Mozilla’s New Toys March 25, 2006
Posted by theexpress in browser, open source.2 comments
This past week was one in which Mozilla launched some new things on their web site. If you remember back before Firefox 1.5 came out, they had the Deer Park alpha and beta tests, something like that is coming back. Their developer precursor to Firefox 2, nicknamed Bon Echo has its Alpha 1 release out. 
Bon Echo was released on the 21st of this month and is geared mainly towards the developers who want to work on the code and fix some of the bugs. The new features and modifications are:
1. Changes to tabbed browsing behavior
2. New data storage layer for bookmarks and history (using SQLlite)
3. Extended search plugin format
4. Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
5. Support for SVG text using svg:textPath
6. List of bug fixes
Bon Echo isnt the only thing around the Mozilla these days. Their new calendar program, Lightning, had its 0.1 release on the 20th. It is not a standalone like Sunbird, but has the same features on it. 
It is designed to be integrated with the Thunderbird e-mail problem. It is the first release, like Bon Echo, so dont expect the best from it now, but it is still pretty cool. If you want a calendar program that doesnt require you to have Thunderbird or Firefox, download Sunbird, Mozilla’s current standard for calendar excellence.
Mozilla has been rather quiet recently, so it is nice to see them come in with a strong week, full of new things for us to enjoy. The Mozilla organization still remains on the forefront of the open source community an is an example to other coders and groups set to give us our software free.
Browser War (no, not that one) February 22, 2006
Posted by theexpress in browser, internet, open source.8 comments
Until 2004, it had been many years since anyone had really cared about a battle of the web browsers. The famous Netscape versus Internet Explorer duel was old enough for the history books, and no one seemed to mind the winner…for a while. Then, like a golden-winged ship, Mozilla released Firefox 1.0 and the overthrow of Microsoft dominance began. Immediately people began calling for the downfall of IE and the beginning of the open source revolution. Since then, Firefox has remained in second place and is making steady gains on IE. The battle is still raging even though most of that original spark (which I was gladly a part of, and I assume many of the readers were too) has died a bit. The Fox is still hungry for more of the market share, but the pioneer movement that was palpable in late 2004 and early 2005 has ended. The only competitor of Firefox for second place is sitting in the choir at about one percent of the market share. That of course would be the Opera browser, who is making it a goal to out Mozilla as the open-source leader and try to lead the take down of IE’s empire.
When it comes to popularity, Firefox has Opera easily outdone. The success of the browser is owed to the group of devout fans who got out there and spread the word from the beginning that there was a new sheriff in town. Just because they have the popularity doesnt mean that Mozilla has the better browser on all accounts. When you look at the amount of features that each browser comes with, you’ll probably see that Opera is the clear winner. But there are other factors in a browser, such as which one makes the internet more fun to be on. That question relies more on opinion, but I believe that more websites have accepted Firefox and it has been made easier for the users to get around. It may be unfair to Opera because they haven’t yet gained the popularity to be more accepted, but that is how the cookie crumbles.
If you read this article wanting to know which browser to chose, you’re probably in the wrong place. Each one has their own highlights and pitfalls, but I believe that it’s safe to say that Mozilla wont have to worry about the Opera threat. Opera didnt get the same movement that Firefox got, so it can’t really blast into the market. Unfortunately for Opera, Firefox has enough extensions that if anyone really wants to have certain features that only Opera offers, they can download them for FF and still have the function of the soon-to-be number one browser.
