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 Rosss 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 Microsofts 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 Microsofts 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. Its 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: Were seeing the natural ebb and flow of a competitive marketplace with new products being introduced. Its not surprising to see curious early adopters checking them out.
Not content with making a huge dent in Microsofts browser share, Mozilla, the foundation behind Firefox, is also going after Microsofts 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 Microsofts 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.
Screw 70% of the market because you don't need them
Interesting business strategy. I will admit I don't have the luxury you have to say "screw'em" to 70% of the available market - that is why I question if you really work in the industry. I guess it is possible you work for a company that wishes to limit itself to only 30% of the available market.
FireFox does have a stand alone e-mail program, called mozilla Thunderbird. I downloaded it when I down loaded FireFox, because I used to use Netscape for e-mail. Try it, it imports everything seamlessly, and I think is easier to use too. what I like is you don't have to open a browser to get e-mail!
I can't remember if it was up this thread or on another I said it, but I don't think IE will drop below 2/3 of the market. It's got the two most important bundles for the market: Windows, and AOL. And obviously IE isn't going to stop being bundled in Windows, and AOL never seemed to even seriously contemplate unbundling IE even after they bought Netscape (always wondered if MS paid them off somewhere in that). As long as IE keeps those bundles they will have the majority of the market, but if the other third of the market coalesces around 1 browser (which ever, doesn't matter) the industry will start having to do dual support again. Which from where I sit sucks, I hate having to test things twice, I don't like having to test our server on 2K and 2K3, and I don't want to have to start testing our web client on IE and something else. Of course if the other third of the market get spread out between 3 or more browsers coding will be able to stay IE-centric. Which, of course, was the whole goal, to functionally replace the W3C standard with a standard owned by MS, there are few things in this world Bill Gates hates more than popular standards controlled by somebody else.
Let me get this straight - you are claiming that if you use say FireFox - you are still vulnerable to IE hacks while you are browsing with FireFox.
Yeah. Right.
What happened to your "screw'em" strategy?
Good point.
As long as IE keeps those bundles they will have the majority of the market, but if the other third of the market coalesces around 1 browser (which ever, doesn't matter) the industry will start having to do dual support again
Very true! If the market demands it - businesses will do it.
Which, of course, was the whole goal, to functionally replace the W3C standard with a standard owned by MS, there are few things in this world Bill Gates hates more than popular standards controlled by somebody else.
Right on.
Okay, I'll type this real slow-like this time so you can read it. You have one more chance to show me you are capable of comprehending English:
I'm talking about personal sites that I don't make money off of, and mainly my friends (who are smart enough not to use IE) will be visiting. People I don't know who are using IE, yeah, screw'em. It's not costing me anything and lets me use all the cool CSS stuff that IE chokes on.
Are you good now or are you going to take time off from the WWW for a grade-school English refresher?
I don't know. Do you have Outlook open in the background?
Yeah, old thread, I know, but I wanted to say this much; the Justice Department's problem with IE was that it became integrated into the operating system. And they were right: just because you don't have IE open doesn't mean it isn't running. If you bring up the task manager, you'll see explorer.exe--the IE system shell. You can't shut it down, because it's necessary to run everything from your taskbar on up. Every time you open My Computer or the Control Panel, you're loading it in an IE window.
One major reason Windows is insecure is because IE has become Windows.
Thanks.
Righting along with your reasoning, there is a subset (although not small) of people that probably have a hard time seeing what I have put up for personal pages. And I don't care. Anybody I do care about uses a decent browser like Firefox, Opera or Safari.
The Internet is supposed to be an enabling technology.
I have to admit that's part of the reason I do this. I have a problem when any company can reduce the abilities of the WWW in general (in a "de-facto standards" way) just because they don't want to make their browser standards-compliant. It's effort to try to "smarten-up" at least a small corner of the WWW.
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