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The Tide Has Turned in the Battle of the War
On November 5th, 1999 I wrote an essay to the community titled The Battle That Could Lose Us The War. In that essay I described my mounting frustration over the losing battle we were fighting in the area of web browsers. My conclusion was that if Microsoft was able to dominate the web on the desktop, it would be a short matter of time before they could extend and dominate the web on the server. I knew that Mozilla was our last and only hope for winning this.
In the years since then, despite enormous and sundry pressures against them, the Mozilla project has moved forward at a remarkable pace. They somehow rebounded from each major setback even stronger. Milestones were passed, 1.0 came and went, and the layout engine Gecko started to pick up speed and became used in a variety of applications, including Galeon and Netscape 6 and 7. When AOL finally turned the developers loose, they responded by apparantly doubling their efforts and moving even faster and smarter. Whether you like Mozilla or not, their persistence is an inspiration to the entire Free Software community. So much progress has been made, in fact, that today, more than four years since my gloomy outlook was keyed, with unspeakable pleasure I am now in a position to report that this tide has finally turned. The Gecko layout engine seems unbreakable and is reportedly more standards compliant than Internet Explorer. The Firefox browser is fast and stable, and supports the plugins out there that the users want and need, and, for the first time in several years, my wife is actually excited about her Linux desktop again. For the first time since Internet Explorer 3.0 was released, I am seeing people switching browsers in droves. Furthermore, we now have the same browser as the Windows users. By making sure that my web pages look good in Firefox, I can be sure that it will look similarly in Firefox for Windows. Speaking of Windows, many of the Windows folks that I know, including those computer newbies that still think the "internet" is in their "Internet Explorer icon", have already made the switch to Firefox. Joe-User is excited about Firefox, and this means fast adoption of this browser in all computing circles. Not only is Mozilla/Firefox a superior product, but it is built in the best traditions of quality software: simple, extensible and free (libre). The extensions support in Firefox is simply genius and will continue to create an entire industry of software products to enhance and customize the browser for individuals. At the risk of fostering an attitude of complacency, I must say that the Mozilla project has breathed new life into the web, and as a side-effect, into the Linux desktop. The war is still far from over, but the tide of this crucial battle has most definitely turned. Things have never looked brighter for Linux (as a server, and a desktop), nor for the computing community as a whole, as a direct result of the tireless and outstanding work of the Mozilla developers. Well met! |
Comments (15)
Konqueror has also been improving
I didn't review it because I don't use KDE. (Nor GNOME, actually) and I think Mozilla is better positioned for real market acceptance.
All the members on my gardening site, for example, are switching from IE to Firefox, not Konqueror. I like that Konqueror exists, as any monoculture would be bad, including a Firefox monoculture. Still, Mozilla is "where it's at".
best, Dave
I base this in the rapid development of Safari and Webcore. The changes between Webcore 1.1 and 1.2, especially, are quite astonishing.
Of course, KHTML would be needed to be ported to Windows, where the market that matters is.
$0.02 ching.
Congratulations should be given to the developers of ALL alternative browsers, keep up the excellent work! =)
asphy
The battle is easier if your opponent shoots their own foot
This will almost by definition leave an army of current IE users hunting for a new, less bug ridden or exploitable version of their web browser - just when FireFox is becoming a more viable alternative to even "licenced" IE users....
I run a gardening site where most of the users are complete computer illiterates (how to I copy and paste?) and even they are moving to Firefox in droves. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I give extra features to the Firefox users. :-)
dave
Report from the front
Premature
Firefox is great and it's my primary browser, but it isn't a killer app. If Firefox wants to win, it needs to support XForms and SVG and ship with both Flash and PDF viewers. After all, there are very few sites that use XUL and it's unlikely that XUL will ever be one millionth as popular as HTML. XUL is great, however, for added features like an RSS reader.
Which reminds me -- Firefox needs to have an easy to use RSS reader built in! Something that automatically refreshes every 5 minutes by default so the user doesn't have to configure it. With all the RSS/Atom feeds out there, that's a killer app! The RSS readers suck. The key is ease of use, and I like at least one of the XUL RSS readers although it needs more work.
Firefox needs to ship additional useful stands-based features that will truly make IE pale in comparison. It's not there yet.
However I also believe that if the masses started using Firefox people would find security holes to exploit in it also.
dave
General Audience - That being said, a person is foolish if (s)he thinks using IE is "good enough". That is like saying that your car might have overinflatted, worn out tires, but when you press the gas it moves. I just think people don't take computers seriously and that apathy is going to make a lot of people's lives a living hell because unfortunately, computers can do a significant amount of harm to your life, even though the medium is bits and bites. And guess what, Bill Gates isn't going to be held responsible when all your files go bye-bye, including your tax returns, financial data, pictures of your dead aunt, etc.
I have been saying this for a long time, but advocacy for Mozilla (or alternative browsers) is super critical. If you can change the mind of one person a week to move from IE to another browser, you have done the world a great justice, and of course OSS. Why people laugh when you tell them Microsoft is ruining their lives, I will never understand.
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