We in the UK pay for the BBC willingly because it is worth the price
No it isn't. I'd rather not pay the fee at all. The only BBC show I've watched since paying my fee is Top Gear. That's once a week and it doesn't last the whole year. On top of that, the BBC pimps the show off to stations like Dave and Blighty. How is that worth my money. The only good thing about the fee is that some of it goes towards Channel 4 who do actually produce content I want and watch but even then, I watch most of that on 4oD anyway. The license fee is antiquated and should be abolished. Let's see how the BBC far when they have to balance their books.
Why do people act like the whole world is h.264, when in fact, most consumer video is encoded in h.263. Google has plunged a boat-load of cash into the development of hardware support for Theora. I assume they're doing the same for VP8 behind closed doors too.
I honestly think that Flash has a lot to fear from Canvas, but as you said, Javascript is holding it back.
Check out this neat little thing (Canvas Game by one of the Opera staff): http://devfiles.myopera.com/articles/650/step_4_enemies.htm and you can see that Flash has a lot to fear.
Onwards and upwards I say.
Actually it's as simple as GPU support, XP doesn't have it, Vista and 7 do. I reckon you could make the likes of Opera and Firefox a lot more streamlined if they dumped support for (GPU-less) OS's.
I must admit that I find it incredible that so many Opera fanboys talk up Opera as everything that Firefox ain't and in 10.5+ Opera has replicated the functionality of the AwesomeBar without complaint from the Opera user-base.
As for the sluggish problems, they've definitely lessened since 10.5, lets hope they continue to improve upon all the major browsers out there.
They've gotten their priorities a bit wrong, they're so obsessed with Firefox 3.7 and 4.0 that they took their eyes off the ball. Sadly, I don't think that adding a bit of glass or putting tabs on top is really that much to be getting excited about. Glass should've been a feature with the release of Windows 7 and tabs on top isn't my idea of a good time. Where's the innovation? Even their idea of tabs on top simply seems to be following in the same fashion as Chrome/Opera, there's nothing original about the approach. I feel they should've gone for the Ribbon feel from Office 2010, but of course, they're going for what's the most simple and what's easiest.
Seriously? I'm all for the opinion that Firefox is becoming the Winamp of browsers, with that best of the rest feel rather than the best feel. But Opera really doesn't have a snappy UI or a snappy feel. Opera is a great browser but has always felt clunky and dopeish. Not to mention that with the same tabs open in both Opera and Firefox, Opera is the one that feels the most sluggish.
I fully agree that Firefox is making some disastrous decisions, taking a month to fix a reported bug is beyond acceptable, but lets not make it out like it's the new IE. By all means let's slap them on the wrists and hope they don't do it again. Lets hope that in Firefox 4, you'll be given an installer screen that will let you choose which features you want, I for example, won't be opting for TaskFox installed. But in no way is it the demon browser from hell sent to rape our mothers.
I don't use Thunderbird, I use Yahoo and Gmail. And while I don't generally trust websites with my contacts book, I am more than happy to let them search my Twitter to see if I have friends on the site, this experiment is simply an extension/road to that.
You're essentially asking the Concept division to pick up tools and work on current production models. Mozilla Labs is all about experimenting with the future of the internet and the needs of its users.
The adoption of 7 has been the best the company has recorded since XP, however there is no doubt that this is designed to bring in the admins sitting on the fence.
Firefox is a great browser, but at the moment it seems to be stuck in a rut where it's talking about all these features coming out and none are available. There's no excuse for doing a home tab competition and then not putting out an extension that replicates the functionality.
Opera has become a great browser with the release of 10.5, though I say that as a Windows 7 user who has a browser that feels like it fits my OS like a glove, and not one of OJ's.
Chrome is a POS to me. It's ugly and usability is baffling. I have no idea how to see previous sites (i.e. pull down the address bar). But it's a good choice third browser.
I doubt it. Having read a few blogs from Mozilla employees, they're going to fight H.264 to they're left with no other choice and that's a long time off.
Good luck to Mozilla. H.264 won't help the internet at all. It's now between Theora and maybe [hopefully] Google's [latest acquisition] On2.
It's a huge improvement, but still it looks like classic mac with an upgrade, it's miles off of Windows 7 which is a shame. I wouldn't have minded putting it on one of my laptops.
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We in the UK pay for the BBC willingly because it is worth the price
No it isn't. I'd rather not pay the fee at all. The only BBC show I've watched since paying my fee is Top Gear. That's once a week and it doesn't last the whole year. On top of that, the BBC pimps the show off to stations like Dave and Blighty. How is that worth my money. The only good thing about the fee is that some of it goes towards Channel 4 who do actually produce content I want and watch but even then, I watch most of that on 4oD anyway. The license fee is antiquated and should be abolished. Let's see how the BBC far when they have to balance their books.
