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Mozilla Foundation Turns 1
antatack writes "It's already been a year since the Mozilla Foundation was created, and it's been quite a year. The Mozilla Foundation has prospered, our products are receiving rave reviews, consumer and enterprise interest in Mozilla products is at an all time high, the awareness of the importance of choice in browser software is growing and our community remains vigorous and energetic."
That's easy, we'll just remove half of the functionality from Gecko.
I don't really have much to say, other than "Congratulations." They've been a poster-boy for OSS, and proven that network collaboration really can result in a stable, useful, well-developed product. I wonder what new innovations we'll be praising for the 2nd, or even 5th anniversary.
:)
Great job guys, and thanks for the browser.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
I have had trouble convincing people to use the Mozilla browser simply because the name M-o-z-i-l-l-a does not "cut it"! My suggestion is for Slashdotters and Opensource lovers to redeem the Netscape name from AOL so that we use it instead of Mozilla. What do you think?
Moderators please fix the above "anti-groupthink" moderation. Pointing out realistic flaws with what otherwise might be an excellent product and flagship of the Open Source movement might temporarily damage pride, but knowing that they exist in order that they should be fixed can only be to our advantage.
I'm not putting down Mozilla, I'm using Firefox right now and have switched my wife, Mother, and my own PC's to using Firefox and Thunderbird almost across the board. I do think however you have to give credit where it's due. The massive rise in their popularity isn't soley due to the fact that they are offering a solid browser, it's also due to the fact that MS isn't.
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Mozilla is not secretive and embraces it's end-users in a fashion that is almost antithetical to contemporary software companies. Mozilla is an exceptionally responsive entity (esp. regarding security issues it would seem). There is more but I will leave it at that. Perhaps other slash dot folks could amplify this point more eloquently than I am able.
It is simply an observation of mine and I understand that I am out on a limb. If you disagree, I do understnd.
Cheers!
Erick
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I could name three things that come to mind that mozilla did in the past year, and are underrepresented among other OSS projects:
- Focus on performance, make it faster with every release (granted, the mozilla project has been doing this for years)
- Do not treat any platform in an inferior way, focus on providing quality products on all platforms, including windows and mac.
- Have a visual design policy and team, redesigning the apps for improved ease of use, look and feel. Make sure the apps can be used easily by more than geeks. Make sure there is a fitting design for every platform the app runs on.
I am watching Mozilla with keen interest because it is an interesting test of the security through obscurity problem. If Mozilla takes a big market share it will attract the attention of the bad guys who currently target IE. Then we shall see if open source is a liability or an asset.
but compare comparable - mozilla with some other DESKTOP oss sw
SHE does throw dice.
The biggest key to their popularity, I think, is their status as Netscape Navigator's heir. Netscape has big name recognition, so people looking specifically for that browser easily find Mozilla. It's a lot like the "six degrees of separation" thing (you can establish a connection to anyone in the world, for example Kevin Bacon, going through at most six intermediaries). Mozilla has a big enough user base now that almost everyone knows somebody who uses it. That really increases its popularity because word of mouth is so effective. Most OSS projects never reach the level where that works for them.
While all credit is due the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla developers, one of the reasons it's so much more successful than the average good OSS project is the type of software they make.
1) Web browsing.
Nearly everyone does it. Firefox runs on most platforms. It's better than the competition. It's not geeky unless you want it to be. And with IE stagnant, more and more people are interested in the alternatives, regardless of whether they're open source.
2) E-mail.
Thunderbird is great but it's not as much greater than the other mail clients as Firefox is greater than the other browsers. But it's coming along very nicely and could have enormous success - even though people are likely to use more webmail and less client-based mail in the future.
Both of these programs fit common needs that are not as well-served by big software companies as one might expect.
If other projects want to achieve that level of success, they should take lessons from the Mozilla Foundation for sure -- but it's not a fair measure if the other projects aren't making standard consumer apps.
