Posted on 02/16/2005 10:38:24 AM PST by decimon
The party's over.
In the past year, the little browser that could, Firefox, became the people's hero, an underdog warrior that took a huge swipe at its enemy, Internet Explorer. IE dipped below 90 percent market share for the first time in years, while Firefox lured users like the Pied Piper, blowing past its own fundraising goals and reigniting the browser wars.
Meanwhile, the bad news continued to mount for Microsoft. An IE exploit put even Windows XP SP2 users at risk from phishing schemes, even as Microsoft touted SP2 as the most secure version of Windows yet. Worse, major security companies and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team began to recommend that computer users dump IE for something more secure (read: Firefox).
By early this year, Netscape was emboldened to reenter the fray, announcing in January that it would release a new version of the Netscape browser, designed specifically to resist phishing schemes--something even Firefox lacks. Then, Opera said it would offer free licenses to universities, in order to make sure it would still be relevant in the new world browser order. And through it all, what was the response from Microsoft? Silence.
TalkBack Are you afraid of a standalone Internet Explorer, or will you keep betting on the Firefox pony?
For a moment there, it looked like the tyrant IE could actually be overthrown. Those were heady days, weren't they? Well, they're over now. Papa Bill just dropped the hammer. Bill Gates announced this week, at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco (of all places), that Microsoft will ship Internet Explorer 7, without waiting for the next version of Windows. Gates says the standalone browser is designed to address the perception that IE itself is a massive security risk. What he didn't say, but you know he was thinking it, is that IE 7 will easily put a stop to this upstart browser rebellion.
Don't believe me? You should. Firefox is great, I use it. But it's a chore sometimes, what with most sites using that pesky nonstandard IE code. Not everything renders properly, and some sites just plain don't work--I have to load up IE to use them. Plus, let's be honest--Firefox has its flaws. Why is there no way to check for updates from within the browser, for one thing? Why does it take so doggone long to launch? Why, why must it crash every single time I open a PDF? I mean, every single time. Opera, fine, whatever, I'm not paying for a browser, and for some reason, although I've tried it several times, it's just never captured me. It's too clunky, and I was raised on IE. I don't want to learn something completely new. IE, on the other hand, is like the sweeping tide--it's just easier not to fight it.
If a standalone IE 7 is even 50 percent more secure than current versions, the Firefox rebellion is finished. If IE 7 has tabs, Firefox will be destroyed as surely as the Hungarian uprising of 1956 was crushed by Russia. I use the analogy deliberately, too--no one expected Microsoft to issue a standalone version of IE, but those months of silence (and, no doubt, frantic development) look awfully ominous now. This is a company that's absorbed Justice Department lawsuits, threats of daily fines from the European Union, and lawsuits from nearly every state in the union, and that has steadfastly refused to break up its republic of Windows-IE-Windows Media. But this Firefox thing must have it fearing the domino effect, big time.
It was bad when Microsoft seemed to ignore Firefox, treating it like a harmless upstart not worthy of comment or attack. But now that the sleeping giant has awakened, I think the buzzing gnat of the browser wars is about to be squashed flat. What do you think?
that's not my point. If it is the defacto standard than other products can prove their innovations are a better reason to use them but they really should not call the leader the outlier.
What's with the Monicas on those skinny legs?
Oh, oh, I get it!
For those of you too nostalgic for your IE, this is for you.
First install Firefox. www.getfirefox.com
Then go here and install the IE5.0 theme. Your browser will look IDENTICAL to Internet Explorer but you will have all of the awesome features and security of Firefox!
http://mozfly.sitesled.com/
Oh, and using the IE Firefox theme posted above is a great way to ween existing IE users off it slowly.
I installed it for my dad and changed the Firefox icon on my desktop to the IE icon and he never noticed.
When I showed him the tabbed browsing, he loved it.
Please, don't kneel. Applause is fine...
That is something thats a bit far away and is very limited. Im assuming you think everyone will just have a terminal and your computer is at the "virtual pc location".
Also, you will need an OS to see that virtual PC which of course will be Microsoft. I can see it now "Microsoft Windows VT (Virutal)".
