A donation drive would be nice as I'm sure they've got a lot of expenses building up around the forthcoming Firefox and Thunderbird 1.0 releases. The main cost I can imagine would be the servers particularly update.mozilla.org as people go to explore all those brilliant extensions.
OT: Here's a marketing idea which has probably thought of before. Link the Firefox page saying how/why to switch from IE (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/switch.ht ml) to the words 'Internet Explorer' to increase Firefox ranking in Google, etc. But put it in a sentence so the casual reader knows it's not an IE link.
Carry your complete Firefox install on your USB stick, from which it will run fine.
I do have firefox on a USB key and I find it handy to have at times. This is excellent advice in most situations and therefore anyone who'd interested in doing so I point to the Firefox help site
Unfortunately, due to the cheapskates that they are - easyinternetcafe does not support USB and a lot of locations their USB ports have been disabled so in these cases a download of the fox is the only thing to do.
Heep an eye on the Mozilla ActiveX project. On there is a number of things: - An activex plugin that lets you run activex controls in Mozilla (be very careful with this, read the docs - you can lock it down to host just the controls you need) - A way of embedding Mozilla into other browsers using activex - A means of making IE support Netscape type plugins (which it used to at one time) - An activex plugin for legacy browsers like Netscape 4
Unfortunately they're having problems getting this to work in Firefox 0.9 but keep an eye on that page for what you want.
The most severe bug however is the Software Update feature. I installed 0.9.1 last week and almost immediately I saw an article on Slashdot about a Firefox security hole and fix. I didn't immediately attempt to install the fix. So a few days later I went to mozilla.org and saw that 0.9.2 was the latest version. Help->About shows I'm still at 0.9.1.
The software update feature was first introduced in 0.9 and therefore probably has bugs of its own, the good thing is that all the problems with the automatic update are being found quickly and will be fixed for 1.0
You don't need 0.9.2 - it's just 0.9.1 with the security patch applied. If you've applied the patch you don't need to upgrade as there's no other differences
Every so often when I need to log into the office and I've not got my laptop I go to easyInternet Cafe which is one of the tacky cut price business ideas of Stelios the easyJet guy. However, they're quite handy - loads of them around the city.
Their setup is Windows 98 and IE6, you can install what you want on the machines because they get automatically reimaged after you log out (or it crashes). Their motto is cheap, they won't do anything they don't have to if it costs money (there's no staff on site), but adding Firefox to their images wouldn't cost them anything, they seem to update IE when required.
After emailing their customer services requesting firefox, I got an email back saying they had no plans to put it on the default image, but I had a good taste in browsers and they knew a lot of their customers downloaded and used it (presumably looking at the logs in the proxy server).
So if you ever have to use that place, let them know you use Firefox and you'd rather not have to download it each time.
If you looked at sites like kernel.org, slashdot, etc, then that'd skew it in the opposite direction
In the distant past when Netscape was king slashdot used to print browser statistics on one of their pages. They stopped doing so when IE's share started to get embarrassingly big.
No we've got superb browsers like Firefox, Opera and Mozilla (each one different enough to suit different people) has the trend on slashdot been reversed? Can we have browser stats again on slashdot - it would be interesting.
As IE is so useless I can only imagine the MS fanboys on the site using IE unless it's forced on them at work. Personally I'm going to campaign for the default browser at work to become Firefox once 1.0 is released - I use Firefox at work at the moment but loads of people don't know what it is.
Different sites attract different audiences. w3schools.com has a much higher percentage climb for Mozilla based browsers and Opera which is good because it means web development types are starting to prefer (and test their sites in) alternative browsers.
Google is also showing a slow and steady climb of Mozilla based browsers. It seems that the only people who are moving to IE6 are ones upgrading from 5.x.
It doesn't look that much when you see how much IE is used but I'd say we're getting to the stage where there's enough users of alternative browsers that any company would be crazy to ignore them.
Once Firefox 1.0 is released I'd expect to see even more people using it.
