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A Mozilla Desktop Environment?

Posted by kdawson on from the why-not dept.

Andreas writes "A discussion at the mozilla.dev.planning list has given the birth to the idea of a Mozilla Desktop Environment. This sure sounds like a possibility for Mozilla as it already has many of the applications needed; and the company is thoroughly familiar with XUL, which is a more-than-potent language upon which to build a desktop environment. By building a desktop environment Mozilla wouldn't have to worry about drivers (and such) and could choose from a variety of kernels, and still be in the center of attention. Mozilla has to expand some of the applications for this to work, though, like adding local file management with Firefox."

5 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Think of the memory by I_am_Rambi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Think about the memory usage. Firefox struggles enough, think about running a full desktop environment. I won't until some of the memory usage comes down quite a bit.

  2. why by mastershake_phd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What are the goals? How will it be different? Or are they doing it just to do it?

    --
    Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
  3. xul would be the new vbs? by Felonius+Thunk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok, I'm no moz dev, though I loves me some Firefox, but didn't we learn not to mix our browser and desktop scripting languages before? What is there about this arrangement that would not be screaming for holes to be found and malware to creep across boundaries? It could be very cool, but it could really suck bigtime, too. Where do you want your file system to go today?

  4. If history is any guide... by pushing-robot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    10 Create web browser and email client.
    20 Merge applications into single suite.
    30 Steadily add programs and functionality to suite until it does everything badly.
    40 Announce innovative new project to create simple, lean apps that break up bloated suite.
    50 GOTO 10

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  5. Re:I have an idea by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So is it a desktop environment? A Window Manager? A bloated shell on top of a bloated desktop environment? Why in the hell would I want a Mozilla desktop environment over Gnome, KDE, XFCE and others which have been doing a great job for a long time?

    Here is what I want my browser to do: Browse the internet.
    Here is what I want my email client to do: Handle email.
    Here is what I want my FTP client to do: Transfer files.

    Just make a good fucking browser and stop trying to branch out.