November 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)
What Adobe, Mozilla aren't doing
Sometimes it pays to take a little time before you issue a press release. This morning's release about collaboration between Adobe and Mozilla is a great case in point. A quick scan of the news headlines reveals all sorts of confusing results:
"Adobe opens Flash source to Firefox"
"Adobe contributes Flash code to Mozilla"
"Adobe partners with Mozilla and frees Flash player technology"
"Flash and Firefox to unite"
Unfortunately, though all of these headlines might technically be true, all of them are also somewhat misleading. It seems Adobe's announcement could have been a little clearer. Yes, Adobe did contribute some source code to the Mozilla project. And that code did technically come from Flash -- but to imply that Flash is now more open source than it was before the morning would be taking it too far.
What Adobe did contribute is its ActionScript engine, the interpreter that executes the ActionScript code that powers many Flash projects. It's part of Flash -- an interesting part -- but not the whole thing, and not the part that deals with delivering graphics over the Web.
ActionScript is a language that very much resembles JavaScript, plus some Flash-specific extensions. That's because the current implementations of JavaScript and ActionScript are all derived from an open standard called ECMAScript. Still another variant is JScript, a Microsoft implementation. All these languages resemble one another in syntax and capabilities but diverge in other ways.
Mozilla already had its own JavaScript interpreter, which is what is currently found in the Firefox and Seamonkey browsers. It works OK, but it could be better. Consensus seems to be that the proprietary engine that Macromedia wrote for Flash (which recently became an Adobe product, with Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia) is better. So it is in fact great news that Adobe has now donated the source code to that engine to the Mozilla Foundation, as a project called Tamarin.
It doesn't mean the Flash player is now open source. It doesn't mean Flash will now be better integrated with Mozilla Firefox. What it does mean, however, is that future versions of Firefox will probably do a better job of running JavaScript code than the current versions. And, because the Tamarin engine is still open source, the community will be able to examine and improve it, which will benefit Mozilla, Firefox, and Flash, all at the same time.
Other open source projects should also be able to take Tamarin and embed it into their own code. With this announcement, the open source community at large has access to a very high quality engine for executing the ECMAscript family of languages -- and that is, indeed, a good thing.
For all those who were popping champagne corks in toast to open source Flash, however ... in this case, I'm afraid the initial reports should have read the press release a little more closely before they wrote their headlines. It's tempting to go overboard, but come on ... did anyone really expect Adobe to open source the Flash crown jewels?
Posted by Neil McAllister on November 7, 2006 03:36 PM
October 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Mozilla: Party for people, not browser
With parties planned in places from the Maldives to Paris to celebrate the official release of Firefox 2.0, Mozilla community coordinator Asa Dotzler said Tuesday Firefox was more than a browser -- it's a movement.
Dotzler's job is to keep the Fire in Fox stoked, and reaching 2.0 is reason for a global party, he says. Launch parties are scheduled roughly for Oct 27 and located via Google Maps at the firefoxparty.com site.
You might ask, what does a crop circle, space balloon, sidewalk chalk and a NY Times ad have in common? They highlight the long lists of wacky events Firefox fans have organized to celebrate major milestones for the Firefox browser. To celebrate the release of Firefox 2, Firefox fans are being equipped with the tools to plan launch parties around the globe... There are currently over 375 parties playing host to approximately 3300 Firefox fans who will be celebrating the launch of Firefox 2 this week. Enthusiasts as far south as Antarctica and as far north as Norway have registered thus far and the attendee list is still growing. You can check out a map detailing the party locations in real-time at the Web site.
But aren't we talking about a Web browser, after all? How does a browser stir so much interest for people to contribute? Dotzler said as many as 20,000 people signed up to test 2.0, and that Firefox was spreading at nearly 350,000 downloads a day with little traditional advertising.
It doesn't hurt that bigger groups are getting cool swag like T-shirts and messenger bags to celebrate, but the bottom line with the movement: "Everyone wants to be part of a club," Dotzler said.
But this club would not be the place to be if the movement was not producing "something good", he said. "[The Firefox development team] is the most experienced group of browser developers in the world."
And with open source being just that, their hard work is giving life to next-generation browsers such as Flock, which is based on Firefox.
The co-founder and chief strategy officer of the social browser Flock, Geoffrey Arone, said its upcoming 1.0 release was being built on Firefox 2.0 and would be ready in December.
Arone says Firefox 2.0 is a just a starting point, and Flock -- aimed at "the Web's evolution from a passive to a fluid, participatory medium" -- is just a "better browser".
