Categories
Mozilla Open Source Software

Firefox Killing Open Source?

Via Slashdot (as usual) I ran across this blog post. Of particular interest was this:

FireFox: Enabling Windows Users .. To Use Windows

I think we can all agree that FireFox gives Windows users a way out from the security nightmare and feature desert that is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. At least, Internet Explorer as it appears in 2004. FireFox does this while allowing users to stay on the Windows platform. Meanwhile, Microsoft is not porting any applications to Linux/BSD, nor will they start to do so anytime soon. And so the application imbalance begins…

Survey people using FireFox on Windows. How many of them are saying, “I’m so impressed I’m going to switch to a Free Software desktop.” Virtually zero. Too many of us in the Open Source community naively expect people to draw conclusions that today’s technology consumers are not motivated, let alone empowered, to make.

The more software we port to Windows the more we reinforce this application availability imbalance and strengthen the user’s inertia to stay on Windows. If users had to make a choice between Windows or Linux (or BSD) when it came to getting access to better applications they would find they had a motivation to switch. And switch they would.

Now I really have to question this idea. Is open source having a place on proprietary desktops such as Windows going to kill Open Source on the desktop? I’d suggest a clear no.

Here’s my reasoning:

Those who have an incentive to move to an open source desktop, for reasons such as lower cost, security, flexibility, better performance on older hardware, etc. are going to use open source anyway. So there is clearly no impact on this audience. They are sold. The availability of software on Windows isn’t changing the fact that it’s windows. People who want the advantages of an Open Source desktop still want the Open Source Desktop.

Where there is demand, there will be those wanting to supply

Nobody would switch operating systems because of a browser like Firefox. I’m sorry, but that’s a rediculus argument. Nor will they for pretty much any particular application. If the demand for such a product were high enough to spark such a choice, there would be someone to meet those needs. For example there are several IE based products to add tabs to Internet Explorer. Windows people got sick of popups that Mozilla users were blocking, so a billion and 1 popup blockers came of age.

“Incentive” should be the buzzword in open source

Open Source has spent to much time working on geeky things. Average Joe doesn’t care about 90% of what open source spends it’s time on. He just wants to check his email, visit a few websites, fire up a spreadsheet and do his work, perhaps listen to some music, and sign off. That is it.

Open Source really needs to evaluate what Mozilla did with Firefox. They stopped with the geek talk/features and worked towards pleasing the masses. THAT is what won users. They didn’t rely on the Internet catering to them, they didn’t rely on anyone but the product itself. The product stands alone. Firefox isn’t great because of [insert product here]. It’s a great product. It would be just as good if Windows never existed. It would be just as good if OpenOffice was never created. It would be just as good if… the list goes on. It stands alone.

Why go with a Open Source Desktop?

Well there are a ton of reasons, but each person has their own. Personally I do at some times (I’m not a full time Linux user) simply to play. There is nothing there that’s truly revolutionary (other than security and stability). But that alone isn’t a “feature” to me. The Open Source Desktop has not come of age. I’m sorry to say. Lets look at the offerings:

Windows
Severe market penetration
Most applications available
Mac OS X
Niche market, but still signifigant
Most popular applications available.
Beautiful easy to use UI. Exceeds any offering to date
Open Source Desktops (lumped together)
Free
Lots of free software
Security, Stability

That’s really about it. Notice that 2 out of the 3 advantages for Open Source desktops include the word “free”. I can really lump that into 1 advantage, but then I’d only have 2.

Conclusion

If OpenSource wants to penetrate the desktop, it needs to do so on it’s own two legs. The “we suck less than Microsoft” argument is old, and irrelevant. It needs to stop. The “free” is a buzzword. As economists say “there’s no such thing as free lunch”. Everything has a price. In this case, most common support (commercial products have better support than open source, simply because there is a phone number with someone trained at the other end). That’s expensive to a company deploying. It’s a deterrent to a home user.

Until open source refines itself to target an audience like Apple did. And brings itself to a whole new level, it will not progress. If open source wants the desktop market, it needs to go for it. Not sit around and cry about applications working in Windows. There’s no clear reason for the average computer user to switch to Linux. Anyone who wants to make that argument first needs to make the reason, then argue it.

Blaming others doesn’t fix your own shortcomings. It’s time for Open Source desktops to sit down and think, perhaps even conduct some surveys. “What does my audience want/need/dream of?” Then say “How can I deliver it?” Once that is done… deliver.

