I think that is what the BrowserID project is for, see the video.
They mail you a link just like all these sites currently do, you just need to do it ones to verify your email address instead of for each and every site.
If you know your private key is stolen you just generate a new one and the problem is solved (unless they get access to your email account as well ofcourse).
Yes, Mozilla created a seperate specification that others can implement.
BrowserID is the Mozilla project and Verified Email Protocol is the specification they created.
It should be really easy for a large mail provider like GMail to provide this and it needs to have is to store a public key and have it available to anyone who would want to check it.
It is just a way to verify the the email-address you already own, but without waiting for the email to arrive (or having it getting stuck in spamfilters) and clicking a link.
Now you click a link only ones to connect your browser to your email address (and obviously you only share the email-address information to site the sites you want).
My government provides me with tax preparation software which does not suck.
It uses open source libraries and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
I see no reason why it could not be open source.
Also about your list, I guess it would be possible to support many through Wine. Heck, even Photoshop already runs pretty darn good under Wine. It usually is just one version behind the Adobe release.
The only reason JavaScript is still JavaScript the way it is now, is because doing radical changes with all the old browsers still out there would be hard to do.
Compatibility is the price you pay for popularity (or atleast widespread use).
JavaScript definitely has bad parts, the environment that JavaScript is used in most, the browser isn't much fun either.
But if you stay away from both of those, it is very lean and expressive.
That is why there has been a lot of interrest from webdevelopers trying to use JavaScript on the server as well, like with NodeJS ( http://nodejs.org/ ).
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Yes, they tried to levarage OpenID a few years ago, it didn't work out.
So now they created this.
And good thing is, a lot of proven technology already (client cert).
Not automatically obviously. It still needs user-interaction.
How do all these other sites currently handle accounts ?
They use email-addresses and a verification-email and have a profile-page where you can change the email-address.
This is not that different.
I think that is what the BrowserID project is for, see the video.
They mail you a link just like all these sites currently do, you just need to do it ones to verify your email address instead of for each and every site.
"is there a passphrase you'll use to open it each time you launch the browser?"
That depends on the browser implementation, but I'm sure many will do so.
A new form of "Single Sign-On" ?
If you know your private key is stolen you just generate a new one and the problem is solved (unless they get access to your email account as well ofcourse).
Yes, Mozilla created a seperate specification that others can implement.
BrowserID is the Mozilla project and Verified Email Protocol is the specification they created.
It should be really easy for a large mail provider like GMail to provide this and it needs to have is to store a public key and have it available to anyone who would want to check it.
But it doesn't.
It is just a way to verify the the email-address you already own, but without waiting for the email to arrive (or having it getting stuck in spamfilters) and clicking a link.
Now you click a link only ones to connect your browser to your email address (and obviously you only share the email-address information to site the sites you want).
This allows for a lot more interresting UI changes to make it easier for users to do so:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/images/4/4c/IdentityInTheBrowser.png
Also it prevents Facebook from tracking you all over the web, like they currently do with the Facebook Connect-button (!)
The Netherlands in Europe (sometimes called Holland but it isn't the official name)
Debian is about what the people on Debian work on.
Making programs portable, on hardware and kernels seems to be something people are interrested it.
Well, the other way around already exists: Debian GNU/kFreeBSD
My government provides me with tax preparation software which does not suck.
It uses open source libraries and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
I see no reason why it could not be open source.
Also about your list, I guess it would be possible to support many through Wine. Heck, even Photoshop already runs pretty darn good under Wine. It usually is just one version behind the Adobe release.
I thought Woody Release Manager was a funny title. :-)
It is actually a lot more likely that people just have a cell phone and no computer.
In Africa for example, many have a simple "smart" phone and no access to a computer.
I guess the existing examples got ported from an other language. :-)
The only reason JavaScript is still JavaScript the way it is now, is because doing radical changes with all the old browsers still out there would be hard to do.
Compatibility is the price you pay for popularity (or atleast widespread use).
You've been talking to the wrong webdevelopers.
JavaScript definitely has bad parts, the environment that JavaScript is used in most, the browser isn't much fun either.
But if you stay away from both of those, it is very lean and expressive.
That is why there has been a lot of interrest from webdevelopers trying to use JavaScript on the server as well, like with NodeJS ( http://nodejs.org/ ).
I think that was Macromedia at the time that gave it the name, but I could be wrong.
What do you mean ?
No to make version numbers irrelevant.
Have you considered Opera ?
If you are doing Web contracts, that sounds a bit like public websites.
Euh.. it should just work with the browser the user is using to visit the website.
Why ?
The people at Microsoft thought it would be a good idea to name their product/service after a color, sure.
Then that is really Microsoft's own problem.
http://blog.mozilla.com/joe/2011/04/26/introducing-the-azure-project/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_(color)
While we are on the Mozilla and naming problem. Google named their browser Chrome, even though the Mozilla already named part of their browser Chrome.
So, seems people just name things what they want.
I don't know, but it is pretty much the only kind of mainstream OS which has problems with handling IPv6 properly:
http://fud.no/ipv6/
My guess is, it is now automatically checked and the developers should be getting emails soon ?
Sounds really strange to me too.
Maybe the young city people are out of touch with their roots ? ;-)