It's too bad that Firefox on Windows and Safari both seem to handle aspx incorrectly sometimes.
Just to make it clear NO web browser - IE, Mozilla or whatever handles ASP.net, ASP, PHP or any other extension you see on the web. They are all server side processing languages and output HTML to the client (the browser). The HTML is what is rendered by the browser.
Therefore if your browser is having a problem it's because the HTML output is invalid, it's not a failing of ASP.net it's a faling of the coder.
Not that I'm advocating ASP.net (personally I try to avoid MS stuff because of previous products lacking) however some people say it's a major improvement.
That's just a code name, 0.9 was 'One Tree Hill' or something. The average user won't see that unless they look at the roadmap. All they'll see is Mozilla Firefox.
But going to the author's website doesn't register as a count on update.mozilla.org and if you think qute is the best then it'd be good seeing it as the number one downloaded theme
0.9 had a lot of new features and so it was expected a lot of small bugs would be found once it was released due to widespread testing so most people anticipated this release. It fixed the most annoying bugs in 0.9 so the developers can now concentrate on 1.0 beta
Why are so many people calling the previous release 9.0? It was 0.9 and this is 0.9.1 it is still pre-release software - albeit excellent pre-release software and hence the sub 1.0 version number.
If you're having weird problems with Firefox it might be because there was a bug in some of ther nightly builds and maybe the release candidates (?) that could cause problems with your profile. If you've got nothing critical in your profile (bookmarks, passwords etc) then just try deleting all traces off it and starting again.
In Windows your profile will live in the %APPDATA% directory which in 9x is usually c:\windows\application data and in 2k/XP C:\Documents and Settings\user\application data\ (folder may be hidden).
In this directory delete the directories Phoenix, Firefox and the Firefox directory within Mozilla if it exists.
As this is pre-1.0 software, sometimes problems may occur.
The theme in 0.9 was a work in progress released early in the hope to gain some feedback, the 0.9.1 release just is updated with the current progress of that theme.
The original theme in 0.8 and below was removed for licensing reasons. You can still install it by going to the themes secion of update.mozilla.org (also accessible from the Theme Manager in the Tools menu)
I see this too (Linux) remember this is the first time that the upgrade system has been tested in the public so some teething erros like this may occur.
It's good that this is happening now before 1.0 or even 1.0beta is released.
It could be either an error on the server side or the client side, if it's the client side then just hold tight, if it's the server side they'll surely fix it asap.
"I told my wife, unless it is absolutely necessary and unless you are going to a site like our banking site, stay off the Internet right now," he said.
Why do people print such over dramatic quotes, the steps are easy (this is for Windows): 1. Make sure the automatic update notification is enabled so you can see when new updates are ready to install. 2. Firewall 3. Disable IE (set proxies to 0.0.0.0 except for *.microsoft.com for auto updates) and remove all links to it 4. Install an alternative browser Mozilla, Opera, etc (not one based on IE - e.g. CrazyBrowser, Avant), ensure you keep browser updated.
He once made a comment, "Windows NT is going to be so easy to use, all point and click, that it will be possible to hire sysadmins off the street!"
They're also currently using the 'Linux sysadmins are more expensive than Windows sysadmins' argument to promote Windows - however that's only going to have one effect - the more clueful of the Windows sysadmins will learn Linux skills in order to get paid more.
This eventually will mean there's no shortage in Linux sysadmins which will be a plus point for Linux but on the downside people will be earning less.
Therefore I think it's important that all Linux sysadmins who are knowledgeable to take this opportunity to improve their skills and be recognised as knowledgeable.
Therefore if you're in the UK I promote the UKUUG conference in my sig;)
This wasn't going to be an ad, then I realised it fitted so perfectly into my reply!
Let's just say then Linux is free if you want it to be. A lot of people like boxed sets, they may need support contracts and indeed may need certain proprietary software (e.g. Oracle) to run on Linux.
