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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: Salo

LOL poor Xerox. They invented Ethernet too.


41 posted on 12/18/2004 7:08:48 AM PST by KoRn
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To: HangnJudge
Yup - DOS was a direct rip off from OS/8 & PAL-8 from PDP8 DEC minicomputers

You're probably right. Still, I remember my profs talking about CP/M, so I thought that was it.
42 posted on 12/18/2004 7:10:31 AM PST by clyde asbury (Hey, waiter, bring me Volume Three of the wine list.)
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To: WKB
is there a way to set the font size so it will stay at the size you want?

Tools->Options->General->Fonts & Colors.

43 posted on 12/18/2004 7:10:46 AM PST by ohCompGk
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To: Baynative; ohCompGk

See that little 'star' (FR logo) in the URL window? Drag that to your desktop. Instant link to this thread.

44 posted on 12/18/2004 7:11:50 AM PST by Nick Danger (Want some wood?)
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To: TomGuy

Can it enlarge graphic images as well as text as does Opera?


45 posted on 12/18/2004 7:12:34 AM PST by jack308
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To: ExTexasRedhead

Just simply download and install Firefox. It will even allow you to import your existing IE Favorites.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/


I'm running XP without the SP-2 (due to the horror stories). So far, I haven't had any significant problems with XP. I do run ZoneAlarm and nearly a dozen various spy-blockers and virus checkers (lol). Some catch things that the others miss.

Yesterday some evil got a pop-up from gator.com on my pc, but I think I got Ad-Watch to kill it. I haven't seen it this morning---so far.


46 posted on 12/18/2004 7:13:27 AM PST by TomGuy (America: Best friend or worst enemy. Choose wisely.)
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To: mathprof
I wonder why no one mentioned Mozilla, the elder brother of Firefox.

I used to work in Oracle some time ago. Oracle praises web-enabled applications and is very much anti-Microsoft. However, to my amusement, Oracle web-enabled apps were running on IE only. The only thing, that came to my mind was "Oracle web-enabled apps run ony any OS and on any browser, as long as this OS is Windows and the browser is IE". Yuck. (that has changed as of now)

So, I have run an experiment. I have put SuSE Linux Desktop Edition plus Mozilla, plus Star Office on my PC and just tried to push on with what I was doing on Windows PC. Frankly speaking, I was able to cover nearly 80% of what I was normally doing. However, any web apps that had MS javascript and ActiveX component did not work.

I bet, when Mozilla/Firefox supports MS javascript extensions and ActiveX, it will rock and roll, it will kick the ... out of MS IE. (accidentally, MS did not release the new version of their browser for a veeery long time).

I am using Mozilla at work (despite that IE is the corporate standard) for simple reason - I do not want all of the junk (like spyware) landing on my PC. At home I mainly use Firefox (it is a tad lighter and faster than Mozilla). I have been using Mozilla since version 1.0

Post scriptum: RSS bookmarks rule! If only FR supported RSS, it would be much easier to navigate. Take a look at del.icio.us for RSS stuff.

47 posted on 12/18/2004 7:15:24 AM PST by K. Smirnov (Do not let the sands of time get into your lunch)
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To: mathprof

I like Firefox but does anyone know of a way to get the bookmarks to list in alphabetical order?


48 posted on 12/18/2004 7:15:50 AM PST by ops33 (Retired USAF Senior Master Sergeant)
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To: ops33

Bookmarks | right-click on anyone of them and choose sort by name


49 posted on 12/18/2004 7:17:15 AM PST by mathprof
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To: HangnJudge
It was amazing to be able to run FORTRAN in 4K

You would know, then. :)

I remember using our high school's TRS-80s.

64K RAM !
50 posted on 12/18/2004 7:17:52 AM PST by clyde asbury (Hey, waiter, bring me Volume Three of the wine list.)
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To: Condor51; KoRn
"NO OFFENSE, but you must be young. YES Windows was ripped off, from Apple. In short, when MS was a little bitty company, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs hired MS (Gates) to write an OS or some programs (IIRC). When Gates saw the Apple 'windows' look he basically said to his people 'steal it', make it ours. They did, and it was. "

I don’t follow this stuff with a passion, but I hear Apple “ripped off” the window concept from Xerox labs in Palo Alto in the early 70s. Everything is built on something else. If what Gates “stole” from Apple was copyrightable, Apple would have pursued it in court.

