Archive for the 'Firefox' Category
Monday, September 1st, 2008
Google “Chrome” browser is here. Google still treats Linux as second class?
I’m honestly surprised that we continuously see Google support Linux second. Google just announced “Chrome” on Labor Day stating a release for Windows and an “in the future” support for Linux and Mac. By all accounts, Windows is obviously the largest base, but why not wait just a little and do a simultaneous release? Heck, Google uses a ton of Linux on the desktop internally. Then I also have to remember, Linux already has a dominant penetration for non-Microsoft web browsers and already supports open standards… so maybe it’s just not needed - or is it? I think it’s too early to tell at the moment but Google is making its case with a compelling story.
You can see the “story” behind Chrome’s purpose on Google’s website at the URL below. Google put its argument for Chrome and its approach in comic format which I found quite entertaining. For engineers out there, this is a great medium (in my opinion) for communicating the benefit/value of an architecture decision. The technology and impact on the users are clearly defined.
http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/
I’m actually quite excited to see Chrome in action. First, there’s been a lot of work going on with Javascript engines and I’m sure Google did some performance work that should help Google Maps, Gmail, etc. Second, there appears to be a very strong integration of Google Gears into Chrome which should lend to great offline performance and features. Finally, it also looks like Google is going to revolutionize the “behind the scenes” processing your browser does. Instead of implementing a single threaded web processing model as we’re all used to, Google is going to split each tab into its own process. This gives you a multitasking performance boost if you’re a big time power user with multiple tabs executing at the same time. More important though should be the isolation - if Google Maps crashes, it shouldn’t take out the entire browser.
Google Inc. is releasing its own Web browser in a long-anticipated move aimed at countering the dominance of Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer and ensuring easy access to its market-leading search engine.
The Mountain View-based company took the unusual step of announcing its latest product on the Labor Day holiday after it prematurely sent out a comic book drawn up to herald the new browser’s arrival.
The free browser, called “Chrome,” is supposed to be available for downloading Tuesday in more than 100 countries for computers running on Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Google said it’s still working on versions compatible with Apple Inc.’s Mac computer and the Linux operating system.
Now, yet another question is why do we need another web browser for Windows, Mac and Linux? How about one that supports open standards for the iPhone? Unfortunately Apple is unlikely to budge on its Apps policies which will, I can guarantee, limit its enterprise adoption for the iPhone. I’m honestly shocked that Apple has been touting its “enterprise” potential in some circles and been so standoffish towards enterprise applications vendors who those “enterprise” clients would need. Wake up Apple. You need Symantec, Cisco, AT&T and other network/AV/etc providers. Not everyone uses Microsoft Exchange so you’ll need Lotus Notes, IMAP support, etc. Oh well, I can only hope Apple will one day “get it”.
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Firefox gets a major Javascript performance boost
I always like to see innovation in open source software development because it flies in the face of many critics. Ars is reporting the Mozilla team has identified methods to improve Javascript interpretation performance by up to 40% in some case. Their goal is to make the interpreter faster so that many of the glitzy “web 2.0″ apps that we’re getting used to perform well enough for users. Obviously there seem to be no downsides here, but it also appears the new tracing optimization technique also opens the potential for future gains as well.
ars benchmark graph
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Download Firefox 3 Today
http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.0&os=win〈=en-US
Let’s break a record…
UPDATE: The site is back up if you were experiencing download issues earlier.
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
June 17: Firefox 3
It’s official - June 17. I’ve been using v3 for a while now in beta and previews - it’s fast, really fast. I was having issues with Google Maps, but hopefully v3 will have the bugs fixed. If not, my fault for not reporting them ;-)
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit Speakers are Lining Up
Speakers for 2nd Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit Announced!
We are pleased to announce the speaker line up for the upcoming Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit at the Austin Supercomputing Center. The speakers, like the attendees of the summit, represent leaders from the developer, industry and end user communities surrounding Linux. Don’t miss the opportunity to collaborate with these individuals on April 8-10, 2008 at the UT Austin Supercomputing Center.