Which is why I'm that much more baffled over their 'beef' with Yahoo in regards to Yahoo Mail. They really need to sort that out, it's annoying.
Correction: That was HTML5 (JS, audio and Canvas) on whichever systems could hack it. Flash was the fall-back.
Isn't mp3 set to be free soon?
I've not found it slow at all. On 3.6.x or 3.7alpha's.
It sounds like you have some dodgy extensions installed. That won't be a problem after 4 comes out as most bjork extensions will stop working.
Now all I need is a theme that switches the toolbar for a ribbon and I'll switch from Outlook to Thunderbird.
Why do people act like the whole world is h.264, when in fact, most consumer video is encoded in h.263. Google has plunged a boat-load of cash into the development of hardware support for Theora. I assume they're doing the same for VP8 behind closed doors too.
+1
I honestly got stuck wondering the same question.
I must admit I find it odd that they'd do this before open sourcing VP8.
I honestly think that Flash has a lot to fear from Canvas, but as you said, Javascript is holding it back. Check out this neat little thing (Canvas Game by one of the Opera staff): http://devfiles.myopera.com/articles/650/step_4_enemies.htm and you can see that Flash has a lot to fear. Onwards and upwards I say.
DirectX is software acceleration, GPU is hardware and does a much better job, it's why everyone is installing them in practically everything.
Actually it's as simple as GPU support, XP doesn't have it, Vista and 7 do. I reckon you could make the likes of Opera and Firefox a lot more streamlined if they dumped support for (GPU-less) OS's.
I must admit that I find it incredible that so many Opera fanboys talk up Opera as everything that Firefox ain't and in 10.5+ Opera has replicated the functionality of the AwesomeBar without complaint from the Opera user-base. As for the sluggish problems, they've definitely lessened since 10.5, lets hope they continue to improve upon all the major browsers out there.
I got my update Monday morning. I'm guessing that the patch will finish rolling out on the 30th.
They've gotten their priorities a bit wrong, they're so obsessed with Firefox 3.7 and 4.0 that they took their eyes off the ball. Sadly, I don't think that adding a bit of glass or putting tabs on top is really that much to be getting excited about. Glass should've been a feature with the release of Windows 7 and tabs on top isn't my idea of a good time. Where's the innovation? Even their idea of tabs on top simply seems to be following in the same fashion as Chrome/Opera, there's nothing original about the approach. I feel they should've gone for the Ribbon feel from Office 2010, but of course, they're going for what's the most simple and what's easiest.
Seriously? I'm all for the opinion that Firefox is becoming the Winamp of browsers, with that best of the rest feel rather than the best feel. But Opera really doesn't have a snappy UI or a snappy feel. Opera is a great browser but has always felt clunky and dopeish. Not to mention that with the same tabs open in both Opera and Firefox, Opera is the one that feels the most sluggish. I fully agree that Firefox is making some disastrous decisions, taking a month to fix a reported bug is beyond acceptable, but lets not make it out like it's the new IE. By all means let's slap them on the wrists and hope they don't do it again. Lets hope that in Firefox 4, you'll be given an installer screen that will let you choose which features you want, I for example, won't be opting for TaskFox installed. But in no way is it the demon browser from hell sent to rape our mothers.
I don't use Thunderbird, I use Yahoo and Gmail. And while I don't generally trust websites with my contacts book, I am more than happy to let them search my Twitter to see if I have friends on the site, this experiment is simply an extension/road to that.
You're essentially asking the Concept division to pick up tools and work on current production models. Mozilla Labs is all about experimenting with the future of the internet and the needs of its users.
The adoption of 7 has been the best the company has recorded since XP, however there is no doubt that this is designed to bring in the admins sitting on the fence.
I hear what you're saying about Opera, you only need to look at the fact that they refuse to support Yahoo Mail for evidence of their attitude.
Firefox is a great browser, but at the moment it seems to be stuck in a rut where it's talking about all these features coming out and none are available. There's no excuse for doing a home tab competition and then not putting out an extension that replicates the functionality. Opera has become a great browser with the release of 10.5, though I say that as a Windows 7 user who has a browser that feels like it fits my OS like a glove, and not one of OJ's. Chrome is a POS to me. It's ugly and usability is baffling. I have no idea how to see previous sites (i.e. pull down the address bar). But it's a good choice third browser.
I doubt it. Having read a few blogs from Mozilla employees, they're going to fight H.264 to they're left with no other choice and that's a long time off. Good luck to Mozilla. H.264 won't help the internet at all. It's now between Theora and maybe [hopefully] Google's [latest acquisition] On2.
It's a huge improvement, but still it looks like classic mac with an upgrade, it's miles off of Windows 7 which is a shame. I wouldn't have minded putting it on one of my laptops.