While the Firefox team pores over code and nails the development, and has released some solid refinements to the interface, Arone said, Flock pores over what people do on the Web in their browser to make it more about "... the change in Web user behavior and experience from just 'looking' at the Web to 'making' the Web".
He said it's not as if people are not already sharing photos via e-mail and blogging to share thoughts, but Flock will just make it easier and seamless to find and share while browsing. "It's the actual interplay of things," he said.
The latest batch of usability research: University of California students.
And one of the main feature for Firefox 3.0, as outlined by Dotzler, is coming to Flock in 1.0 -- searchable history. No more trawling day by day through history to find that URL. Each page is indexed and searchable, much like in Mac OS's Spotlight.
Sounds very promising, and one more benefit of open source for development -- a little variety.
But if it's IE7 vs. Firefox 2.0 for you, take a look at sister publication PC World's in-depth comparison.
Do you welcome the return of the Browser Wars? I do. Talk back to us below.
Posted by Mike Barton on October 24, 2006 03:40 PM
October 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Firefox 2.0 released a day early
updated | Mozilla has now officially released Firefox 2.0 following the company's backdoor release a day early.
Mozilla confirmed to me Tuesday that this post's original link (above) was to the actual final version, after saying yesterday: "Mozilla does not guarantee that any set of files currently found within its Web site or elsewhere will be the final release."
The chief concern with pointing directly to the download was that someone hosting the mirror may get stung with excess bandwidth charges, highlighting Mozilla's grassroots methods.
Well, at least no one was stung with malware. With Microsoft's release of IE7 last week, a Trojan-loaded site spoofed the release a day early.
I spoke with Mozilla today about is global launch party, and Flock about its "better browser" and will post on this separately...
You might ask, what does a crop circle, space balloon, sidewalk chalk and a NY Times ad have in common? They highlight the long lists of wacky events Firefox fans have organized to celebrate major milestones for the Firefox browser. To celebrate the release of Firefox 2, Firefox fans are being equipped with the tools to plan launch parties around the globe at www.firefoxparty.com. There are currently over 375 parties playing host to approximately 3300 Firefox fans who will be celebrating the launch of Firefox 2 this week. Enthusiasts as far south as Antarctica and as far north as Norway have registered thus far and the attendee list is still growing. You can check out a map detailing the party locations in real-time at the Web site.
But InfoWorld's Kevin Railsback ferreted out the back-door soft-launch to get the party started.
Not to be mistaken for the usual weight put on a 2.0 such as Web 2.0, this latest version of Firefox adds some handy features, but don't expect anything earth shattering.
The real message here with Firefox 2.0 coming out just days after Microsoft released IE7 is that the browser wars seem back on, which hopefully means some new features will add some genuinely new life to browsers.
A day early? Hopefully Mozilla dotted its Is and crossed its Ts, to avoid the bad news Microsoft got when holes were thought to have been found in IE7 within 24 hours of its release.
Microsoft says the bug is not in the browser but Outlook Express, its e-mail client. Finer points...
Back to the state of browsers: OK, so IE7 now has tabs -- finally. And Firefox has added a nifty new feature that recovers pages and data from the browser following a crash.
A PR guy for the social web browser firm Flock e-mailed to point out how the two leaders are "really about incremental changes to an outdated model." He said browsers had been stagnant for 10 years.
Flock's focus: "The Web's evolution from a passive to a fluid, participatory medium ... [Marking] the change in Web user behavior and experience -- from just 'looking' at the Web to 'making' the Web."
Very true, and little is reflected in IE7 or Firefox 2.0, but I will update after talking through some of this with Mozilla tomorrow, so check back then.
If you have questions for the Mozilla or IE teams, leave them with us below and we'll see if we can get an answers or roadmaps. I'll also set up a chat with Flock so they can have their say as to why their browser is it.
Posted by Mike Barton on October 23, 2006 03:48 PM
October 18, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Malware site spoofs IE7 release
A spoofed e-mail (from support@microsoft.com) is directing people to a malicious Web site promising a download of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 RC1, The Register reports.
Prospective marks visit a spoof website that looks similar to Microsoft's legitimate download page for IE 7 RC1. But instead of all that Microsoft goodness, surfers visit a site loaded with Trojan downloader codes which attempt to exploit browser vulnerabilities to download malware onto their machines.
The social engineering in this one is simple, but effective: RC1 was released recently.
The Register's report also notes...
A Firefox fan has registered the domain IE7.com, on which he's plastered the logo for the alternative browser software. This site, unlike the spoof IE7 download site, is safe to visit.