51 posted on 12/18/2004 7:19:41 AM PST by elfman2
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To: TomGuy
I've tried to locate FoxVoice and failed.

Would you mind explaining how to get it to work?

52 posted on 12/18/2004 7:20:16 AM PST by Positive (Nothing is sadder than to see a beautiful theory murdered by a gang of brutal facts.)
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To: Condor51

Apple stole their's from the Xerox PARC several years before. Great innovations often follow an evolutionary track adding to the ideas that came before. Revolutionary ideas are few and far between. Like the guy who figured out that if you put a rough running motor in piece rod shaped piece of plastic, it could pleasure to women.


53 posted on 12/18/2004 7:21:14 AM PST by appeal2
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To: mathprof

BTTT


54 posted on 12/18/2004 7:21:28 AM PST by Fiddlstix (This Tagline for sale. (Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: KoRn

You are young. The Mac's networking was one of the reasons we gave up MS in the 80s.


55 posted on 12/18/2004 7:21:28 AM PST by Tribune7
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To: 1234
..on Win 95 OS - should i risk the dwnld

No offense, but I wouldn't risk using that for a door stop. Win 95 S-U-C-K-S. Why MS even allowed pc mfgs to have USB ports with that OS is beyond me as it didn't support them. My old pc had 2 USB ports and they would NOT work with WIN-95, I had to reformat my HD and install 98, THEN they worked. So NO, don't attempt a download.

btw, I was told by my SIL who's an Authorized MS network administrator that Win 95 is/was nothing but a 'tricked up' version WIN 3.1. However, WIN-98 2nd Edition was one of the most stable Win OS's. Win 2000 is stable too, but he prefers Win 98 and still uses that on the pc's he makes for friends.

I like WIN ME, but 'everyone' seems to detest it. And XP (to me) has too much JUNK. My daughters new laptop has it and I hate using it. I could go to Cancun for a vacation during its boot up process. /sarcasm

56 posted on 12/18/2004 7:21:36 AM PST by Condor51 (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Gen G Patton)
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To: clyde asbury

I also have a problem with Yahoo groups Chat (which is java based). The problem is poor coding on Yahoo Groups Chat. It will lock the browser many times (IE and Firefox).

With IE, I simply CTRL+ALT+DELETE, bring up the Windows Task Manager, select Application (IE) and End Task, and reload IE.

With Firefox, I can't do that. Firefox seemingly closes, but it doesn't show up in the Applications list. Even though it appears to be closed, Firefox refuses to reload. I have to reboot to get Firefox to load.


57 posted on 12/18/2004 7:23:18 AM PST by TomGuy (America: Best friend or worst enemy. Choose wisely.)
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To: clyde asbury
And Timex/Sinclair Computers with mighty memory of 1k
Not to mention the ORIGINAL ALTAIR microcomputer
http://rwebs.net/micros/altair/
58 posted on 12/18/2004 7:23:45 AM PST by HangnJudge
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To: clyde asbury
MS-DOS was only renamed and tweaked from another company's DOS, too.

If memory serves it was IBM.
Gates 'scammed' IBM into a software deal, took their OS and .. ah.. 'modified it'.

(again, going by memory)

59 posted on 12/18/2004 7:26:47 AM PST by Condor51 (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Gen G Patton)
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To: mathprof
There are so many trap doors and security problems with microsoft stuff that they would be dollars ahead to come up with new everything. Their original design premise is their achilles heel. Making everything inter-operable and requiring online updates, registration and periodic maintenance from Microsoft is the achilles heel.

Microsoft is going down. The DOD has switched to Apple. Who wants to spend 90% of their computer time cleaning, repairing, innoculating and playing around with weak software?

60 posted on 12/18/2004 7:27:21 AM PST by Podkayne
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