The doesn't stop Linux being free and legal to those that are comfortable downloading Linux and supporting it themselves possibly using Google and newsgroups for help.
With Windows you have to pay for a licence just to install the software, you could download it for free but that's illegal, you can't even pay to download it as far as I can see. Then if you need support you have to pay extra for that.
Name the number of personal users and small businesses who have made use of MS support? There'll be some, but not many.
For personal users people usually rely on their friends for support and so they're bogged down fixing the viruses and spyware problems on a regular basis if they're not that savvy.
I can't confirm this for certain (as it didn't happen to me).
One of my colleagues who also went to the Edinburgh event was talking to one of the speakers there (one of the Nick's from Microsoft I believe) and I Microsoft guy admitted his niece had thousands of viruses on her machine last time he checked it!
I wish I could confirm it, but I don't see he has any reason to lie
I was at the Edinburgh event last week which was the 2nd event in their roadshow.
Here's some advice for people who'll be at their next two events (Manchester this week I think, and Wales the week after (Newport, IIRC)):
- Plan in your coffee break questions to ask them (be careful about providing them with the question on paper as they reworded mine - try and ask it in person at the end).
- Ask more about IBM involvement in Linux, they tried to claim that IBM were trying to lock people in to Linux, try and provide counter examples as to how it'd be easier to escape an IBM stranglehold than an MS one.
- They cite interoperability as one of Microsoft's main aims, people mentioned the office file formats and recent patents, but they hedged around the question, someone needs to seriously challenge them on this at the event.
- Talk to the other delegates in clear concise language why you think Linux should be considered as a serious option. Don't sound like a zealot and accept there's many times when Windows would be more suitable than Linux.
- Point out to people that open source doesn't always mean Linux, in fact doesn't always mean changing an OS at all. There's some quality open source software for Windows - promote Firefox and OpenOffice as examples
Slashdot Mirror
Why can't the mozilla foundation protect its trademarks?
OT: Here's a marketing idea which has probably thought of before. Link the Firefox page saying how/why to switch from IE (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/switch.h
Fed up with Internet Explorer?
Carry your complete Firefox install on your USB stick, from which it will run fine.
I do have firefox on a USB key and I find it handy to have at times. This is excellent advice in most situations and therefore anyone who'd interested in doing so I point to the Firefox help site
Unfortunately, due to the cheapskates that they are - easyinternetcafe does not support USB and a lot of locations their USB ports have been disabled so in these cases a download of the fox is the only thing to do.
Heep an eye on the Mozilla ActiveX project. On there is a number of things:
- An activex plugin that lets you run activex controls in Mozilla (be very careful with this, read the docs - you can lock it down to host just the controls you need)
- A way of embedding Mozilla into other browsers using activex
- A means of making IE support Netscape type plugins (which it used to at one time)
- An activex plugin for legacy browsers like Netscape 4
Unfortunately they're having problems getting this to work in Firefox 0.9 but keep an eye on that page for what you want.
The most severe bug however is the Software Update feature. I installed 0.9.1 last week and almost immediately I saw an article on Slashdot about a Firefox security hole and fix. I didn't immediately attempt to install the fix. So a few days later I went to mozilla.org and saw that 0.9.2 was the latest version. Help->About shows I'm still at 0.9.1.
The software update feature was first introduced in 0.9 and therefore probably has bugs of its own, the good thing is that all the problems with the automatic update are being found quickly and will be fixed for 1.0
You don't need 0.9.2 - it's just 0.9.1 with the security patch applied. If you've applied the patch you don't need to upgrade as there's no other differences
Every so often when I need to log into the office and I've not got my laptop I go to easyInternet Cafe which is one of the tacky cut price business ideas of Stelios the easyJet guy. However, they're quite handy - loads of them around the city.
Their setup is Windows 98 and IE6, you can install what you want on the machines because they get automatically reimaged after you log out (or it crashes). Their motto is cheap, they won't do anything they don't have to if it costs money (there's no staff on site), but adding Firefox to their images wouldn't cost them anything, they seem to update IE when required.