This Like That - fun with words!
There is only one person in charge of firefox's UI. His name is Ben Goodger. He gets to say No
Join Team Mozilla #38050 Folding@home
- As mentioned, cross-platform. - Security holes aren't left open for months. - Beginning to be much faster than IE. - Mozilla team has something to work for. They desire to be the best browser. IE is complacent and therefore goes un-updated for months at a time. I don't know how much of a security risk it is, but I would imagine that a daemon with complete control over the system being used for web browsing would pose a major fundamental risk. A flaw in Mozilla might allow for your favorites to be deleted, but a flaw in IE can give complete control of the system to the attacker.
I'd have to say OpenOffice is up there with Mozilla. When PC magazines start putting OpenOffice in their "Essential software" section EVERY MONTH as PC Format have been doing then you know its "got there". Deepburner and Mozilla are two recent Freeware/OSS apps that have been repeatedly appearing on PCFs cover disk.
Conor "You're not married,you haven't got a girlfriend and you've never seen Star Trek? Good Lord!" - Patrick Stewart
I wish that OpenOffice would start a "Firefox" project that would concentrate on a very fast, very tight project for word processing. OpenOffice is a great thing (free, does most everything anyone could ask of it) but it is a slug, a monster that eats memory and just kills older machines. If I could use OpenOffice on my home machine (which is pretty substantial) and then use a "firefox" version on my older machines (like the laptop I'm using now and most of the computers at our under-funded school), I would be all set.
Maybe I'm just getting ahead of the project here. I know that 2.0 is striving for faster startup times and the like. Maybe instead of a separate project, OO.o could focus most of their efforts on streamlining the thing.
Firefox and Thunderbird are THE open source answers for browsing and email. That's two of the necessary apps. OpenOffice plugs many of the other holes, but it needs work. Firefox is already there.
Yeah, I'm as old as my UID would suggest.
Actually I would disagree with you here. For a long time Mozilla was more about what developers wanted to do rather than catering to end user requirements. Most for profit companies are very responsive to the needs of their customers. Pissed off customers = lost revenue. I know plenty of companies who are interested in user feedback and work well with their customers. Microsoft are pretty much a singularity in that they dont really have to care because of their ubiquity but even they listen to their customers (just not all of them).
Also I think many people forget it has taken almost 5 years for the Mozilla project to release stable useable products that we can recommend to friends/family etc. Firefox gets a lot of attention here, and rightly so, its an excellent browser but it is a long way from the original Mozilla concepts, remember when gecko was going to take over the whole universe, remember the bloat and absymal stability/performance ? After 3 years of nothing many people felt the project was on the verge of death, would never produce anything of value and was based on seriously misguided assumptions.
I would actually give Mozilla more credit for recognising (albeit belatedly) that they were not going to take over the world, that developer cool is meaningless to end users and stripping the out the crap and focussing on Firefox and Thunderbird as standalone products. Its just a pity it took so long.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Now all it needs is an easy update feature.
It needs an update feature that can be made to automagically download and apply the latest versions without any user interaction whatsoever if so desired, but of course optionally also a "ask before installing" feature. That would be a great boon for home users (install and forget) and lazy sysadmins (what, you expect me to walk around the office installing stuff manually, dream on).
If Firefox follows the Mozilla stable/latest branching system the updater should allow you to follow one of the branches. For example you could configure the browser to keep up with the 1.0 branch and grandma would silently get 1.0.1, 1.0.2 etc. installed with security updates and bugfixes. For more experienced user the first time after an 1.0->1.1 update there could be a one-time page describing the new cool features on the next startup.
It's like deja vu all over again.
Some of us (e.g., myself included) began using Netscape for browsing & email back when there really wasn't a MSIE to consider. And the first few MSIE releases were just plain cheesy. By the time the MSIE/OE combination became "competitive" (through whatever means), I had an awful lot of email archived in Netscape. So I stuck through "old Netscape" & made the arduous migration to NS 6 & 7.