Speakers for the Panel and Keynote Showcase on April 8 already include:
- Kernel maintainers and developers James Bottomley, Jon Corbet, Dave Jones, Christoph Lameter, Ted Ts’o, Chris Wright and others will discuss the state of the Linux kernel community
- Dan Frye, head of IBM’s Linux Technology Center, Christine Martino, vice president of the Open Source & Linux Organization at HP and Wim Coekaerts, vice president of Linux Engineering for Oracle will share their perspective on what Linux means to their companies and where it’s headed
- Senior representatives from LiMO, Open Handset Alliance, Moblin, OpenMoko, LiPS and others will discuss Linux and mobile: why it’s so strong and where it’s going
- Linux is now shipping on multiple hardware offerings. Hear from John Hull of Dell, Bdale Garbee of HP and representatives of ASUS, Acer, Everex and Lenovo on why they chose Linux and what they need from the Linux community to make it succeed
- IDC Analyst Al Gillen will share important new data on Linux deployment worldwide
- MySQL CEO Marten Mikos will discuss his company’s recent billion dollar acquisition by Sun Microsystems and MySQL’s continued commitment to the Linux platform.
This is truly an unbelievable assortment of people. The Collaboration Summit will have representatives from all the big names in Linux from Intel, AMD, HP, Texas Instruments, Google, NTT, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Dell, Red Hat, Novell, NEC, Sony, Motorola, Mozilla, GNOME Foundation, Nokia, Bull and dozens more. Additionally, the first day is an opportunity to meet press and analysts from eWeek, InformationWeek, BusinessWeek, Gartner Group, IDC and more.
Last year’s event filled up quickly. Please apply to attend this event if you feel you should be there:
ttps://www.linux-foundation.org/events/collaboration
This unique, invitation-only event bring together the brightest minds in the Linux ecosystem from the kernel, end user, desktop, legal and vendor communities to collaborate on the advancement of the Linux platform. Attendees can expect purposive discussion, examination and debate through engaging plenary session content and workgroup meetings. Breakout sessions contain all the domain expertise and key
players necessary to make immediate contributions to the platform.
You can see more detailed agenda information here:
https://www.linux-foundation.org/events/collaboration/program/agenda
This is a *free* event for LF members or key individuals needed to advance the Linux platform.
Additional benefits include:
• Special networking evening reception “Shark vs. Penguin” on Tuesday night in downtown Austin. Food, drinks and transportation provided.
• IBM Reception and Solutions Experience Lab Tour on Wednesday evening, including food and drinks.
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Top 50 proprietary applications and open source alternatives
A couple of these are dated (NVU…), but Jimmy Atkinson put together a great rosetta stone for those looking for open source alternatives to their proprietary desktop apps.
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
McKinsey Quarterly Interviews Mitchell Baker from Mozilla
I was stunned to see McKinsey Quarterly interviewed Mitchell Baker. I was even more stunned to find it was a very insightful article despite everything I’ve already read on Mitchell. Unfortunately I think you need a subscription to see the full article, but if you have one…
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract.aspx?ar=2098&l2=21&l3=35&srid=17
Monday, January 14th, 2008
Microsoft under EU investigation (again) for browser bundling
Could Britney Spears have relevance to Microsoft (e.g. “Oops I did it again”)? Reuters is covering a new investigation by the EC into Microsoft’s possible antitrust violations, this time for Internet Explorer.
The European Commission opened a new antitrust probe against Microsoft on Monday into whether it unfairly tied its Web browser to the Windows operating system and made it harder for rival software to work with Windows.
Friday, July 20th, 2007
Meet Pyro: A Firefox based desktop environment for Linux
Say hello to your new little friend: Pyro Desktop. I think the author, Alex Graveley may have taken Firefox a bit further than originally intended but wow, this is an impressive feat in eye candy development. This also gives me a fun project for the upcoming weekend.
If you’re trying to run it with xulrunner, I recommend reading this: http://groups.google.com/group/pyrodesktop/browse_thread/thread/1f3b79b1b63020c7
Friday, June 29th, 2007
Did you really believe Vista was more secure than Linux, Mac?
I read that headlines the other day that “Vista is more secure than Linux, Mac”, chuckled and moved on. Did people really believe that propaganda? Well, if you did, there’s a full debunkment now over at seclists.org. It seems a certain group in Redmond still have not figured out how to count… or just happen to miss again the fundamental differences between open and closed vulnerability reporting.