After emailing their customer services requesting firefox, I got an email back saying they had no plans to put it on the default image, but I had a good taste in browsers and they knew a lot of their customers downloaded and used it (presumably looking at the logs in the proxy server).
So if you ever have to use that place, let them know you use Firefox and you'd rather not have to download it each time.
If you looked at sites like kernel.org, slashdot, etc, then that'd skew it in the opposite direction
In the distant past when Netscape was king slashdot used to print browser statistics on one of their pages. They stopped doing so when IE's share started to get embarrassingly big.
No we've got superb browsers like Firefox, Opera and Mozilla (each one different enough to suit different people) has the trend on slashdot been reversed? Can we have browser stats again on slashdot - it would be interesting.
As IE is so useless I can only imagine the MS fanboys on the site using IE unless it's forced on them at work. Personally I'm going to campaign for the default browser at work to become Firefox once 1.0 is released - I use Firefox at work at the moment but loads of people don't know what it is.
So who here still uses IE and why?
Different sites attract different audiences. w3schools.com has a much higher percentage climb for Mozilla based browsers and Opera which is good because it means web development types are starting to prefer (and test their sites in) alternative browsers.
Google is also showing a slow and steady climb of Mozilla based browsers. It seems that the only people who are moving to IE6 are ones upgrading from 5.x.
It doesn't look that much when you see how much IE is used but I'd say we're getting to the stage where there's enough users of alternative browsers that any company would be crazy to ignore them.
Once Firefox 1.0 is released I'd expect to see even more people using it.
It's too bad that Firefox on Windows and Safari both seem to handle aspx incorrectly sometimes.
Just to make it clear NO web browser - IE, Mozilla or whatever handles ASP.net, ASP, PHP or any other extension you see on the web. They are all server side processing languages and output HTML to the client (the browser). The HTML is what is rendered by the browser.
Therefore if your browser is having a problem it's because the HTML output is invalid, it's not a failing of ASP.net it's a faling of the coder.
Not that I'm advocating ASP.net (personally I try to avoid MS stuff because of previous products lacking) however some people say it's a major improvement.
That's just a code name, 0.9 was 'One Tree Hill' or something. The average user won't see that unless they look at the roadmap. All they'll see is Mozilla Firefox.
But going to the author's website doesn't register as a count on update.mozilla.org and if you think qute is the best then it'd be good seeing it as the number one downloaded theme
0.9 had a lot of new features and so it was expected a lot of small bugs would be found once it was released due to widespread testing so most people anticipated this release. It fixed the most annoying bugs in 0.9 so the developers can now concentrate on 1.0 beta
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/ - click on the roadmap link when you goto this page
Why are so many people calling the previous release 9.0? It was 0.9 and this is 0.9.1 it is still pre-release software - albeit excellent pre-release software and hence the sub 1.0 version number.
If you're having weird problems with Firefox it might be because there was a bug in some of ther nightly builds and maybe the release candidates (?) that could cause problems with your profile. If you've got nothing critical in your profile (bookmarks, passwords etc) then just try deleting all traces off it and starting again.
In Windows your profile will live in the %APPDATA% directory which in 9x is usually c:\windows\application data and in 2k/XP C:\Documents and Settings\user\application data\ (folder may be hidden).
In this directory delete the directories Phoenix, Firefox and the Firefox directory within Mozilla if it exists.
As this is pre-1.0 software, sometimes problems may occur.
The theme in 0.9 was a work in progress released early in the hope to gain some feedback, the 0.9.1 release just is updated with the current progress of that theme.
The original theme in 0.8 and below was removed for licensing reasons. You can still install it by going to the themes secion of update.mozilla.org (also accessible from the Theme Manager in the Tools menu)
I see this too (Linux) remember this is the first time that the upgrade system has been tested in the public so some teething erros like this may occur.
It's good that this is happening now before 1.0 or even 1.0beta is released.
