Posted on 12/22/2004 8:32:38 AM PST by holymoly
So am I the only Netscape user?
I believe firefox arose from the ashes of the netscape code.
You may want to try it out
Firefox is lightweight, highly configurable, and most of all subject to peer code review.
I used to use it, and it was my favorite. But here in Seattle, every company I contracted at used IE as their default browser. I eventually made the switch even though I preferred Netscape.
BTW, Just before I typed this,I successfully accessed my companies intranet with firefox. I'm done with IE.
I am not sure it's all media hype. In Jan 2004, 95% of the visitors to my own web site were using IE as a browser. The percentage of IE users visiting the site now is down around 65%, which prompted me to rewrite a bunch of javascript so that it would work with Firefox.
I too am wondering what the big deal is. Does Microsoft make money off IE? If not, why do you expect them to care. I bet Bill Gates is laughing now that Firefox is doing all the work on browsers he can pull some employees out of the IE room.
It is good for the consumer and the economy when real product competition drives technology advances and product improvements.
Congratulations!
I use Netscape v7.2 on all my machines, with FireFox as a back-up, if needed. Their GUIs are very similar.
BUMP to study later...
I believe most users stopped using Netscape after the AOL deal that left AOL so tied into the Netscape code and limited other development of the browser. That spurred Mozilla, based on the opensource codebase of Netscape. Mozilla is an awsome browser in itself.
Looks like I responded too fast. Normally, if I need to use my work computer to go outside the intranet, the first time I try, I have to enter a password. When I use firefox,it simply says it cannot find the site. There is no password connection.
I can ONLY use firefox at work to access the intranet.
Not so fast. See my post 33.
Kewl jet!
AND what's to stop the "hacker" community from entering the fray? It seems to me if you want total safety, turn off the computer and move to a mountain top.
I bet Bill Gates is laughing now that Firefox is doing all the work on browsers he can pull some employees out of the IE room. Not true. Gates used Windows to ram IE onto all the desktops, and he's been trying to use the fact that IE was on all the desktops to ram .NET into the server middleware market... and with it Windows Server and SQL Server. This is like having the blocking back fall down just as the play gets underway. If Firefox hits 20% share, no one doing business with consumers will dare rely on proprietary features of IE on their web sites. The days of, "it works on IE, screw the Netscape users" are over. Developers will have to test on both. This is a big deal. |
What do you think will happen if Firefox goes from 5% to 20% of market share, and the A-Holes who write and distribute adware, malware, viruses, and security threats now have the incentive to turn their attention from IE to FF?
Maybe this is because Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer with Windows really wasn't keeping Netscape from competing. Netscape just wasn't a better product than Explorer.
Now it is, and it's rapidly gaining market share.
Once again, the only ones who really gained from the government intervening in the market were the lawyers.
Entering what fray? People don't just pile on code willy-nilly. Patches and improvements are submitted to a few core people. They test it out and examine the code before entering it into the codebase.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.