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The Fox Is in Microsoft's Henhouse (and Salivating)
NYT ^ | December 19, 2004 | RANDALL STROSS

Posted on 12/18/2004 6:19:26 AM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: firefox
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To: Kaslin
Arrgh. It is not necessary to exerpt the Slimes. Please post the whole article. I refuse to register

Have you ever used BugMeNot?
When 'Already A Member? LOG IN' box pops up at web site like NYT, just right click in the Member ID or Username and click the BugMeNot option. It will provide a username and password for you. It works at practically all news sites. Get the extension from the link below.

BugMeNot extension for Firefox

181 posted on 12/18/2004 10:49:29 AM PST by Eagle9
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To: Cicero
I use Ad Muncher on Internet Explorer.

Isn't Ad Muncher Great? I don't know why some folks won't even trial it for the 30 day free trial period. It's clean and fast, doesn't pollute the registry or any other nonsense if you chose to delete it. Great little program. Turn it off sometimes and you'll be amazed and alarmed at what some people see the internet as. It's frightening.

182 posted on 12/18/2004 10:49:30 AM PST by Malsua
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To: SW6906
Look under File, page setup, then see if a box is checked "shrink page to width" or something like that. See if that box is checked.

Not sure about the favorites, Ill check on it.
183 posted on 12/18/2004 10:50:46 AM PST by KoRn
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To: SlowBoat407

Okay, forget what I said. There's a lot better information in this thread, probably from people who were there at the time, than what I have provided. I just learned a boatload.


184 posted on 12/18/2004 10:52:39 AM PST by SlowBoat407 (Couldn't you have stopped shooting at us and watched your baby grow instead?)
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To: KoRn
"Look under File, page setup, then see if a box is checked "shrink page to width" or something like that. See if that box is checked."

Thanks for the tip, I tried it, nothing changed.

185 posted on 12/18/2004 10:54:28 AM PST by SW6906
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To: WKB

hold the ctrl down and use your mouse wheel to change font sizes


186 posted on 12/18/2004 10:55:49 AM PST by ezo4
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To: SW6906
K, that was just my first thought I'll keep checking. Does the site you go to have really big pics, or tables?
187 posted on 12/18/2004 10:56:34 AM PST by KoRn
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To: SlowBoat407

To be fair, Xerox came up with PARC and didn't know what to do with it.

Er...kind of. PARC stands for the Palo Alto Research Center, which is still there, and Xerox did know what to do with it, it creates most of the technology for Xerox machines, among other things. What is true is that Xerox has a long history of not undertsanding what their wizards at PARC come up with, most notable being Postscript, which the inventer of took with him when he quit PARC, and started a little company called Adobe.

Woz went to Xerox and bought it for a song (and maybe a dance, I'm not sure), because he DID know what to do with it.

Woz never made business deals for Apple, he was an engineer for the most part, and after the Apple II and III, did'nt have much to do with the company at all, he was busy putting on rock festivals and craching airplanes, and later getting into computer education very seriously (and has done some great, great work).

And PARC still belongs to Xerox, althouh there were rumors a couple of years ago that it was for sale. Apple buying PARC would actually be a great idea, tho - any tech company would probably love to have it.

Apple's creative team designed the specific look of the interface,

True.

which Microsoft decided they liked and deserved to have created first, hence, Windoze.

LOL. I have no idea what you're talking about now. :)


188 posted on 12/18/2004 10:58:41 AM PST by ByDesign
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To: TomGuy
You can speed up Adobe Reader loading by using this little free program: Adobe Reader SpeedUp 1.31
Hey, thanks!
189 posted on 12/18/2004 10:59:08 AM PST by Clara Lou (Hillary Clinton: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.")
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To: KoRn
Here is the page I am loading, see if it is not wrapped for you. THANKS for your help!
190 posted on 12/18/2004 11:00:48 AM PST by SW6906
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To: SW6906

You know what, I think it might be because someone 1/3 of the way down the page posted a HUGE web address, so FireFox doesn't wrap it. May not be a problem at all...........


191 posted on 12/18/2004 11:02:19 AM PST by SW6906
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To: mathprof

I run XP (severely stripped down) and like it well enough, once all the 'phone home' crap is turned off.

Unless one of my mortgage vendors requires IE, I don't touch it. It's like a sewerpipe attached to my hard drive, pumping all that malware crap directly into the system.


I've been using Mozilla for three years, but just this week switched to Firefox and T-bird. Very nice stuff.


192 posted on 12/18/2004 11:02:30 AM PST by Petronski (A suitable case for treatment.)
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To: HairOfTheDog

I am certainly not going to rely on freeware submitted by some Joe working in his basement to protect myself.

I used to feel the same way. I had Mcaffe anti virus and firewall and all the bells and whistles shredder, quick clean etc.I liked the program but my install disk was always buggy giving me all sorts of error messages and hanging on boot-ups until one day it just died.BTW I got no response to my complaints to Mcaffe.I had already heard about AVG and Zone Alarm and even tried them out on one of my machines.Since then I've gone to ALL freeware AVG,Zone alarm,Adaware,Spybot.These are not cheesy programs written by some geek in a basement and most of them offer a "professional" version that you can actually pay for if that makes you feel better.


193 posted on 12/18/2004 11:09:04 AM PST by edchambers ("Pajamahadin Neocon footsoldier of the Haliburton Death squad ")
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To: Eagle9
Thanks for the great tip:

Have you ever used BugMeNot? When 'Already A Member? LOG IN' box pops up at web site like NYT, just right click in the Member ID or Username and click the BugMeNot option. It will provide a username and password for you. It works at practically all news sites. Get the extension from the link below.

BugMeNot extension for Firefox

194 posted on 12/18/2004 11:09:06 AM PST by mathprof
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To: edchambers

Glad they're workin' for ya.


195 posted on 12/18/2004 11:11:48 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: ByDesign

See my disclaimer a few posts after my first one, in which I humbly defer to those around me and proclaim that I'm all confoozed.

Thanks for the corrections. I owe you ;-)


196 posted on 12/18/2004 11:15:01 AM PST by SlowBoat407 (Couldn't you have stopped shooting at us and watched your baby grow instead?)
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To: SW6906
One other complaint: when it imported my favorites, it didn't keep the sort order I had. It alphabetized them.

Right click a bookmark/sort by name or you can go to manage bookmarks and view/sort by xxxx for folders and folder contents.

197 posted on 12/18/2004 11:23:13 AM PST by this_ol_patriot
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To: beckett
Firefox is better than IE, but it does have its problems. For instance, it forces you to hit enter after you've pasted in a URL...
No, it doesn't. Go to view-> toolbars-> customize, and add a "GO" button.
198 posted on 12/18/2004 11:24:42 AM PST by Clara Lou (Hillary Clinton: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.")
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To: WKB
Firefox extension to view, remove, or remove cookie forever -- View Cookies 1.2 extension for Firefox

Screenshot

199 posted on 12/18/2004 11:25:12 AM PST by Eagle9
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To: this_ol_patriot

Thanks, I figured out how to re-order them, my complaint was that upon the transfer from IE to FF, the sort was lost by FF. It's moot now......


200 posted on 12/18/2004 11:25:50 AM PST by SW6906
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