It could be either an error on the server side or the client side, if it's the client side then just hold tight, if it's the server side they'll surely fix it asap.
NetSec's Houlahan advocated drastic action.
"I told my wife, unless it is absolutely necessary and unless you are going to a site like our banking site, stay off the Internet right now," he said.
Why do people print such over dramatic quotes, the steps are easy (this is for Windows):
1. Make sure the automatic update notification is enabled so you can see when new updates are ready to install.
2. Firewall
3. Disable IE (set proxies to 0.0.0.0 except for *.microsoft.com for auto updates) and remove all links to it
4. Install an alternative browser Mozilla, Opera, etc (not one based on IE - e.g. CrazyBrowser, Avant), ensure you keep browser updated.
Easy isn't it?
You mean like CNN?
A quick scan of that article and I couldn't see any mention of using an alternative browser, just the usual "update virus checker, etc"
We need these sites to push the idea of Mozilla to the masses
Slightly off topic, but someone could bring it up with the MS guys at the next event (Manchester)
t m
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3798393.s
Wimbledon switching to Linux
That's not the case with everyone, there's many people who can make a reasoned argument for Linux.
He once made a comment, "Windows NT is going to be so easy to use, all point and click, that it will be possible to hire sysadmins off the street!"
;)
They're also currently using the 'Linux sysadmins are more expensive than Windows sysadmins' argument to promote Windows - however that's only going to have one effect - the more clueful of the Windows sysadmins will learn Linux skills in order to get paid more.
This eventually will mean there's no shortage in Linux sysadmins which will be a plus point for Linux but on the downside people will be earning less.
Therefore I think it's important that all Linux sysadmins who are knowledgeable to take this opportunity to improve their skills and be recognised as knowledgeable.
Therefore if you're in the UK I promote the UKUUG conference in my sig
This wasn't going to be an ad, then I realised it fitted so perfectly into my reply!
Let's just say then Linux is free if you want it to be. A lot of people like boxed sets, they may need support contracts and indeed may need certain proprietary software (e.g. Oracle) to run on Linux.
The doesn't stop Linux being free and legal to those that are comfortable downloading Linux and supporting it themselves possibly using Google and newsgroups for help.
With Windows you have to pay for a licence just to install the software, you could download it for free but that's illegal, you can't even pay to download it as far as I can see. Then if you need support you have to pay extra for that.
Name the number of personal users and small businesses who have made use of MS support? There'll be some, but not many.
For personal users people usually rely on their friends for support and so they're bogged down fixing the viruses and spyware problems on a regular basis if they're not that savvy.
and then I convinced my wife to try and stop using Internet Explorer
;)
One word - divorce
I can't confirm this for certain (as it didn't happen to me).
One of my colleagues who also went to the Edinburgh event was talking to one of the speakers there (one of the Nick's from Microsoft I believe) and I Microsoft guy admitted his niece had thousands of viruses on her machine last time he checked it!
I wish I could confirm it, but I don't see he has any reason to lie
I was at the Edinburgh event last week which was the 2nd event in their roadshow.
Here's some advice for people who'll be at their next two events (Manchester this week I think, and Wales the week after (Newport, IIRC)):
- Plan in your coffee break questions to ask them (be careful about providing them with the question on paper as they reworded mine - try and ask it in person at the end).
- Ask more about IBM involvement in Linux, they tried to claim that IBM were trying to lock people in to Linux, try and provide counter examples as to how it'd be easier to escape an IBM stranglehold than an MS one.
- They cite interoperability as one of Microsoft's main aims, people mentioned the office file formats and recent patents, but they hedged around the question, someone needs to seriously challenge them on this at the event.
- Talk to the other delegates in clear concise language why you think Linux should be considered as a serious option. Don't sound like a zealot and accept there's many times when Windows would be more suitable than Linux.
- Point out to people that open source doesn't always mean Linux, in fact doesn't always mean changing an OS at all. There's some quality open source software for Windows - promote Firefox and OpenOffice as examples