots of new features (I'm not going to call it fresh), and lots of choice.

    I think this time, with Mozilla being in the hands of the OSS community, and not a corporation, it will stay on top of Internet Explorer for a long time to come (well at least I hope so).

    --
    --
    The last digit of pi is four.
  8. Re:Jeez.......IE isn't that bad by Mz6 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "reinstall my browser"

    You must be new here or have never even tried Mozilla. All you are basing your opinion off of is reviews, comments, and maybe a couple pretty pictures.

    You also do not have to reinstall a browser. In fact, good luck uninstalling IE. The point is that you can use both. Hell, with the ZIP file Mozilla release, you don't even have to install the browser. You can run it right from the directory!

    My overwhelming point is to try something before you make opinions on it. I can read reviews until my eyes bleed, but I usually like to try it out myself before making the final decision. The would encourage the same to you... ITS FREE!

    --
    Hmmm.
  9. Re:IE definitely has a soul… by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Be nice!

    Remember the days when IE was innovative and new. When they added all that javascript and activeX stuff, before all the malware came out. Remember back then? Do yah?

    Me neither, but I feel IE could be a lot better if microsoft would ever update it sometime this century. When was the last release again? IE 6 was 2000 right. I think the last service pack was 2001. It's 2004 now people!!! Whatever love MS had for IE before now they've just neglected it. Leaving the poor browser alone at nights to raise the brat malware children, while MicroSoft parties the night away with floosies like Longhorn and XAML! IE should divorce, dump the kids with bill and start a new life!!
    ehem.

    In shot, if ever you wanted an example of an inefficient monopoly stifling innovation, look no further than IE6.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  10. Re:Mozilla has a soul? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    tabbed browsing
    better bookmarks
    themes
    find as you type
    works identically on all 3 platforms
    secure (and you never have to be paranoid about clicking on dodgy links)
    popup-blocking
    ad-blocking
    a zillion extensions, some of which are extremely useful

    nobody's denying that ie also lets you browse the internet :/

  11. I've seen some sites... by zogger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... not render correctly, but I haven't had an actual crash using mozilla. Is this limited to a specific OS? Do you have any reference URLS where mozilla crashes? 20% seems like a high number to me. I go to quite a few different sites a day, and have yet to see that happen one time. BTW, using moz 1.6 here on FC2.

  12. Re:Mozilla has a soul? by div_2n · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Catch up? I would argue it is a means to push browser technology where Internet Explorer has stalled. Sure IE is getting pop up blocking. Mozilla/Firefox has had it for how long? Same for tabbed browsing.

    As for being identical pieces of software, well that is to be expected. Two hammers made by different manufactures are both hammers when you get down to it.

    Besides, if two pieces of software are going to take the same document and render it the "same" way to the user, then exactly how do you expect them to be worlds apart in difference?

    One innovation that Firefox has on IE that I don't expect to change any time soon--open source.

  13. Re:I don't care how many people Mozilla touches or by NatasRevol · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about this thought:

    If only IE didn't let my machine (and 'mom & pop's') get infected with spyware/adware/malware/hostageware by JUST CLICKING ON A LINK.

    Remember, ~60% of spam comes from infected windows machines, and IE helps this problem along.

    --
    There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
  14. Screw the soul, how about important features? by EvilStein · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, Mozilla has a lot of nice features. But you know what's keeping people from switching (at least in our organization)?

    Calendar.

    Netscape 4.x had a nice calendar that worked great with Netscape Calendar Server.
    Mozilla Calendar (sunbird/whatever) just doesn't cut it. It fails to send calendar invites properly. When a user receives one, it opens it in a browser window, displaying the raw .ics file. Not friendly for users.
    We don't even use Exchange at all - and people still want to cling to Outlook because of its Calendaring features.

    I cannot stress how important this actually is! We're not the only company that has users sticking to Outlook because of the calendar... I've dealt with quite a few others.
    Users like to have their email & organizer functions in one.
    None of them use Palm Desktop because it's still a seperate app.

    The users that I *have* moved to Mozilla really like it. But the rest? They won't budge unless there's a fully functional calendar - one that lets you accept calendar invites, add them to the calendar, and send them with a few clicks.
    Mozilla Calendar just isn't doing this right now and I don't understand why the team doesn't direct effort towards 'enterprise features' rather than Chatzilla.

  15. Testify, brother! by mikemcc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Calendaring is the biggest organizational problem that I have to deal with at work.

    Calendaring is also the feature that time-crunched execs with multiple assistants cannot live without, and about which they will not compromise. They aren't welded to Outlook as an email client. Email is a highly standardized medium. They're equally comfortable using Yahoo! mail as Outlook for their mail.

    But the calendaring server landscape is populated by standards-oblivious applications that don't talk to each other. Some times the same vendor's own servers and clients don't get along well. MS Entourage is the equivalent of "POP calendaring," whereas Outlook is "IMAP calendaring." Entourage works fine if you always, only do your calendaring from one machine. Doesn't work AT ALL as soon as you walk to another machine. God help you if your laptop crashes, or is stolen, and you didn't have a recent back up of your monolithic, 2GB binary database that Entourage uses to store your mail.

    At my company more than one exec is sick and tired of the daily regimen necessary to protect their Windows machines against viruses, worms, and security vulnerabilities. Calendaring via Outlook+Exchange is the single largest obstacle to those execs abandoning Windows entirely.