Posted by Mike Barton on October 18, 2006 10:36 AM
October 05, 2006 | Comments: (0)
NY Times' Reader one-ups browser
I love the Web, but I am fed up with Web browsers. And what better time to yell it out! with the Web 2.0 proponents preparing a world of apps to run in a browsers and take over for desktop apps.
Oliver Rist survived the week on Browser Island, but I am not sure I could do it, and I think the whole push is just plain lame. (I am tainted by editing this Web site with a mish-mash of browser-based "UIs", and of course Movable Type.)
Well, I found some relief from browser hell the other day: NY Times' Reader, a little desktop app, summed up as such:
Times Reader runs on Microsoft's new Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which is built into the new Vista operating system and is included in the .Net 3.0 Framework service pack for Windows XP. If you are using Windows XP, the installer application will first install Net 3.0 Framework, a process that takes about ten minutes, and then install Times Reader, a process that takes about two minutes.
[ Click here for a big screen grab of Times Reader running natively on Vista RC1 ]
You can register for and download the free Times Reader here.
Here's my take:
As usability guru Jakob Nielsen said once, imagine if iTunes was only a browser app, and how limited it would be if so.
Well, for reading online I think most sites have a long way to go. Nytimes.com has stepped forward, or back (depending on how you view it), with a layout that steals a page from newspaper design, with its columns and multiple entry points. It's a format we understand.
Now Times Reader does it in a much sweeter app, which acts like a continually updating newspaper front page, and section pages. From the story within the app, users are able to e-mail URLs, which link to the same story at nytimes.com. (In other words, it is fed by the nytimes.com Web site, it seems.)
But the main gain here is in core readability. Apparent vector-based rendering makes text and photos scale up much better. And I like that my reading experience is not jumbled in with every other window or tab that may be open, and publishers must love that, with affinity a golden goal. They must also like Windows system tray icon, which allows access to Reader.
I'm most interested in what is ommitted in Reader, but which could be much better than on the Web: community/forums and personalization, such as personal special builder/aggregator, or gathering on topics, etc.
For community, an app, could handle logins more seamlessly than cookies and allow a blurring of lines between quick comments and deeper forums on topics.
And all praise to AJAX and related for bringing app-like functionality to browsers, but I'd think an app will just do it better and offer a richer experience on all the above.
Remember: What would iTunes be like if isolated to a browser?
The question of the browser's universality must enter the discussion of replacing the browser, and there is hope there too: Adobe's Flex, which some publishers, such as afr.com, have jumped on to deliver next-gen mediums (and clamp down on paid access). Afr.com has replaced its Web site with an Flex/Flash-based desktop reader, which offers a much richer experience.)
If newspaper publishers, for example, shared a reader tech, one could imagine a continually updating virtual newsstand.
Have a play with Times Reader and talk back to me. Look out browser?
Posted by Mike Barton on October 5, 2006 12:30 PM
August 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)
MS rolls out biz-primed IE7 RC1
Microsoft today made available Internet Explorer 7 RC1, sporting features such as bolstered security, improved AJAX support, improved enterprise-wide manageability, and even some features tailored just for Windows Vista, Microsoft's forthcoming desktop OS.
Often criticized for lackluster security in its products, Microsoft says it has injected superior protection in this version of IE, which is available for download via the Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Web site. Among them, nearly all ActiveX controls come disabled; there's a phishing filter that warns users about -- or even blocks -- fraudulent sites; and redesigned URL parsing to minimize possible exploits.
Enterprise admins and developers may take interest in IE 7's CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) improvements. According to Microsoft, this iteration of the browser "addresses many of the major inconsistencies that can cause Web developers problems when producing visually rich, interactive Web pages. Improved support for CSS 2.1, including selectors and fixed positioning, allows Web developers to create more powerful effects without the use of script."
There's been some discussion on the Net as to IE 7's CSS compliance and how it will effect the browsing experience of sites designed with IE 6 in mind. "If your current CSS works with non-Microsoft browsers, the changes shouldn't be too drastic. Nevertheless, Microsoft has provided several documents designed to help ease the pain of transitioning CSS from IE6 into IE7," according to M-Dollar on PC enthusiast site Ars Technica.
Moreover, Redmond says it has added support for all IE settings through Group Policy, which should make enterprise-wide management easier.
There's a new IE Administration Kit as well, which Microsoft reports will enable OEMs and deployment specialists to add customized settings and additional programs in pre-packaged versions of the browser.