The only -- repeat only -- reason that MSIE achieved "market dominance" was that it was bundled with a shipload of new PCs. We all know the shenanigans Microsoft engaged in to ensure that MSIE/OE would be the first (and in many cases only) browser-email package neophyte users ever saw. Installing Netscape was the first step towards being a "real" computer user that many folks ever took.
So there is name recognition for Netscape among a lot of users. Mozilla has been able to play off that name association. "It ain't Microsoft" is actually something that may help promote a product these days.
All that said, the icing on the cake is that Mozilla continues to advance, while MSIE is essentially in a "release security patches" holding pattern awaiting whatever horrors are in store when Longhorn is released.
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
"Considering the amazing success of Linux*, one can't help but wondering how long it will be before someone attempts to buy it."
Did that version of the question manage to show just how strange a question just was asked in the parent post? How ever it managed to get moderated up to "+5, Interesting" is simply beyond me.
*YES, thats right. I just wrote Linux and not GNU/Linux
Karma: 2.71828182846 (Mostly due to small, fun pills)
I think the appearance of Firefox helped a lot - Mozilla itself is reasonably bulky and slow, but Firefox is as fast as (faster than?) IE. Firefox also does what most end users (especially the non-techy ones) want out of the box - no messing around tweaking it to work how you like. But that is not to say you can't tweak it and those cwho feel competent enough will tweak away, setting up the button bars how they like, theming it, etc.
Another thing that has undoubtedly helped is the regular IE security holes which have been hitting the mainstream press and probably also MS's apethy at fixing them and adding enhancements - on the odd occasion I'm forced to sit infront of a Windows machine and use IE, I wonder how on earth anyone can put up with the lack of features such as tabbed browsing and I'm stunned by the shear number of popups that even an un-spywared machine gets through IE - no wonder Windows users don't pay any attention to popup errors, they get so much crap popping up anyway.
Various support departments have now started recommending Firefox - the support guys here now recommend it to our customers, and where we used to get a "no, we have to use IE" response, the customers now more often than not say "oh that's a good idea, I'll try it" and end up very happy.
Also, a browser is something reasonably high profile that the average user wants - I'm sure a lot of people have a browser open practically all the time. Once someone's tried it at home then chances are they will install it at work too (assuming they don't work in a company who has a restrictive "you must use the most insecure software we can find" policy). All the coworkers will see it and install it on their workstations and home machines.
http://blog.nexusuk.org
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Other OSS desktop projects have too much ideological and egotistical overhead and too much corporate influence.
... And the result is the best browser and one of the better email clients on the market.
Try naming some Mozilla developers... I bet you can't.
The Mozilla people have an extreme loyalty to their product. Their focus seems to be developing superior applications, period.
Other popular Open-Source projects are too focused on trying to unseat Windows or too bogged down in bureaucratic infighting.
The keys to making a successful product are:
- Make the best product that you can
- Tell your audience about it
That why Apple has always been successful at selling workstations. They build a premium, high-quality product and evangelize it.
Think about projects like GNU Hurd and FreeBSD. Each of these projects started out with the potential for greatness, but never met that potential. GNU Hurd gets no attention because its leadership is too focused on idealogical matters and vanity. FreeBSD created a political process around it that created a perception that new developers weren't welcome.
With Mozilla, you never hear about political bullshit. The leadership of the project is focused on the project instead of looking for their names in print. They certainly have made their share of mistakes, but when they do they go back and code.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Has anyone at Microsoft said anything about Firefox? I'd be curious to see what they think about all this (or if it has even registered on their radar at all).
I haven't had much experience with konqueror (I'm a Gnome, and use firefox) but I guess its lack of attention is due to its being tied up with KDE.
No matter how good it is, if it is a KDE type application not available on Windows it won't be as popular.
im in ur