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In Front: Microsoft's Worst Nightmare
Business 2.0 ^ | October 20, 2004 | Om Malik,

Posted on 10/27/2004 10:31:15 PM PDT by budman_2001

Blake Ross is lounging at his parents' Florida Keys condo, thinking ahead to his first day back at Stanford. His goal for his sophomore year: nothing less than to "take back the Web" from Microsoft (MSFT).

You might think the shy 19-year-old is outmatched. Think again. Ross, a software prodigy who interned at Netscape at age 14, is the lead architect behind Mozilla's Firefox -- a revolutionary new browser that's catching on the way Mosaic did in 1993. In beta for the past four months, Firefox version 1.0 is set to be released in November. With that, Ross will issue the first truly formidable challenge to Internet Explorer that the world has seen in seven years.

"We're hoping for 10 million downloads in 10 days," Ross says proudly.

http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,714129,00.html


TOPICS: Front Page News
KEYWORDS: browser; business20; explorer; firefox; internet; internetexploiter; linux; windows
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Get Firefox I use Firefox PR1 and IMHO, beats the sox off MS Explorer. Life is good with tabs. Click the link and give it a try. "Firefox got rave reviews from the digerati and began spreading like wildfire to corporate America. "Over the last six months, many Fortune 100 companies have started using Firefox," notes Chris Hoffman, director of engineering for Mozilla. "People are realizing that it's a very stable program."
1 posted on 10/27/2004 10:31:16 PM PDT by budman_2001
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To: budman_2001

my part time job can only be used through IE but for everything else its firefox, even though its still quite glitchy in some instances.


2 posted on 10/27/2004 10:35:39 PM PDT by aft_lizard (Actually i voted for John Kerry before I voted against him.)
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To: budman_2001

The website I run has seen IE fall from over 90% to 65% in the last 6 months. People just plain don't trust using IE anymore - it is just a time waster to use it.


3 posted on 10/27/2004 10:36:36 PM PDT by glorgau
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: budman_2001

If it is free, that sounds like a bad business model


5 posted on 10/27/2004 10:39:11 PM PDT by GeronL (FREE KERRY'S SCARY bumper sticker .......... http://www.kerrysscary.com/bumper_sticker.php)
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To: budman_2001

First it was the Clinton government after them, trying to take them down, then it was the EU, large fine - now this guy -


I wonder how the one man is feeling about all this


6 posted on 10/27/2004 10:39:23 PM PDT by Pastnowfuturealpha
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To: aft_lizard
The only real problem I have found is with an IBM Thinkpad that uses Trackpoint; left/right scrolling is broke.

Other than that, its great.

Fast, tweakable, tons of special extensions and great themes.

Highest level of HTML/CSS standards, except when it comes to Flash. There, I also have some problems (www.speedtv.com)

7 posted on 10/27/2004 10:40:53 PM PDT by budman_2001
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To: budman_2001

using FF 1.0 right now.


8 posted on 10/27/2004 10:41:14 PM PDT by Khurkris (Even from far away, some things are damned funny!)
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To: MikeAbboud
Have you used Avant and if so how does it compare

No, I have not.

9 posted on 10/27/2004 10:41:39 PM PDT by budman_2001
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To: budman_2001
Never used Internet Exploder (or, gack, Outlook) because it obviously blows, but have been pretty loyal to Netscape until a few weeks ago. Tabbed browsing has been with me for a long time.

Now, however, and for the past week or so, it's Firefox all the way, baby!

10 posted on 10/27/2004 10:42:23 PM PDT by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: GeronL
If it is free, that sounds like a bad business model

They'll make it up volume. /sarc

11 posted on 10/27/2004 10:42:33 PM PDT by Rightwing Conspiratr1 (Lock-n-load!)
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To: Khurkris

What extensions do you like?


12 posted on 10/27/2004 10:43:25 PM PDT by budman_2001
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To: budman_2001

There's a guy in West Virginia by the name of Warren Woodford. He's a one man inventor who reinvented desktop Linux by putting it on a CD you can run and if you want to, install it to your hard drive. He said he was dissatisfied with how every other distro worked and invented his own. Its based on Debian Linux and for $10, it beats the pants off Microsoft and heavily advertised rivals like Linspire and Xandros. Check it out at http://www.mepis.org


13 posted on 10/27/2004 10:44:27 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: GeronL

That's what they said about crack cocaine didn't they ?


14 posted on 10/27/2004 10:44:51 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. ©)
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To: budman_2001

Sometimes Javascripting fails, quite miserably I might add. Sometimes it interferes with other programs, like my internet poker and just odd little things like autoscrolling getting stuck and not registering clicks on some things. I am pretty sure its not my computer because all of the above work pefectly well in IE.


15 posted on 10/27/2004 10:45:06 PM PDT by aft_lizard (Actually i voted for John Kerry before I voted against him.)
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To: budman_2001

How does destroying Microsoft hurt conservatives?
I thought we were always for big business and the free market...


16 posted on 10/27/2004 10:47:36 PM PDT by Provo78
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To: Provo78

I mean... help conservatives... how does it help us?


17 posted on 10/27/2004 10:48:42 PM PDT by Provo78
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To: budman_2001

Just started using Firefox. I'm tired of all of the spyware and Trojan alerts.


18 posted on 10/27/2004 10:51:08 PM PDT by streetpreacher (Bush did not lead this country into an unjust war; Kerry led this country out of a just war.)
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To: Provo78

I'm for competition. You can basically pick up a barebones computer from Fry's, buy a $10 Mephis CD, install all the Operating System and all the apps from the CD you think you'll need and you're in business. And if you think you need more, there are free Debian repositories on the Web. Competition's healthy for Microsoft in giving every one better quality software at a more affordable price.


19 posted on 10/27/2004 10:52:09 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: GeronL
If it is free, that sounds like a bad business model

Time will tell.

As for business models, its a pretty non-standard plan. Hopefully, his parents will be large shareholders when it goes public. :-))

But, long term seriously, there is a possible subscriber base, along with a corporate support base, that can be squeezed slowly, BUT ONLY with excellent product and service.

A tall order, but possible. And lucritive, considering MS IE's security strategy of whack-a-mole that has CIOs feeling like they are chasin' their tails.

20 posted on 10/27/2004 10:53:08 PM PDT by budman_2001
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