Tag Archives: firefox

Uninformed: Mozilla – the Intel of browsers?

Uncategorized, , , ,

Is Mozilla the Intel of web browser makers?

As I’ve probably said before, I find the foundation/corporation to be rather set in its ways, convinced that the Mozilla platform, which has been ported for use on a number of operating systems, offers enough clout for them to continue development of their flagship web browser. Any issues that the users of the browser may face is the cause for further improvement of parts of the platform, rather than total replacement of these components.

For instance, Mozilla’s proponents and developers felt slighted when Apple passed over the Gecko layout engine in favor of KDE’s KHTML/KJS for their WebKit platform.

Furthermore, Mozilla tends to view itself as the vanguard of the web, and has promoted the Gecko engine as being more “compatible” with a variety of web sites and web standards than other layout engines, including the WebKit/KHTML engines.

But on another note, the comparison between Gecko and WebKit should take into account the folks who support, use or promote either engine. While Mozilla, a cross-platform browser maker, is the largest promoter and supporter of Gecko, WebKit tends to be supported and promoted by a variety of groups: the most monied of these supporters are the mobile device or software makers, such as Nokia/Trolltech, Apple, and Google (via Android).

Does this mean that Mozilla and Gecko is similar to Intel and its 30-year-old x86 chip architecture, while WebKit and its promoters are similar to the PowerPC architecture and its supporters (IBM, Freescale)?

Firefox as a self-contained Linux distribution

Uncategorized, ,

It seems that, everyday, more and more people are finding ways to make the very most of their daily browsing experience by using Firefox. Plus, now it has become an open-source development platform by itself: there’s Flock (a Web 2.0-centric browser) and Songbird (a music-centric browser), and I’m hoping that more derivatives are on the way.

However, I would definately, definately love to see an extended Firefox that can handle all protocols and file extensions from within the browser, such as Bittorrent, ED2k, Magnet links (for Gnutella, Limewire, etc.), Lastfm, and so forth. Plus, with Google’s acquisition of Writely, someone may create an extension that will force .doc (and other Office-native) links to open up in the browser (possibly in Writely, just like how WebmailCompose does with mailto: links).

If it got to the point where everything can be opened and accessed within the browser, then I think that the ideal desktop Linux will be born. Considering that the average user only uses a computer to use the web browser (IE, Firefox, or what have you), then maybe those who are aiming for a common Linux desktop should be focusing more upon the web browser and how all the other standalone applications (amaroK, OpenOffice, etc.) plug into it.

For instance, why is it that no one’s come up with a File Manager/Organizer extension?! Is it really *that* hard? Both IE and Konqueror have that **built in** already!

See, that’s the kind of thing that Firefox is lacking. Why?

If that one simple thing could be created, then I wouldn’t have ANY NEED WHATSOEVER for Explorer (Internet or Windows, since the former’s built into the latter) on WinXP. Plus, People who use GNOME on who-knows-what distro won’t have to use a separate desktop browser anymore, thus making things at good bit simpler.

That’s the next big event that I’m waiting for from the Firefox extension developers’ community. And I think that the ones who await the advent of the Linux desktop are focusing on that as the tipping point for the realization of that hope.