Categories
Mozilla

Announcement: reporter-test shutdown for upgrade

In the very near future (perhaps as early as tonight), I will be shutting down the current reporter-test website for large upgrades. The upgrades are rather signifigant. I haven’t decided on a date/time. So anyone who wants to test and toy around should do so, and send comments to me ASAP.

since we are using test data, I will be wiping the database as well. the new version will capture more data. I want to test queries will all the data possible. We will drop data again before we launch the official instance of reporter. This is test data.

Those who installed the extension

You will need to uninstall it, and upgrade. the current extension will not work with the new version, a newer version will be needed. Autoupdate is not working on that extension, so you will not be notified. Please pass this message around if you know

request for help

I want to get SeaMonkey working with the same XPI. Does anyone know how to do overlay’s for multiple products? Is there anything I should be aware of (other than the EM API)? Please leave a comment or drop me a line.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far. Lots of changes have been made. Hence some serious upgrading is needed.

Categories
Rants

Rob Rants: Christmas Commercials

And now to start one of the new categories here, a “Rob Rants”. We’ll start with Christmas Commercials.

Best Of

OfficeMaxRubber Band Man (OfficeMax) – This is a great example of how cool an advertisement can be. Retro, classy, catchy, fun. I can’t get enough of this one. It’s fun. And I don’t even like OfficeMax. I’ll miss this ad after the holidays. It’s one of the few tunes that doesn’t get on my nerves. Not to mention the animation is pretty cool. It’s also not overplayed. I see it maybe a few times a week, not bad. I can live with this one.

Chrismahanukwanzakah (Virgin Mobile) – This commercial isn’t bad. I don’t mind watching it, it’s catchy (it even sticks in your head), it’s not overdone, it’s funny. I’ve yet to find anyone who didn’t get a good laugh from it. This ad really did make this Chrismahanukwanzakah season the best one ever! Also not overplayed. I think this is one I’ll remember years from now, since it’s was creative. Hopefully they will bring it back next year. Kind of wish they did more with props though. I love how they combined all the holidays into 1 lump, but they didn’t really combine decorations and props. Would be interesting to see a MenorahTree :-D, I’m sure there are many other wacky things people can come up with… perhaps a Fark photoshop contest?

Worst Of

Old NavyOld Navy Caroler’s (Old Navy) – I’ll admit they all make great models I’m sure, and perhaps they even have vocal talent (who knows if there voices are real in the commercial or done Ashley Simpson style)… but this ad is by far the most annoying ad of the year, and just when one ends, they put on yet another one. They apparently decided doing it on TV wasn’t enough, so they decided to pollute Time Square with this one. Not to mention this article takes commercializing Christmas to a whole new low. Sorry, but this ad gets the award for most annoying commercial of Holiday Season 2004. Please Old Navy, if you love America, you’ll dump this campaign in the sea.

So what are your favorites/least favorites?

Disagree? Agree? Want more ads with Monkey’s in Santa costumes? Leave a comment.

Categories
Mozilla

MozSource Support Launched {beta}

MozSource launched beta tech support via email. They claim that all questions will be answered within 48hrs. This is a beta, and only $4.99 per incident. A few notes on how this can potentially benefit Firefox growth:

Great for consumers

$4.99 is pretty fair for tech support, assuming that the quality is good. It’s definitely competitive. This will make people who are a bit concerned about switching but heard good about Firefox feel better. It’s reassuring to know that for under $5.00, you can get help. That’s comforting.

Corporate

Here’s where I think the offering is a little weak, I see a few things that would need to change:

Contracts

Rather than per incident, the ability to do it by contract, either in bulk (say 500 incidents), or yearly based on the amount of installs. Most companies hate to depoy software without support there, no questions asked. Things like a contract that say your guaranteed a year of support give the warm and fuzzies. I know in the past this has been the main argument against open source software “who supports it?” Companies want someone like MozSource, but they want them on a speed dial.

Express

Express service. Corporate isn’t willing to wait 48 hours, they will want something more like ‘priority support’. i.e. no more than 1 business day. When a company relies on Firefox or Thunderbird, they can’t wait 48hrs to know how to fix it. They want to know quickly.

I’d be curious to see how anyone finds their service. If you do use them, feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line.

Categories
Mozilla

Mozilla Reporter

History

As I recall Asa and I started discussing this back in July, evaluating what the ideal system would be, how it would help, who would use it, etc. etc. It’s evolved a bit from the original concept. Much more mature. With the extension as the input device, it’s collecting very relevant, useful, and accurate data. No more bad/incomplete/typo ridden bug reports in bugzilla.

