Posted on 01/04/2005 4:26:26 PM PST by Coleus
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Is this internet prodigy about to knock Microsoft off its pedestal? A Miami teenager has created a free web browser that has been called Bill Gates's worst nightmare |
A MIAMI teenager is basking in the glory of helping to create a new internet browser at 17 that is now challenging the grip of Microsoft, which once held a virtual monopoly on web surfing.
Computer analysts say that Blake Ross’s browser, Firefox, is a faster, more versatile program that also offers better protection from viruses and unwanted advertising.
Industry experts have dubbed the new software “Microsoft’s worst nightmare”, according to the technology magazine Business 2.0. It hailed Mr Ross, now 19, as a software prodigy. He is also a talented pianist and “an unbelievable creative writer”, according to his mother, Ross. “Anything he does, he does well,” she said.
As a seven-year-old Mr Ross became hooked on the popular computer game SimCity, designing and budgeting his own virtual city. By 10, he had created his own website. He later created his own computer applications and online text games.Soon he was reporting computer software flaws to manufacturers online.
At 14 he was offered an internship at Netscape in Silicon Valley. His mother drove him out to California for three summers in succession.
At Netscape, Mr Ross was introduced to the Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes “choice and innovation on the web”.
Mozilla was already trying to develop an open-source alternative browser to Microsoft’s Explorer, which many analysts felt had grown clumsy and outdated. Mr Ross and his friend David Hyatt began working on a small, user-focused browser. What began as an experimental side-project turned into Firefox.
Mr Ross is quick to point out that he was one of a large team at Mozilla who worked on the project for five years. “It’s a big volunteer effort,” he said. In fact, the pair left before the work was completed, but Mozilla credits them with making the breakthrough. After he left to go to university, Mr Ross continued to be a “significant contributor”, according to Mozilla.
The task involved throwing out all the old codes and rewriting the entire system so it would support all websites on the internet. While Firefox still has a long way to go to rival Microsoft, it seems to be catching on. Firefox has received dazzling reviews from industry analysts. Recently some 10,000 Firefox fans raised $250,000 (£131,000) to take out a two-page advertisement in The New York Times. It is not just in dividual users who are taking interest. In December, the information technology department at Pennsylvania State University sent a note to college deans recommending that the entire 100,000-strong staff, faculty and student body switch to Firefox.
Mr Ross, now a student at Stanford University studying computer science, is taking it all in his stride. As a volunteer on an open-source product, there was no financial reward.
Microsoft professes to be unfazed. Windows executive Gary Schare said: “We’re seeing the natural ebb and flow of a competitive marketplace with new products being introduced. It’s not surprising to see curious early adopters checking them out.”
Not content with making a huge dent in Microsoft’s browser share, Mozilla, the foundation behind Firefox, is also going after Microsoft’s Outlook and other e-mail packages.
Called Thunderbird 1.0, the package works on Windows, Macintosh and Linux and has been praised by the industry and press for finally offering a challenge to Microsoft’s dominance in the e-mail arena.
The software provides a number of features which other packages are struggling to offer. Key features include e-mail junk filters that analyse and sort incoming mail and greater security elements.
Mozilla's ThunderBird Email package works as well or better than Netscape..!
I've tried Foxfire on two occasions now and for some reason I find it "lacking." It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason but I keep returning to IE. I do keep Windows XP Pro and IE patched and have never experienced problems.
FireFox is a browser
Windows is an operating system
I understand how silly headlines can confuse people.
Get FireFox at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
FireFox is currently less vulnerable because it does less (that is pretty much how the model works - expanded functionality means expanded vulnerability and less options means less vulnerability - this is not rocket science). Home users - by all means switch to FireFox.
I'd like to try firefox but I don't want two browsers as I like a "lean" computer
I also want to keep my active desktop.
If I thought I could keep the best of I.E. and delete the rest I would,but trying separate I.E. from Windows without causing major problems in Windows could be tricky.
The amount of effort, time and expense Microsoft went through to create, debug and embed Internet explorer into Windows, suggest that there was a reason why it was created.
You are not employed by Microsoft are you?
If it makes no sense for a student to go to all that trouble for zero profit, why would a publicly held company do it?
Hmmmmmmmm?
In a market, goods and services are bought and sold. Opera is about the only outfit in the browser "market".
Sure, Microsoft makes standards, violates ("extends" them) or ignores them completely. Technological leaders always do, whether it's Microsoft, IBM or whoever. So, when (if) open source becomes the technology leader they'll call the shots and cycle starts anew. I don't see this as "forcing" anything. Its progress.
I like Firefox, but I don't like the way page fonts are rendered. Maxthon is a good 'tabbed' version of IE.
Yeah, I know, my mistake. But Windows and IE are almost synonymous.
Your wait is officially now OVER.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
It's out. I use it.
Microsoft dominates the browser "market"
Amount Microsoft makes off of IE (monthly - multiply by 12 for annual amount): $0.00
If FireFox takes over the world and nobody used IE ever again - amount Microsoft will lose: $0.00
The browser is nearly valueless - what is in the browser and what serves up the content for the browser is where the value lies.
That being said, I have been using Firefox for about six months now and love it. In addition to being fast and easy, I just ran Ad-aware for the first time in two months and it found 0 new objects. I'm sure hackers will target Firefox for viruses if its use becomes ubiquitous, but that's probably way off.
Thanks everybody!
I'm trying to convince my wife to give up IE and Outlook. I use Netscape and Eudora Pro.
I use both Firefox and IE. I think IE is the better browser, but I do like Firefox because I can keep it stripped down to the bare minimum, so no shockwave or other plug-ins there.
I've used the Google toolbar for a couple of years now, and with SP-2 IE finally got the popup blocker it needed so I don't have the nightmares others will tell about.
Basically, I use Firefox for online shopping, reading the news, etc. and IE for fun.
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