Posted on 01/04/2005 4:26:26 PM PST by Coleus
|
|
 |
|
|
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.
You can't have a house without doors, and you can't have doors without handles :)
MSFT has provided a fairly complete offering for ordinary offices. A browser is only one of the many components.
I don't agree. Content is king - Microsoft knows this. The browser is merely a delivery device for content. People pay for content, not the browser.
It's good to have a big American software corporation to compete against the rest of the world.
Staffed by Indians in Bangalore.
If Microsoft were owned by anyone else and had as huge a monopoly, then I would want and demand more competition.
In a free world, one does not "demand" competition - one creates competition.
I can understand more and more why anti-Americans (like American ultra-leftists) absolutely hate Microsoft even though Bill Gates is a solidly left-of-center guy in politics.
Yeah...and people love to hate the big winner (especially people that rarely win)(I am not directing that at you)
Very true.AOL is my ISP, on dial up, connected at 24,000 bps. If I open a couple of search windows on the AOL browser the computer virtually stops.If I open FireFox I can use both without slowdown,just switch from one to another on the taskbar.Handy to research another website to get a fact or figure while posting a reply or to get the url for a link or image.
At that slow of connection FireFox is a lot to a little faster browser depending on the site.
As more people use FireFox will it slow down from overcrowding of their servers or is that not even possible,pretty computer ignorant?
I can just see Gates and the Microsoft "geeks" giggling as they designed it;
"The world revolves around Microsoft."
You are missing the point - that game is over. The standards and features are set. For a browser to compete it must follow the standards and features set in large part by Microsoft. Microsoft already won that battle. Microsoft's goal was content - the browser now has the functionality to deliver the content Microsoft wants to deliver. Microsoft makes money off the content, not the browser - all Microsoft needed was a browser that delivers the level of content they envisioned. That has been done already so the browser is no longer an issue.
Once they have the content encoded in their proprietary formats (such as they do with Word and Excel), every couple of years they turn over a ton of $$ by forcing everyone to upgrade.
Content is not encoded in their proprietary format. That was the desktop model and that is so "ten years ago". Microsoft's main focus now is .NET and that is a standards-based platform (no proprietary anything - other than the actual OS's). The game has changed.
This is done by giving corporate clients a price break if they agree to buy upgrades when they are available.
Yes. It all one giant conspiracy.
The upgraded software fights like hell to save everything in the new format. Older software can't read the new format, so now another wave of upgrades occur because people can't read the documents being sent to them.
Yeah. Right. This has nothing to do with the Internet paradigm.
They control all of this, so they don't have to provide versions of their software for other platforms, like Linux.
So why is Microsoft the number one software vendor for the Mac? Why should Microsoft spend the money to create software that can only run on about 3% of the market?
Attempts to create clones are met with legal action over their proprietary and secret formats.
What are you talking about? Point me to one of these Microsoft legal actions over proprietary and "secret" formats.
All of this hinges on controlling the format in which information is encoded, and MSIE is an important part of that.
Wrong. IE conforms to open and published standards. There is no secret encodings or secret decoder rings.
Microsoft had a vision of what Internet content could be and they created a browser to deliver this content. The standards used, HTML-XML-SSL-JavaScript-etc, are open standards and not proprietary. If somebody makes a browser that can deliver the same content IE can deliver - Microsoft does not care. They sell the tools to create and deliver content, not the browser.
You have a good imagination. IE is currently not even challenged.
They should if they get nothing out of it being dominant.
They got EVERYTHING out of it being dominant but that game is over. All a competing browser can be is "just like IE - but better". Game over. Microsoft already obtained what they needed.
The money comes from tools to create and deliver content. MS set the standards for the browser so that battle is over.
A better browser is like buying a third party remote for your TV - you watch the TV for the content, not to use the remote. A neat remote is cool and may make it easier to get to the content you want but your pay for the content.
Save it to your desk top and you will have an icon there to click just like you have IE now. you will also be asked if you want Firefox as your default browser - click yes.
There is truth is your statement but I think we are going to have to wait a lot more years to watch MS's demise.