What is it?

Simply put, talkback for gecko. A simple automated way to collect feedback.

What are the goals

  • Provide Agregate data on incompatible sites with Gecko browsers
  • Provide an interface for end users to submit problems they encounter in under 30 seconds
  • Keep end users away from bugzilla, and force them to enter good Evangelism reports
  • Provide a tool for layout folks to use to track problems that effect Gecko users most

Why can’t I edit/fill out fields in the form

The goal is to provide relevant correct data. Allowing users to modify data makes it less accurate (typo’s, incomplete, incorrect data). The tool gathers data directly from the browser itself, so we know it’s correct, and sends it to the server.

Privacy!

The tool only invokes when you run it. That is the only time. Never will it send any data without your consent.

We will likely use a random hash as an ID per computer, so we know if 1 user submitted a site 100 times, or 100 users submitted a site 1X each. We won’t bind it to any other info. Nobody will be able to view the data and say “Hey checkout what Bob is viewing”. The final version will put an option to enter an email address. Only privilaged people (by a process yet to be defined, most likely similar to that of cvs commit access) will have access to such data. It will be optional data. We capture IP address’s, but again that’s behind a password. No regular user can visit and get the information.

It’s ugly

The version on my personal computer is much nicer :-D. I will be deploying an update to the server sometime soon (no timeline yet), containing many updates/changes/enhancements. It takes into account Ben’s recommendations, among many other things. When I do, current versions of the extension will no longer function. You’ll have to download the new build then. Sorry, but the auto-update wasn’t implemented in the current one. Simply because I didn’t really anticipate many people toying with it.

What about bugzilla?

Bugzilla isn’t going away. It’s just getting better. Consider this Bugzilla’s personal secretary. That’s really what this is. Just like with trackback, confirmed popular problems will be entered as bugs by Mozilla Volunteers on Bugzilla, and treated appropriately. This just prevents a bizillion dups, and lets users help without needing buzilla accounts, or query bugzilla, or figure out what we need to know. In a few clicks, the perfect report is submitted.

when will it be done

Were making quick progress. No distinct timeline, but Asa and I have discussed the idea of an end being in sight, and making preparations. So that’s a good sign.

Feedback

Contact Me with any feedback you may have, or leave a comment. I’ll try to address them all in coming days, though I’m pretty busy with school, and this project.

Categories
Funny In The News

Advertising and the media

“We all leave our doors unlocked. We can run around in our nighties. It’s all girls and we feel really safe and that will change,” said student Starbuck Hersey.

A hearing on the lawsuit against the school is scheduled for Dec. 16. Until then, the school is actively recruiting male applicants.

[Source: FoxNews.com @ 12/8/2004 1:20 PM EST]

Think they will have trouble recruiting male applicants after that quote? That’s about as great advertising as it gets!

Categories
Hardware

IBM sold the PC Group

IBM confirms. News.com reports. It will be interesting to see what happens. How all the branding will work, how it will transition etc.

Categories
Mozilla

Thunderbird 1.0

Thunderbird

1.0 is out. Get downloading, it royally kicks butt.

Congrats to Scott MacGregor and David Bienvenu on a job well done.

Categories
Mozilla Open Source Software

Without Spyware there’s no such thing as free software

But some users of iMesh didn’t seem to be troubled by the actions of Marketscore. Users at iMesh forums chided those who complained, posting messages stating that “without spyware there’s no such thing as free software.”

[Source: Wired.com @ 12/6/2004 9:55 AM EST]

SpreadFirefox anyone? This is a common mindset among average internet users. Something that needs to be debunked.

Challenge

Formulate a campaign that SpreadFirefox can use, which would also raise awareness to the fact that Spyware is not required to make software free. Make users realize they don’t have to jeopardize their privacy to get something free. Make them realize privacy is important. And of course, Spread Firefox. Perhaps if someone comes up with a good one it can be the next campaign.

Categories
Mozilla

Thunderbird will soon sync with iPods

iPod

Coming Soon

Ability to sync your Thunderbird Address Book to your iPod.

Q. Why not yet

A. Still working on it

Q. Mac Only?

A. Mac/PC initially. I’ll explore Linux after.

Q. All iPods?

A. iPod with version 1.2+ of the iPod Software, or iPod Photo 1.0+ (Free Updates from Apple)

Q. Why is this Q&A so short

A. Because I’m tired.

Q. When will it be released?

A. Most likely I’ll have something for you all to play with in the very near future.

Update [12-26-2005]: It’s out, and available here.