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Flock Switches To Chromium For New Beta

Posted by timothy on from the one-stop-blabbing dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Flock, the social networking browser, has moved from Firefox open source code to Chromium in its latest beta. The new Flock is essentially a combination of Chrome and TweetDeck, as you can sign in to Twitter and Facebook accounts and look at a single feed that incorporates updates from both. Currently, the beta is only available on Windows, but a Mac version is slated for later this year."

11 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. I dont give a flock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I dont give a flock

  2. No more Fireflock. What next? by cupantae · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know that this doesn't really matter to Mozilla per se, but Firefox is coming under some tough times in the near future. I have to say, I do fear for the future of my favourite browser (my favourite by a mile, dispite its flaws).

    They're soon losing the Google funding and support (probably).
    They seem to be not taking ANYONE's side on anything.
    H.264
    Ubuntu, even, seem like they'll switch to a custom Chromium browser in the next couple of releases.
    They don't seem to be leading the market in features at all any more, and only seem to limply suggest that it's the best by focusing on security (note: I DO think it's the best, what I mean is the public image).

    Do other Firefox fans feel that the market might deem it unnecessary or out of touch?

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    1. Re:No more Fireflock. What next? by bunratty · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why would they be losing Google's funding, and if they do, why wouldn't they be able to get funding elsewhere? If Ubuntu switches to a different browser, Firefox will lose only a small fraction of its users. I don't think they've ever lead the market in features; they've led the market in quality. You may have a point on H.264, but they're making an ideological stand to support only freely available technologies. If they need to support H.264, they'll do it.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    2. Re:No more Fireflock. What next? by cupantae · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're right. I didn't explain my main worry. There's a strong trend towards Chrome because of its simplicity, and I like Firefox because of its completeness. People who "give to shits about freetard politics" would use GNU Icecat. I don't. I just think that Firefox is the best.

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  3. Re:Why not WebKit? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, they are using the GUI as well. And they are probably doing so to cut development time for other things they care about more than reimplementing another GUI around WebKit.

  4. Re:Why not WebKit? by Quaelin · · Score: 5, Informative

    Exactly. (I'm one of the Flock devs.)

    Chromium is much more than just WebKit, and Flock is reusing most of that. Their UI was very well thought-out, and their V8 JavaScript engine is incredibly fast -- making it a perfect platform for Flock's application layer code which is almost entirely JavaScript.

    BTW, since the original article doesn't contain links, here's the site where you can grab the beta if you're so inclined:
    beta.flock.com

    Mac version is in the works.

  5. Chrome Extensions by Enderandrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So now Flock is Chrome + Javascript application layer on top of that. The Flock devs are aware they can basically write javascript extensions, right? Those extensions will work on all 3 platforms of Chrome/Chromium.

    Why not just release them as pure Chrome extensions and call it a day? What is the benefit of calling it a separate browser?

    The Chromed Bird extension for Chrome was what caused my wife to switch over. It is my favorite Chrome extension for any platform.

    Flock was taken a Linux/Mac/Win product and turned it into a Windows only product without offering anything new or worthwhile.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    1. Re:Chrome Extensions by Quaelin · · Score: 5, Informative

      Why not just release them as pure Chrome extensions and call it a day? What is the benefit of calling it a separate browser?

      Chrome extensions don't allow for the UI we added in Flock. No sidebars, etc...

      Also, extensions are much harder to monetize than browsers, so it would be a lot harder to make a successful business out of it that way.

      Third, we're going for mass market rather than niche. Extensions are cool and all, but most web users out there don't have a clue what an extension is, let alone a browser.

      The new Flock will be Windows/Mac at least. Linux is still a possibility too. We think the new version offers an improved experience for most users. Not quite as feature-full as the old version, true, but it's much faster and simpler which is a good trade-off for most users.

  6. Re:Why not WebKit? by Quaelin · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not sure when. Only 1-2% or so of our 2.x user base was on Linux, so it's not a high priority right now -- but that doesn't mean it won't happen. A few of our devs definitely want to see it happen... but I can't offer a timeline for it right now.

  7. Re:Why not WebKit? by iNaya · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is common knowledge within certain programming and Internet addict communities that Chromium is open sourced. For people outside these communities (which is the vast majority of humankind) it is not common knowledge.

    Feel happy when you can enlighten someone to a piece of knowledge. But don't lord it over them. They are sure to know many things common to their communities of which you have no idea. The first step to being accepted by people (getting friends, wife, getting along with workmates etc.) is learning how to accept people.

    Dissing someone for not knowing what Chromium is just reeks of an inferiority complex. Learn to accept that others know things you don't know; and you know things that others don't know.

    Should I say you've been living under a rock because you don't know these basic concepts of social behaviour, which are ubiquitous across different cultures and time periods? No, it is much better to tell, convince, persuade. Resorting to insults, or astonishment which implies disrespect is just aggressive behaviour, which is something which most societies do not accept (except for the fact that people being aggressive to one another can be fairly entertaining).

    If someone asks "what animal does beef come from?", there are several ways to respond. I will list two.

    Correct

    • Cows. [conversation moves on]

    Incorrect

    • Are you stupid? Have you been living in an igloo for your entire life? It's common knowledge that beef comes from cows.
      [person who asked question now feels incredibly stupid and will respond either with aggression, or avoidance of you. Either way, they will not like you]
      [alternatively, you will receive a lecture from the politeness police]
    --
    The Unicode standard is over 20 years old. Why does Slashdot not support it?
  8. I CAN'T give up Firefox just yet by GF678 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Chrome/Chromium still doesn't have an adblocker that actually blocks ads instead of just hiding them. Adblock Plus saves bandwidth, finishes loading a page quicker because you'll never get hung up on a slow/dead ad server, and neatly reformats the page to work without the ads.

    Once THAT level of functionality in an adblocker arrives with Chrome/Chromium, only then will I consider switching. And don't tell me to use a HOSTS file; what if I want to whitelist certain sites?