Also, you cannot easily get rid of IE but you can right click the icon and choose either to delete it (This does not remove the program) or you can send the icon somewhere else and then delete it from the desk top.
ping
You really don't get it. The standards set down by MS (and others) were all that mattered - the ability for MS to deliver what they envisioned for the Internet. The browser is a means, not an end.
Of course MS wants to remain the dominant browser (what company won't) but IE dominance is not required for MS to continue to be successful. Do the math. MS makes zero dollars off the browser.
The only way MS would be hurt is if a new browser become dominant and that browser did not support MS content (the stuff they make money on). That is not going to happen - at least not in the near future.
I just downloaded it (free) and installed it (2 minutes) and it seems to work great!
CP
January 65.1% 4.6% 2.1% 4.3% 17.5% 0.3% 1.2% 2004 IE 6 IE 5 O 7 Moz NN 3 NN 4 NN 7 December 66.0% 4.8% 2.0% 21.3% 0.2% 0.3% 1.2% November 68.5% 5.0% 2.2% 19.3% 0.2% 0.2% 1.2% October 69.5% 5.7% 2.2% 17.5% 0.2% 0.2% 1.3% September 69.6% 6.2% 2.3% 16.9% 0.2% 0.2% 1.3% August 70.3% 7.0% 2.3% 15.5% 0.3% 0.3% 1.4% July 71.0% 7.7% 2.3% 13.8% 0.3% 0.3% 1.4% June 72.4% 8.3% 2.3% 11.8% 0.3% 0.3% 1.4% May 72.6% 9.2% 2.2% 11.0% 0.3% 0.3% 1.4% April 72.4% 10.1% 2.1% 10.3% 0.3% 0.3% 1.4% March 72.1% 10.7% 2.1% 9.6% 0.4% 0.4% 1.4% February 71.5% 11.5% 2.2% 9.0% 0.4% 0.4% 1.5% January 71.3% 12.8% 2.1% 8.2% 0.4% 0.5% 1.5% 2003 IE 6 IE 5 O 7 Moz NN 3 NN 4 NN 7 November 71.2% 13.7% 1.9% 7.2% 0.5% 0.5% 1.6% September 69.7% 16.9% 1.8% 6.2% 0.6% 0.6% 1.5% July 66.9% 20.3% 1.7% 5.7% 0.6% 0.6% 1.5% May 65.0% 22.7% 1.4% 4.6% 1.0% 0.9% 1.4% March 63.4% 24.6% 1.2% 4.2% 0.9% 1.1% 1.4% January 55.3% 29.3% 4.0% 1.2% 1.7% 1.1% 2002 IE 6 IE 5 IE 4 AOL NN 3 NN 4 NN 5+ November 53.5% 29.9% 5.2% 1.1% 2.0% 4.9% September 49.1% 34.4% 4.5% 1.3% 2.2% 4.5% July 44.4% 40.1% 0.5% 3.5% 1.2% 2.6% 3.5% May 40.7% 46.0% 0.7% 2.8% 1.2% 3.4% 2.7% March 36.7% 49.4% 0.7% 3.0% 1.2% 4.1% 2.4% January 30.1% 55.7% 1.0% 2.8% 1.3% 4.4% 2.2%
"I switched to Firefox a few weeks ago on the advice of several Freepers. Smartest Web move I've ever done. I LOVE Firefox."
===
I was right along with ya, PJ, remember? I still love it too. Reminds me of the old Netscape I'm used to. And that's what I use at FR.
IE? Ugh! Microsoft. They are the ones who twisted up their own browser, IE. Enough for me. Download updates.........don't say enough to differentiate between Window applications. Doh, you got this - XP? Download this. Oh, golly gee whiz, you downloaded XP update, and you have XP PRO on your computer????????????? I may be dumb; but they were dumber. I haven't downloaded a windows update since that happened back in June, 2004. No resolving that in my book!!
Too afraid of messing up my work connection, which has nothing to do with any web brower. I telecommute to work via different software, altogether. It's pretty cool - I can log in, and it's just like I'm sitting there, even though it's about 200 miles away. The brand name of the software, if anyone wants to know, is Remote Desktop. Works great for me and where I work!
Obviously, I'm just a user, not a tech type.
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.
