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Firefox - The Platform

Posted by timothy on from the if-it-only-had-an-ssh-client dept.

Strudelkugel writes "Business 2.0 reports Firefox is becoming a problem for Microsoft. But FF is not just a problem as a browser; its potential as a platform is significant. From the article: 'It all adds up to a business opportunity for startups, established software companies, and Web giants alike. Though Ross and the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation don't stand to make money, Firefox's open platform gives it enormous potential to hatch a new class of applications that live on the desktop but do business on the Web.'"

6 of 589 comments (clear)

  1. meh by Abit667 · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I think people are blowing the whole FireFox thing entirly out of proportion. Sure it is great and all and has a lot of potential but I think articles like this are just too much worrying.

  2. Remember Java and Dotnet? by alext · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Sorry but if ActiveX was the answer MS wouldn't have bothered with Dotnet - those applications need to be distributable and portable.

    Firefox with a VM might get some traction though...

  3. Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    This whole "Mozilla is a platform, not a browser!" was just face-saving when Mozilla didn't have a usable browser while a single paid KDE developer and a few volunteers had banged one out in a year.

    Now they have a good browser (two, at least), and the "Mozilla is a platform!" fuss isn't worth making anymore. As a platform, it's nothing special.

  4. Re:BZZT, you are already digital by edrain · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Do you mind if I ask who you work for? That's a really good idea that's long overdue. I'd like to learn more.

    --
    Battling Beasts
  5. Are you mods paying attention? by p3d0 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Parent is classic flamebait, and it's not even very well disguised.

    --
    Patrick Doyle
    I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
  6. Re:Loads faster then IE? by MHV · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Obviously you are new here... Or probably also a new computer user? Read up on the fact that IE's HTML runtime is a part of the OS on Win32. FF has to load everything the first time, whereas IE has a lot of stuff pre-loaded.