BTW, I noticed that my Google Adwords has recently been bloated with “Windows vs Linux” Google ads. They’re from Microsoft - please do click on them proactively - click on them 10 times if you like. I could exclude microsoft.com but when I thought about it - why? Click away, ring up the bill. I’d love to see the invoice report at Microsoft showing detailed billing for the MichaelDolan.com Google Adwords clicks. I also found it funny that apparently someone at Microsoft uses Google to at least buy the Adwords :-).
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2007/Jun/0528.html
Saturday, June 16th, 2007
June 20 NYLUG: J. Paul Reed “Preed” from Mozilla
For anyone in the NYC area (note this one is at Google, not IBM)
RSVP at least 24 hrs in advance here: http://rsvp.nylug.org/
————————————–
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
6:30pm-8:00pm
Google
76th 9th Ave., b/w 15th and 16th St.
4th Floor, enter near 16th Street
** RSVP Closes at 2:30pm the day before the meeting (sharp!) ***
Please RSVP for EVERY meeting at this time.
Register at http://rsvp.nylug.org/
Check in with photo ID at the lobby for badge.
Latecomers can sign in, but it means having to sign in and
possibly wait a bit.
PLEASE NOTE: There are no other procedures involved in attending
NYLUG meetings other than those described here. (you are not
required to enter into any agreements to attend)
J. Paul Reed
-on-
Releasing Open Source Software at Scale:
Keeping Firefox Running on Millions of Desktops
In commercial software development, the role of a build/release
engineer can differ widely among organizations. In open source
software, the role is often minimal, if it exists at all.
But for consumer-oriented open source projects, like Mozilla’s Firefox
and Thunderbird, turning a thirty megabyte source tarball into
something that mom, dad, and your boyfriend can use takes someone
polishing those bits and running them across the finish line.
Do it simultaneously for three platforms in over forty languages, mix
in automatic updates to millions of users’ desktops, and you have: open
source software engineering at scale.
We’ll explore:
* What role a build/release engineer plays in an open source context
* How it’s a different one from its closed-source sibling
* Why it’s an important one (even in open source)
* Differences between releasing a web browser and releasing other
large-scale open source projects (like the kernel or Apache), and
* How a group of worldwide volunteers fits in to releasing software
to millions.
Plus, war stories, “gotchas” learned after interacting directly with
millions of desktop computers, plenty of time for questions, and
GimpArt[1].
Further Information:
[1] http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/preed/2006/11/version_control_system_shootou.html
(http://tighturl.com/5z5)
About J. Paul Reed
J. Paul Reed (affectionately/infamously known as Preed) began his
tenure on the Netscape Build Team at the tender age of 18, just months
after the “Lizard was Freed” in 1998.
After studying software engineering at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, he
joined VMware’s build/release team, helping to ship their their
enterprise ESX and popular Workstation products. In 2005, he came
full circle, and doubled the size of the Mozilla Corporation’s release
team.
As the release module owner, he has helped to ship every release of
Firefox and Thunderbird, simultaneously on three platforms in over
forty languages, including playing playing lead release monkey for the
flagship Firefox 2.0 launch. In reality, it’s the team of five MozCorp
build engineers around the world and a community of hundreds that make
it possible… he’s just along for the ride.
When he’s not pushing bits out the door, getting his blog slashdotted,
or locking the build tree, he spends his time piloting Cessnas around
the pristine California skies, attempting to make edible food without
burning down his apartment, and is forever trying to catch up on his
RSS feed reader.
Meeting Location
Please note that this meeting will be held at Google, 76 9th Ave,
4th floor, between 15th and 16th Streets, and not at IBM. This is
the old Port Authority Building, and takes up the entire block.
You want the entrance nearest 16th Ave.
Map
http://tighturl.com/u4
Free Refreshments!
Google is also graciously providing refreshments during the
meeting. For those of us here in the east who aren’t used to a
“Google spread”, you’re in for quite a treat. “New Google
Cafeteria Crushes Competitors” Cafeterias” (New York Magazine)
Books!!!
Our friends at Prentice-Hall kindly provide us with review copies
of various new titles. One of these could be yours, all you have
to do is agree to review the book within a reasonable period of
time.
