Fox blood on the tracks?

Her ultimate mistake is this....

She thinks everyone who uses Firefox runs it from a Microsoft operating system. Everyone here knows this to be untrue. If the amount of people I've converted happily to Linux in tha past year in my small neck of the woods is commonplace around the world, M$ should be worried and Firefox is in NO DANGER of being trounced by an inferior piece of software.

Not to even go into the problems and security holes alone with ActiveX...this article at CNET is pure CRAP with a capital C. This "Senior" Editor needs to do more research before she yammers her mouth off without considering all the angles. That's tunnelvision and that is one sided journalism. Actually, I'd be stretching to call this journalism at all...

I read this article and the ensuing flames on another site, I believe there may have been over 400 posts concerning Molly's "article". More like a PSA for MS if you ask me. As usual, Devnet made the point that everyone else is missing but I would like to add just a bit of my own insight. In 1988, my cherry 68 Camero died a horrible death from engine failure. Turns out that the oil I used in my baby, Quaker State, admitted that they had changed their formula and that engine failures "could" occur from the use of their oil. Class-action suits sprang up but nothing really came of it except tens of thousands of cars were ruined. Even though Quaker State has reformulated their product, I will not use it to this day...I cannot trust it. The same goes for Microsoft software and their operating systems. Never mind that I cannot tolerate their predatory business practices and flawed philosophies...MS failed me when I needed them most.

MS may have too much steam built up to be taken down, at least in the forseeable future but the fact that they are releasing IE7 indicates that they feel threatened. As long as IE is joined at the hip with XP, its weaknesses will remain. The millions of people who run 98 or win2k will eventually switch to mozilla/firefox out of necessity. This is a good thing. Miss Molly being a shill for MS is a good thing too...it smacks of desperation.

Molly Wood: "Firefox will be destroyed as surely as the Hungarian uprising of 1956 was crushed by the Soviets... "

Molly, you ignorant slut! (Sorry, but I couldn't resist a little Saturday Night Live Humor)

Does Molly realize that Hungary is now free and a member of NATO? http://www.fsz.bme.hu/hungary/history.html

Does Molly know what happened in Berlin in 1989 and Moscow in 1991? http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch33.htm

Molly's use of the Hungarian uprising may not be so far off, if we stop to consider how it all turned out. If you substitute F/OSS for Hungary (not crushed, but certainly under attack), and M$ for the Soviets, I think the analogy works.

I appreciate Firefox's challenge to I.E., but I have been using Opera for years and find its UI superior to Firefox. Tabbed browsing? Been using it for years with Opera. Popup blocking? Been using it for years with Opera. Keyboard shortcuts available with one hand? NOT available in any browser except Opera (or unless your fingers are freakishly long). Firefox simply emulates I.E.'s cumbersome keyboard shortcuts. (Hmmmmmm...perhaps I should perform an ergonomic study to determine which of the three aforementioned browsers are the most physically efficient!)

IMHO, Firefox is great for converting I.E. users, but the press surrounding it is crediting it for innovating features that have been available for years in another freely available (though not OSS) browser.

Forgive me if I am a bit off topic, but I speak the truth.

8^)

If only Molly were the only pinhead getting this sort of stuff published. Check this one out:

http://www.securitypipeline.com/60401708

Suddenly there's a number of journalists independently jumping on the "Firefox Sucks" bandwagon? I'm not buying that. This is a concerted effort.

SFN: Yes, this is interesting. I'm sure, no wait, positive that no large PR firms are behind it. You know, like Waggon-Wheel-Egg-Storm -- Microsoft's PR firm.

They would never do something like this. *cough* Never.

Enderle. Hahaha, what a jerk. I guess even jerks have to get paid.

This guy is comical... http://www.securitypipeline.com/60401708

He states,

"Firefox is in version 1.0. Typically, if any of us suggested someone deploy a 1.0 product, even if it came from IBM or Microsoft (or particularly if it came from Microsoft), they would rightfully laugh us out of the room. 1.0 products are largely unknown when it comes to defects; most professionals won't use beta products, and most of us know that a 1.0 release typically has a lot of problems. It's generally better to wait until version 1.1 before deploying software, to insure that the early adopters--and not you--feel the pain of using a product before it is fully tested.. "

So, if the developers from firefox would have deployed a different naming scheme, then everything would be just fine eh? They should have done firefox v2.1 and things would have been on the up and up? What a croc. Don't worry about the 25 million "beta testers" that are out there simultaneously making a better product each and every day.

This guy's journalism is version .20 and hasn't even been beta tested yet. He shoulda spent more time in the planning phase before deploying his mouth.

Um.....

http://www.scmagazine.com/features/index.cfm?fuseaction=feat...

"Replacing Internet Explorer causes incompatibilities," said Jay Heiser, director of research, infosecurity and risk at Gartner. "It would require a lot of web development to ensure that applications worked on two different browsers."

I always thought that it was simply a matter of designing pages to meet W3C standards and from that point it was up to browser manufacturers to make sure that their products also met those standards.

Time to start a new lxer DB.

First three entries:

Molly Wood Rob Enderle Jay Heiser

I second that call!

So, we learn MS still resorts to FUD through all its quislings... remember the earlier, abandoned, FUD wars?

Oh well, dust off an old tool and try it all over again...

You know you're hurting them when...

But, then they pull out the $$$ and every other stop they can muster to 'compete' based on their priceless 'value added'.

Handcuffs? OH, the HANDcuffs! They're there to PROTECT you from nasty, dangerous, open source software!!

Microsoft, we care!

I sent an email to Molly telling her my exact feelings. I encourage you to do the same!

Molly,

Your stupid article states that Microsoft will destroy an open-source program. If so, then why does Linux exist? Apache? MySQL? PHP? Microsoft has an 'answer' to each one of these, but the aforementioned open-source products are still extremely successful - and have been for years.

I am under the impression that you are mentally retarded and that you should do two things: 1) Tender your resignation, and 2) seek professional psychiatric help.

Or maybe you should learn about a little thing called 'journalisitic integrity'.

Have a great day, Jared

lol...

I bet her open source powered SPAM blocker will get this one..

superjared: http://www.datasync.com/~rogerspl/Advocacy-HOWTO.html

Calling someone an idiot, is not the way to really influence their opinion. Be polite (I know it's hard to do!), but assume the best and work from the premise this individual is just not informed. Later it may prove to be an over optimistic assumption, but arguing logically without resort to verbal abuse has the better chance for success when dealing with an honest individual.

It also looks better when they show your communication to others not so well informed or just uncommitted. Take A.C.'s advice.

And there's another dimension: Permanence.

Two years from now, when maybe that journalist has found a clue-meter that registers in the positive range, they will still have an email that makes them feel bad -- about you, no less.

sometimes silence is golden ... the old saying "if you don't have anything nice to say..." what you DO have won't accomplish anything good!

I need to remind myself of that more often... :-(