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 ...
Correct. One of the others was IBM's "Top View", the other was Quarterdeck's "DesqView". I had DesqView and liked it--wow, multitasking without using TSRs!
"What I meant that at the time MS was not exactly qualified to deliver the programs that IBM wanted and that the IBM deal pretty much made Microsoft into 'a' company."
Except that at the time Microsoft obviously WAS qualified because they did deliver. They were also one of, if not them most, successful microcomputer software companies of the time, producing languages.
#118 - Looks just like the popup blocker Microsoft has in Windows XP SP2 for IE6.
"The original mouse and windows motif came from Xerox's PARC research center in the early '80's."
Actually, from the early '70's, not the 80's.
The Man Who Could Have Been Bill Gates
A new book says Gates got the rewards due Gary Kildall. What's the real story?
The saga of the computing industry is rich with outsize characters and surprising plot turns, but there's one story that has risen over time to mythic proportions. It's the tale of how software pioneer Gary Kildall missed out on the opportunity to supply IBM (IBM ) with the operating system for its first PC -- essentially handing the chance of a lifetime, and control of tech's future, to rival Bill Gates and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ). In the process, he may have missed out on becoming the world's richest man...
Altair was in 1976. I was in high school in 1973 and we used a Wang 2200 (the size of a VCR) which had a paper tape reader for input. Now THAT'S an OLD personal computer!
okay. long time ago. Your memory is better than mine.
I was also in HS in 1973. We had an AT&T teletype with a remote connection to a leased mainframe. We also used paper tape to load programs at 10-15 cps.
Apple licensed the rights to the GUI from Xerox. They did not steal it.
It was, and they did.
I like sparring with you . . . . this must have been what it would have been like to watch the great dinosaurs bleating and howling at the ever-darkening sky - a few hours after the asteroid hit, and a couple months before the last of them expired.
The other was Amiga OS, which was probably the best of the lot. It did things in 1985 that were not done on the other systems until 1998. GEM wound up on Atari's ST "Amiga killer" (it didn't, it took a crooked investment banker named Gould to do that). There were other GUIs that would even work (sort of) on old systems like Commodore 64/128 and the Apple II series. GEOS by Berkeley Softworks (I think) was really quite innovative on those very limited memory computers.
Meanwhile, Commodore's Amiga could run Mac software in emulation FASTER than the same software ran on native Macs with the same processor! The Amiga could even run PC's MS-DOS software in emulation, although not quite as fast as on a PC with an equivalent processor.
The Amiga broke new ground by using dedicated sub-processors for many routine tasks that both the Mac and PCs used the CPU to accomplish. It was only later that PCs adopted this technique (first with processor/graphic cards) to increase performance. The Amiga also pioneered the library and re-entrant process approach as part of its pre- emptive multitasking system.
I have not had a problem, windows update functions fine, .chm (html help files) work fine, help & support works fine, these use IE for some operations and even MS programs like Works 8.0 will launch FF instead of IE when it needs web access. That's not saying that all things will work but with FF as default browser I haven't had any problems in the month it has been installed.
Thanks,can you still open IE for websites that won't work in Firefox? I wonder if Fire fox would open faster if it were the default browser? I know IE does because it's preloaded into memory by windows.
Thank you very much for posting that Adobe Plugin link.
You're very welcome. :-)
BTW, what I did after installing Firefox was to download and install ALL the plug-ins, even though I already had them for IE use. I just didn't want to take any chances and it seemed to work. I don't have any problems, even with the Windows Media Player (though I try NOT to use it. I'll use all my other media apps 1st; Winamp, Real Player, Quick Time, etc).
Yes just keep a shortcut for IE in your start menu, you will have to paste the link in. One thing, NOW you can set your IE security and privacy settings to the highest (disable) or near highest (prompt) because you won't be using it but for special purposes, you won't mind authorizing through a prompt, script and activex behavior when you need them.
People should always set IE security and privacy settings higher than they would for normal browsing when they install an alternate browser. This way apps that use the embedded form of IE like Windows Help and Support and Windows Explorer itself will not be vulnerable or less vulnerable .
That last line should read.
This way apps that use the embedded form of IE like Windows Help and Support and Windows Explorer itself will not be vulnerable or less vulnerable to bad script and activex behavior.
Any system will be vulnerable if you download (invite) crap onto your system, this is where the brain, application control fireall, anti-virus, spyware/adware removers and anti-trojans come into play
tech ping
Yeah Photoshop CS is great, if you want it pm me.
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