Firefox-Based Start-Up Gets Off The Ground

rudy_wayne writes "ZDNet is reporting that a new version of the Firefox Web browser is coming your way, but not from the Mozilla Foundation. 'When we launch our own services, in about a month or so, we'll be looking to offer the must-have companion to Firefox,' said Bart Decrem, Round Two CEO and a former staffer at the Mozilla Foundation. 'We see tremendous room for innovating on top of the Mozilla and Firefox platform, and we see ourselves as the first company outside of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation that's fully dedicated to serving Firefox users.' Round Two planned a corporate launch Monday night with the promise of bringing 'a new crop of products and services that will enhance your Firefox experience.'"

Comments

Open Source Competition

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't there a risk for their company that anything they implement will be replicated by the open source community?

Re:Open Source Competition

[cuerty]

Like Wine (The Windows API emulator for *nix variants) with Cedega (ex WineX) and CrossOver Office, there is always a space for the development over open source software from enterprises with restricted licences.

Re:Open Source Competition

[stecoop]

Hmm, there are a few things that a company might be able to do. For example, I would like to store all my Mozillla preferences on a server that is backed up. I could do this on my own machine at home but companies like Yahoo and Google have a better data retention history than what I have.

Re:Open Source Competition

[dr.newton]

My guess is that if they implement something in XUL that runs on top of firefox's UI engine their codebase will be completely separate, so it looks like product:firefox::application:operating system.

Their code will be running on an unmodified firefox and thus they can license it any way they want.

I don't like that phrase

[dalmiroy2k]

"'a new crop of products and services that will enhance your Firefox experience.'"

That sounds a lot like Ads and spyware toolbars!
If that happens, I will be returning to IE! ;-)

Re:Want to bet?

[LnxAddct]

Really? Because I see a huge need in the enterprise arena for some sophisticated permissions in firefox along with a central managemnet application for enterprises who want to deploy firefox. As long as the price is right I think it'd be huge. There are plenty of other things that I can think of that would sell well as additions to firefox's base. And as far as Open Source not being able to make any money... please go tell that to Red Hat and Novell and come back to me when your worth even just 1 thousandth what they are. I hate responding to trolls but sometimes it must be done.
Regards,
Steve

Most interesting tidbit is in the last paragraph

[The-Perl-CD-Bookshel]

The article is very short on information, but there is one tidbit that might shed light on what they are doing:

"As for Round Two's own extensions, Decrem said the company was considering antivirus software to integrate with Firefox." emphasis mine

With Microsoft expected by many to offer antivirus software for free with windows, could they be beating them to the punch? I know that there are a lot of free antivirus packages (I use AVG myself) but if they can leverage Firefox's large user base then they might be on to something. I personally think that its a bad move to play Microsoft's game, which is effectivly making antivirus software worthless in the market.

Except for enterprise solutions, Symantec and McAffee could be in for a big hit in the personal antivirus protection department. Competition is an engine for innovation, but the most efficient engines for R&D come from within the firms that are actually selling the products and getting the most feeback. Something to think about, perhaps Symantec and Mcafee will continue to innovate and stay ahead of the curve.

Well, now that I opened the can of worms at both ends...proceed

Re:Want to bet?

[PaxTech]

I agree with you. People need to realize that a lot of enterprise type companies will simply not standardize on any application that lacks real enterprise level support.

Not to say that I agree with that attitude, but it is reality. There has to be someone standing behind the software, so that if some disaster happens, the suit who recommended the app has some CYA ammunition for himself.

Safe haven for non-geeks?

[Neoncow]

Intitial reaction on Slashdot: "They're trying to charge for something we already know and love! Oh noes!!"

Somehow, I don't think this product is targetted towards most geeks. It seems to me that they should be aiming at people who are starting to hear about Firefox. People have heard that Firefox is supposed to solve their security problems and introduce new features to make browsing easy. It's supposed to come with all sorts of cool extentions that you can download and customise your browsing experience.

Most of the cool stuff that geeks do with Firefox is free and easy; we install extensions at a whim, customise the security settings, and tweak about:config to our liking. The problem is, most people find these activties confusing and time consuming.

Extensions: Which one do I choose? How do I know which one has bugs? What do I do if it breaks the browser?
Geeks know that you: a) Try them all! b) Read up on some forums for past experince. c) Backup your settyings and do a quick re-istall!
Well, there you go. People think you need to be a super computer genius to do all of those things.

Perhaps this company could be useful as the AOL of the open source community.