The Fox Is in Microsoft's Henhouse (and Salivating)

NYT ^ | December 19, 2004 | RANDALL STROSS

[mathprof]

FIREFOX is a classic overnight success, many years in the making.

Published by the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit group supporting open-source software that draws upon the skills of hundreds of volunteer programmers, Firefox is a Web browser that is fast and filled with features that Microsoft's stodgy Internet Explorer lacks. Firefox installs in a snap, and it's free.

Firefox 1.0 was released on Nov. 9. Just over a month later, the foundation celebrated a remarkable milestone: 10 million downloads. Donations from Firefox's appreciative fans paid for a two-page advertisement in The New York Times on Thursday.

Until now, the Linux operating system was the best-known success among the hundreds of open-source projects that challenge Microsoft with technically strong, free software that improves as the population of bug-reporting and bug-fixing users grows. But unless you oversee purchases for a corporate data center, it's unlikely that you've felt the need to try Linux yourself.

With Firefox, open-source software moves from back-office obscurity to your home, and to your parents', too. (Your children in college are already using it.) It is polished, as easy to use as Internet Explorer and, most compelling, much better defended against viruses, worms and snoops.

[HairOfTheDog]

I can say that there's no reason logically of financially to go unprotected and you hurt others as badly as yourself.

Where did I say I go unprotected? I buy the best protection I can get. I am certainly not going to rely on freeware submitted by some Joe working in his basement to protect myself.

[Beaker]

Mozilla was installed on my computer the other day. What a great browswer.

[RhoTheta]

FireFox ping.

[Lancey Howard]

Yup - DOS was a direct rip off from OS/8 & PAL-8 from PDP8 DEC minicomputers It was amazing to be able to run FORTRAN in 4K

Wow. I used a PDP8 in high school, 1969. We toggled programs into the thing.

[Condor51]

OFF TOPIC.

Can you tell me about the Les Paul picture on your home page?
Gibson, Epi, 'other'?

I'm considering an Epi Les Paul or a Tele (I have a Strat).

Thanks.

[ecurbh]

Security is not my main reason for using Firefox, it the customizability. With the downloadable themes and extensions, I can make the browser look and act almost any way I want.

For example, my most-used extension is AdBlock. Instead of having to look at annoying animated advertising on my Yahoo mail, I just right-click and add the server to the AdBlock list. Advertising from that server will never display again, on any page.

Plus the toolbars are completely customizable, I can move, add, or remove buttons as my browsing style dictates.

[Beaker]

Hey Hair!
Mozilla and Firefox are better because they are safer to use. They don't get as many popups and aren't as prone to allowing virues through. I've also noticed faster load times with Mozilla. (Not sure about Firefox, but I've been told that the load times for that browser are the fastest.) Also, the amount of spyware on my computer is nill now since I've switched browsers.

[ohCompGk]

Yeah, I started ranting on the world and didn't really direct that statement to you in particular:)

[HairOfTheDog]

Thanks hon.... I guess I just haven't been yearning for more features from my browser. I have also added a few HTML tools to my IE that I use a lot, like right clicking pics to save the img src, the ability to copy the source code of highlighted text and the ability to copy links and pages as html links for easy posting here. Sounds like the same kind of plug ins you can get and that you like about Firefox...

One thing that would bug me is that these freeware add-ons are no less susceptible to being buggy, and I am not sure of the process for receiving updates and notifications from such a loosely organized bunch of basement programmers unless you are a techie who is browsing around looking for that stuff, as you do. For me, I don't want to know how to build a watch, I only want to tell time.

[newfreep]

For IE, is there a way to set the font size so it will stay at the size you want? I change to smaller but it returns to Medium every 30 minutes or so...al by itself. It does it even faster when I'm not using IE.

Thanks, y'all...and Merry Christmas, everyone.

[HairOfTheDog]

Haven't had trouble with spyware as I am now... but I know other people have that trouble. If I was having trouble, I'd want to fix it, but something about my current habits is working well. I block popups through Google toolbar.

I don't know that browser loading time is an issue, it would seem to me that loading time depends on your bandwidth and I am on cable.

[Redcloak]

Download the Firefox installer and save it to a temp directory. (...or just save it to "My Documents" if you're so inclined.) Run the installer. When it's finished, Firefox should start. When it does, it will ask if you want it as the default browser. Say yes and IE becomes a wallflower on your system.

If you're using Outlook Express, take a look at Thunderbird as an alternative. Outlook earned its nickname: "Lookout!"

[Fatalis]

Does anyone know if there's a way to manage cookies such that I can protect specific cookies in one file and delete the rest with one click?

Right now I have to delete one junk cookie at a time to keep those for sites I visit regularly. The only other option I see is "remove all," which I don't want to do.

[jammer]

You're closest to correct. When IBM came to do a deal with Gary Kildare (of DR-DOS), both IBM and he didn't think much of IBM's personal computer project. He played golf instead. The desperate IBM guys went across the street and got Gates to sign on for "his" OS for their machine. He didn't have one and bought QDOS ("Quick and Dirty Operating System") based upon CP/M. Gates is living rich, Kildare died, well, not so well off, to put it mildly.

[TheOracleAtLilac]

And XP (to me) has too much JUNK. My daughters new laptop has it and I hate using it

To minimize unnecessary start up items>
Start > run &type in msconfig, then
on startup tab, uncheck all items except A.V. or firewall related > apply

If you're not squeamish re: registry mods, above (unchecked) items can be deleted from HKLM & HKCU for even faster start

[backhoe]

Appreciate the info- yes, I vaguely remember GEM from those days. God, that was the Dark Ages to someone like my teenage nieces!

[Redcloak]

How do you delete IE.

I'd like to know.

With this.

[SaveTheChief]

I liked Netscape back in the early days. It was the best of the early browswes, and was superior to IE for a few years before Microsoft caught up with, invented and/or absorbed, purchased and/or stole technologies that made IE the top dog.

Once Netscape was purchased by AOL, their focus seemed to switch to bundling the browser with a lot of things some folks didn't want - ICQ, AIM, and a host of other add ons over the past few years. I never did find a way to install the latest browser only -- without all the add on stuff, but then again, a couple of days and several software crashes later seemed to cure that desire for experimentation with anything Netscape related.

Firefox is everything Netscape once was, and should be today. In my opinion, we got our browser back - and then some. Its stability, popup blocking, tabbed browsing, and fast access of bookmarks makes this one a winner for me.

[Richard Kimball]

Being young isn't necessarily a bad thing in the computer field. I just do my own work (photofinishing, web site design) on my own computer, now, but when I worked for a large entity, networking was handled by guys with mainframe backgrounds. They were big into the "we're wizards, submit your requests, and in a couple of months we'll tell you it's not possible" mode. Their primary concern was defending mainframe turf.

A lot of the mainframe guys had to get shoved out the door before we made much progress in connectivity and usability. Things change so quickly that history is interesting, but it's still history.

[blues_guitarist]

"OFF TOPIC.
Can you tell me about the Les Paul picture on your home page? Gibson, Epi, 'other'?
I'm considering an Epi Les Paul or a Tele (I have a Strat).
Thanks."

It's a Guild Bluesbird.
It's a great guitar. Similar in looks to a Les Paul but about half the weight and price. I think Guild discontinued it last year. But they still can be had on eBay. It's a bit beefier sounding than a Les Paul. I like it because I try to go for my own sound.
I used to own a mid-seventies Tele Custom. Best playing guitar I ever owned. Plus it had the Les Paul style controls and a humbucker in the rhythm positon.

God bless.