I would NEVER in 100000 years trust another company to hold all my data and my "virtual pc". You would just need 1 insider to give some info to a hacker and 1,000,000's of peoples PC's will be corrupted, copied and exploited.
I have 4 servers with a T3 and use one of them on virtual desktop. I have tried (as an experiment) to play say a good online game like everquest over that computer while using Virt Desktop. Let me tell you, the word slow isnt even the right desc for it. And this is a T3 we are talking about..
I would say it will be a good 8-10 years before any kind of stable virtual desktop to go public (where it can actually cut into windows OS profits). For one, every tracert hop would have to have an outstanding amount of bandwith, this also includes your current ISP which isnt about to let anyone have higher upload speeds anytime soon. You need high upload speeds as well as download speeds to use any effective virtual desktop.
To avoid what i said above they would have to make some kind of direct connection to your home. Maybe if everyone was hooked directly into fiber optics (which i know is comming my area in the next 5 years) it maybe plauseable.. However, by the time it hits the main stream.. MS will own the software to make it and run it. You really think people that are goin to offer this to the general public are going to use anyone other then Microsoft? The general public only knows of them.. So it will sell quicker.
Microsoft will always be the main company or parent company to the largest share of the computer os market - regular or virtual.
Yes but why would they? Netcape owned the browser market until MS put IE useable anywhere in there OS. Within 2 years Netscape was dead in the water. People were not as smart about the internet as they are know.. When IE went live there was no mention of spyware or active X control exploits. Now people have choices, back then it was force fed to them.
In 1996-1998 basicly anyone that wanted to get to the internet had to either use AOL and the browser they gave you, or if you knew a little about computers you used dialup and used Mosiac or Netscape. When Internet Explorer came out, it was only downloadable. As soon as MS put IE in there OS and able to be used anywhere? Netscape took a sh*t.
Yeah, but that paycheck from Redmond makes up for all your bedsores, ain't that right? 
I have Firefoz, IE & Netscape installed because I have to check things for clients and need to be using whatever they are using. Almost no one uses Netscape. I switched my mail account to Firefoxs Thunderbird, but I have not noticed any difference.
Me too, which is why I use the Avant "browser" http://www.avantbrowser.com. I put "browser" in quotes because it's not actually a standalone web browswer, it's a "wrapper" around Internet Explorer which customizes a *lot* of its behavior -- including turning IE into a tabbed browser, adding a built-in popup blocker, language translation, one-click toggling of scripting/images/sounds/etc., and much more.
I also love how it remembers all your open web pages, and can restore them all if your system crashes or whatever. You can also name sets of web pages as "groups" and then re-open them all with the click of a mouse at any time, and a lot of other handy features.
Tabbed browsing originated with Netscape about a decade ago. It's basically a way to contain multiple web pages within one browser window.
Imagine a folder turned on its side, with its dividers pointing up. A tabbed browser works exactly like that: instead of using five folders (browser windows), a folder with dividers (tabs) lets you sort everything in one folder (browser window.) The feature is not exclusive to Firefox, and actually, Firefox's implementation is quite basic unless you install some extensions to give you more controls. Tabs appear in Netscape, Opera, and other browsers in addition to Firefox.
As for Firefox versus Mozilla, this is semi-tricky.
Firefox and Mozilla are two separate browsers. Mozilla is named after the Mozilla Foundation, which makes both browsers in addition to a third browser named Camino. Mozilla was the first web browser the Mozilla Foundation made. It's actually more of an application suite--besides web browsing, it also includes an e-mail program, a web page writing program, a calendar program, and more.
Firefox, in contrast, is a stand-alone browser. When you download Firefox, you only get a web browser--no e-mail program, no calendar, just a web browser. Firefox and Mozilla share the same web page rendering engine, but beyond that the two are different programs targeted at different audiences.
Hope that answers all your questions!
CNet is a weird site. It's biased, though not always leftward, but unlike most sites (like Wired) it delivers despite its biases. I've never seen this Molly person writing for them before, so I'm guessing they did this as a change-up just to spur some traffic.
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