Swag (Give Away)
During/after the meeting… unusually terrific swag may be given
away.
Stammtisch
After the meeting … Many of us have been meeting over at the
Hog Pit starting around 8:15-8:30. http://www.hogpit.com
22 Ninth Avenue at 13th Street, New York, New York 10014
Please see our home page at http://www.nylug.org for the HTMLized
version of this announcement, our archives, and a lot of other good
stuff.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Hire expert Linux talent by posting jobs here :: http://jobs.nylug.org
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The list archive is at http://nylug.org/pipermail/nylug-talk
To subscribe or unsubscribe: http://nylug.org/mailman/listinfo/nylug-talk
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
Reminder: An “open binary” license is by definition not an “open source” license
Some confusion seems to pop up here and there and sometimes we forget that not all “open” projects are truly 100% open source. Check if the open source licensed applications or products you’re considering are also partially covered by an “open binary license” b/c chances are, it’s not the same level of “open source” that you would expect from a Linux/Apache/Eclipse/WordPress/PHP/Mozilla project. Beware the branding of “open source” as many of the late comers to the game sometimes plaster everywhere - open binary does not necessarily represent everything you have come to expect from the established open source projects.
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
Thunderbird 2 released, Firefox 3 Alpha 4, and one man writes 235 USB webcam drivers
Just downloaded the new Thunderbird - it’s very nice: http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/
Also, there’s a Firefox 4 Alpha 4 build out now… first look over at Wired.com
And this story just amazed me, this guy wrote 235 USB webcam drivers… hopefully he has time to maintain them too :-)
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
10 don’t miss news items
A lot of news items hitting the air:
1) Canonical joined Gnome Foundation’s advisory board.
2) Microsoft Silverlight was recently unveiled… Flash killer? Skeptical. Regardless it promises to mess up with a nice trend having Flash 9 on Linux…
3) Microsoft releases a Windows Media plugin for Firefox (but only for Windows…) See a theme here?
4) Nice interview with Mark Shuttleworth -he seems to be everywhere these days including a press hit for DB2 9 on Ubuntu ;-)
5) Oracle Enterprise Linux has some issues popping up …
6) CentOS 5 for x86 and x86_64 released. It’s funny, I think Oracle’s announcement did more to put CentOS on the map… people who never knew of CentOS before suddenly recognize them (and some even pronounce it correctly)
7) Ubuntu Live registration is now open
8) Microsoft sends the black suits into Florida to kill ODF - black helicopters rumored to follow….
9) SFLC says every copy of Microsoft Windows includes a $21.50 “patent tax” that goes towards paying for Microsoft’s litigation bills/penalties. No wonder Ballmer keeps throwing out IP threats - he needs those Linux users to help pay his bills….
10) Asus announced plans for a $199 flash based (SSD) laptop (no, not a typo - that really says $199)
There’s one more news item I wanted to cover… but I do need to get home at some point ;-)
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007
BTW, I upgraded to WordPress 2.1.3 … and noticed something…
I’ve never noticed that IE renders my theme/CSS in horrible ways. I did a rare thing and check with my website stats and only about 20-30% of the readers here are using Windows… I guess that tells me why no one complained. And even fewer users are using IE. So do I go through the headache of checking what hacks I need for IE for the 20% of you… or do I just say users must use a standards based browser or go away??? Hmmm….
Oh, btw, the WordPress 2.1.3 update went without a hitch.
I should also mention, when I did find out, I had to reboot into Windows. After 20 mins of downloading patches, I had to reboot… then it installed another round of patches… reboot… I think it’s been over 30 days since I’ve used Windows anywhere… I’m really not that excited to fix this issue.
Thursday, March 29th, 2007
Macros for the web - let your browser do all your work ;-)
http://news.com.com/IBMs+developing+Wiki+how-to+tool/2100-1046_3-6171905.html?tag=html.alert
Automate your Firefox web browsing!
Sunday, March 25th, 2007
Firefox hits 25% share in Europe
From Stephen - found this interesting stat - Firefox now has nearly 25% of the European browser market according to XiTiMonitor. That’s phenomenal success - and a wake up call for the RoW to catch up to the Europeans (I think if we turn this into an inter-continental challenge, it may get more support - like a World Cup gone browser wars).
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