Also new is an RSS platform, which Microsoft says provides "functionality for downloading, storing, and accessing RSS feeds "across the entire operating system" for "any application that wishes to consume it." The platform has already received some criticism for not being secure.
The browsers enhanced AJAX support, according to Microsoft, "improves the implementation of the XMLHTTP Request as a native Javascript object for rich AJAX-style applications. Whereas IE 6 handled XMLHTTP requests with an ActiveX control, Internet Explorer 7 exposes XMLHTTP natively. This improves syntactical compatibility across different browsers and allows clients to configure and customize a security policy of their choice without compromising key AJAX scenarios."
Microsoft has tacked on a couple of features tailored just for Vista, too. Among them is a Protected Mode, where IE runs in isolation of other applications. This boosts desktop security in that exploits and malware are restricted from writing to any location beyond the Temporary Internet Files folder with explicit user approval, according to Microsoft. There are also controls for parents to restrict the children's online browsing.
Thus far, the new browser has received at least from kudos from sites such as Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows:
"Internet Explorer 7 RC1 is faster, more stable, and better looking than previous IE 7 betas, so it's a required update for any users who installed IE 7 Beta 3 or earlier. As for IE 6 users, I think it's both safe and prudent to migrate to IE 7 now: You'll be able to upgrade to the final version fairly effortlessly and the security enhancements and new functionality should win over even the most jaded. It's not a perfect browser, but IE 7 is hugely improved, and even in this prerelease version is worth considering. I don't think there's enough there to sway Firefox users quite yet -- maybe IE 8?--but IE 7, even in RC1 garb, is looking good. Recommended."
Posted by Ted Samson on August 24, 2006 11:07 AM
August 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Mozilla: MS invitation accepted?
More genteel than pugilistic, the gloves are off, and it appears Mozilla developers will in fact come to table with Microsoft in an effort to enhance Vista interoperability with Firefox and Thunderbird.
Delivered by Sam Ramji, director of Microsoft's open source software lab, the public solicitation has created quite the speculative stir. Mike Beltzner, erstwhile phenomenologist at Mozilla, posted a response to Ramji's feeler, accepting, in so many words, his invitation to Windows Vista Readiness ISV Labs.
Beltzner's response opens the discussion on certain particulars that may become part of the collaboration, including integration with Vista's calendar and address book, its RSS data store and services, and the InfoCard identity system, as well as the "effects of running in the new application security mode."
Whether Mozilla will in fact have input on the menu remains a matter of conjecture, but what is notable and noble about this opening "salvo" is Beltzner's attempt to extend Microsoft's invitation to the open source community at large.
His query regarding potential lab time for developers of Firefox-based projects such as Songbird, Democracy, and Flock will most certainly go unrequited. And yet his call for MSDN documentation, sample code, and common OS integration points cuts to the core of Microsoft's Mozilla overture.
A gauntlet has, in its way, been insinuated. And it appears to gauge how far Microsoft plans to go in opening the gates to its code.
Posted by Jason Snyder on August 23, 2006 05:29 PM
August 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Laden with intrigue, Microsoft's open-letter invitation to Mozilla developers to "see if you are open to some 1:1 support in getting Firefox and Thunderbird to run on Vista" houses within it the kick-start appeal of the choicest of Reality TV teases.
Sam Ramji, director of Microsoft's open source software lab, has extended what many perceive to be a carrot/white-flag/golden-ticket amalgam across the browser divide in hopes of luring four members of the Firefox development team to Windows Vista Readiness Island, er, ISV Lab -- itself a somewhat hopeful, oxymoronic moniker. "Non-trivial," indeed.
The series, billed as a four-day weekly event in Redmond, will conclude with a December finale and is purported to include "secure office space for 4 people, hardware, VPN access, and 1:1 access to product team developers and support
staff."
The goal of the invitation, to enhance Vista interoperability with the increasingly popular Firefox broswer and Thunderbird e-mail platform, has created quite a buzz -- and without word yet on the invitation's acceptance. Whether Ramji's call-out is a concession of the myriad failings of Internet Explorer, a harbinger of greater open source involvement at Microsoft, or simply an attempt to keep an enemy closer while keeping another enemy (Google, perhaps?) at bay, this is certainly a development worth watching, especially given its 11th hour timing with Vista's supposed January release and recent news of Firefox support on the MSDN Wiki.
One may hope that though the chemistry will certainly prove less sensational and instructional than that of Brigitte Nielsen and Flavor Flav, Microsoft's helping itself by helping others will benefit end-users and the enterprise considerably.
Posted by Jason Snyder on August 22, 2006 01:37 PM
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