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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: TomGuy

NS 7.2 is stable, featureful, and quick. I like it.


61 posted on 12/18/2004 7:28:18 AM PST by Banjoguy ("The business of the Church is business"......)
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To: mathprof

Damn, do I feel stupid!!


62 posted on 12/18/2004 7:29:15 AM PST by ops33 (Retired USAF Senior Master Sergeant)
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To: mathprof
I mostly love Microsoft software, but Firefox is a lot better than IE.

What's to be better? I am not looking for a lot of features I guess... a browser to me is just a box that web pages come in.

63 posted on 12/18/2004 7:29:30 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: HangnJudge
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

Rigth you are... Just like the Corvette is a rip off of the Model T.

64 posted on 12/18/2004 7:29:57 AM PST by Common Tator
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To: HangnJudge

65 posted on 12/18/2004 7:30:24 AM PST by clyde asbury (Hey, waiter, bring me Volume Three of the wine list.)
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To: clyde asbury

this is starting to sound like a slashdot thread


66 posted on 12/18/2004 7:30:29 AM PST by kpp_kpp
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To: Condor51

Actually, I think Windows was ripped off from Xerox. I believe Xerox had a graphical interface, network, and mouse before anyone else even dreamed of these. Xerox believed these things were a novelty. Microsoft and Apple realized the value.

I sure am a Firefox fan. Had used Mozilla for a couple of year. Firefox is a little better. IE sure likes spyware.


67 posted on 12/18/2004 7:32:00 AM PST by PhilSC
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To: gobucks

How do you delete IE.

I'd like to know.


68 posted on 12/18/2004 7:32:11 AM PST by Baraonda (Demographic is destiny. Don't hire 3rd world illegal aliens nor support businesses that hire them.)
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To: appeal2

They Did....

"Microsoft Windows WAS the subject of an Apple lawsuit that dragged on for years and years. Some elements of the lawsuit were thrown out. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, Apple and Microsoft reached an undisclosed licensing agreement/settlement on remaining elements of the lawsuit that publicly involved a $150 million investment by Microsoft in Apple."

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1092128190206490.xml


69 posted on 12/18/2004 7:32:11 AM PST by HangnJudge
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To: mathprof

Interesting how a favorable editorial review coincides with a two-page ad in the same publication.


70 posted on 12/18/2004 7:33:21 AM PST by Fester Chugabrew
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To: KoRn

I think Windows itself was ripped off from somewhere. Internet Explorer was purchased, and they renamed it. They also discourage growth in new innovations. When a company announces they are going to develop a type of software, Microsoft soon after, announces they are going to work on the same thing. Immediately the smaller company stops development because they can't compete with MS, then MS simply sits on the project.

Window was ripped off from Apple. Dos was ripped off from Seattle Computers in the 80's and Internet Explorer was ripped off from Netscape. Bill Gates said himself in the book he wrote, "The Road Ahead" the internet is insignificant. He is a farce, the only thing Bill Gates is good at is contracts in his favor and stealing software. We had a computer business in Seattle 1983-1994 and I know many programmers that threw in the towel on writing software. They figured what's the point, Bill Gates will just steal it.


71 posted on 12/18/2004 7:33:59 AM PST by thirst4truth
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To: K. Smirnov

There is an FR RSS

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/browse.rss


72 posted on 12/18/2004 7:34:00 AM PST by TomGuy (America: Best friend or worst enemy. Choose wisely.)
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To: kpp_kpp
this is starting to sound like a slashdot thread

What are we all doing up so early?
73 posted on 12/18/2004 7:34:46 AM PST by clyde asbury (Hey, waiter, bring me Volume Three of the wine list.)
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To: KoRn
Microsoft will probably buy Firefox, and rename it.

MS can't buy it. It's open source. They can use it if they give proper attributes (kinda like the "Based on NCSA Mosaic" in the help box of IE).

The problem is that MS is already knee deep in Mosaic not to mention the fact that the whole reason for Firefox's existence is because of IE. MS tried to buy Netscape way back when Netscape was the only commercial browser. When they couldn't buy it they tried to destroy by giving away Mosiac (renamed IE and tweeked a little). Netscape's response was to release their source code to encourage competition. You'd be surprised at how many browsers have been created with mozilla source code.

I doubt MS will ever touch Mozilla if for no other reason than of pride.

74 posted on 12/18/2004 7:35:05 AM PST by ohCompGk
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To: mathprof

Firefox is an IE killer unless they do something about it.


75 posted on 12/18/2004 7:35:29 AM PST by Arkinsaw
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To: ops33

Try on Firefox menubar

Bookmarks >> Manage Bookmarks >> View >> A-Z Sort


76 posted on 12/18/2004 7:35:45 AM PST by TomGuy (America: Best friend or worst enemy. Choose wisely.)
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To: elfman2
If what Gates “stole” from Apple was copyrightable, Apple would have pursued it in court.

Maybe Jobs and Wozniak were too high on LSD to realize they'd been ripped off? (Or was it only Jobs who 'indulged')

77 posted on 12/18/2004 7:37:27 AM PST by Condor51 (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Gen G Patton)
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To: TomGuy

Thanks!!


78 posted on 12/18/2004 7:38:06 AM PST by ops33 (Retired USAF Senior Master Sergeant)
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To: clyde asbury
I remember using our high school's TRS-80s

TRS-80, Model II was the first desktop computer I ever used. It had a whopping 64K memory and 2 floppy drives (8" ones) that held something like 124k (IIRC).
79 posted on 12/18/2004 7:38:13 AM PST by TomGuy (America: Best friend or worst enemy. Choose wisely.)
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To: mathprof

I just got done putting in adblock and tweak network settings extensions today. FF gets better the more I use it.


80 posted on 12/18/2004 7:38:22 AM PST by this_ol_patriot
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