An interesting article, that shows why using a better browser is an important way to keep your computer secure. Perhaps we need to tell these people to stop using IE and start using Firefox. Nudge, nudge, [elbow in the ribs].
First downloads were the big risk. Then email became the big target. Now it’s the browser. What next?
Thanks to Asa for the heads up.
Apparantly IE 7 is in the works, with beta’s due this summer.
Should be interesting.
In other news, Firefox 1.1 due early summer. Browser Wars 2.0 round 2!
There’s been a ton of speculation regarding “gbrowser”, google’s alleged browser, Netscape’s Firefox based browser, now even thoughts Yahoo might be interested. Though I wonder if that really is beneficial to anyone involved?
I’m going to make the bold statement that custom browsers are bad, making extensions are good.
There are several reasons why custom browsers are bad:
The Correct Approach
I personally believe the correct approach in this arena is extensions. A great example is the brand new Yahoo Toolbar, or SpeakEasy. Why are these the right way?
What do they lose?
Really nothing. You can do pretty much everything via extensions. You can create a skin, add features, overlay menus, add toolbars etc. etc. There’s quite a few possibilities.
Conclusion
Releasing your own browser, unless you really make radical changes (Camino, Galeon, K-Melon) is somewhat of an ineffective use of resources. You can accomplish the same thing, while providing better service to customers by trying to use an extension framework. Extensions by nature have less development requirements, easier to update, allow the user to have the latest browser, and give the user choice.
I personally think Yahoo and Speakeasy have done an excellent job. They accomplished their goal and really addressed the point I’m trying to make in this post. I just hope some other companies will seriously consider what they are doing, before they try and get their users to install hacked up copies of Firefox.
Extensions and Themes are the best way to customize a browser. If at all possible, try to keep within those frameworks. You’ll thank yourself later when you realize that you need little/no changes to work perfectly with Firefox 1.5 or later.
After Asa, and djst started redesigning the toolbar, it got me thinking. What would be the best config for the general user? So I got playing, and here’s what I came up with:
Option 1
This is more compact, and better (IMHO) for larger displays at higher resolutions. There icons are selected and positioned based partially on IE parity, as well as a few are placed to introduce Firefox Advantages (new tab). Secondly they are spaced and catagorized appropriately (core navigation features, URL bar, quick search, browser accessory features).
Option 2
This is even more of a feature parity, and keeps the same concept. The big ‘advantage’ here is that the URL is more visible on smaller displays. Not sure if that long is needed. Most end users will only enter domains, not long URL’s, so having that much space is mostly irrelevant.
The one button that would be cool to have with either is a second bookmark button to add the current page as a bookmark. That way even such a feature as bookmarking is visually represented easily in the interface.
Ideally I see three goals:
End users aren’t learning key commands. That’s why they like GUI’s. So things like tabs become much more accessible as a button than as a menu option in the file menu. That’s obscure, and users don’t see it. But as a button it’s easily accessible.
Comments welcome.
Between being sick the other day, and studying for some serious tests next week, I’m reading and seeing things (and not other things). Disregard. For historical purposes only until further notice.
First let me say on a personal level, I’m very much in favor of bug 86193. But I’m not sure everyone will be as thrilled as I am.
The web browser serves as the vehicle to the corporate intranet. A vast resource of company resources. The problem many companies have had with making their companies assets available on the intranet is stealing. It’s harder for an employee to go into a document storage facility, and steal some folders. It’s very easy for someone to browse into the companies document retention system and lift some very important data.
But enough background, what does this have to do with Mozilla?
I’ve got a small suspicion, this could cause Mozilla to loose a chance at being the browser of choice in the workplace, with this patch. The problem is many companies are deploying Asset Management Software. They want employees to browse the resources, and easily work with them as necessary, and per company protocols. What they don’t want, is a user just saving to their HD. As a result, with software like this, right click is often disabled (see bug), and various other methods are used to obscure the image (funny CGI’s that save with file name and improper extension, etc.).
Granted there is no 100% security on the web, and a user could also take a screenshot, or HTTP dump, or one of the many methods available (get Page Info and go to the media tab). Most of these methods are out of reach (or at least knowledge) of the casual user. Meaning, the assets are at least safe from the general user who wants to take advantage.
Again, this is nothing more than a reflection, with some knowledge of such systems. It’s not meant to spark a huge debate, or a flame. Just a thought out loud. Because that’s what the internet is all about.
Interesting find here. Just FYI.
As undoubtably, everyone will blog in the next 24 hours… New mozilla.org has been launched. Looks great. Also has a wonderful end user focus.
One thing I would do, is make a subdomain for corporate customers. Gear the same information, but corporate advantages (why Mozilla is good for an organization). How to deploy? Security? Updating? Customizing? Branding? etc. These corporate users involve thousands of users per company. And remember. Convince 1 company, and potentially thousands of users are exposed to Mozilla. That means some will undoubtedly, download for home use.
An ISP targeted subdomain may not be a bad idea either.
While not technically end users. These customers will advertise for the Mozilla project. All have reason to consider Mozilla. For example licensing. Mozilla is free distro for all OS’s. Great for ISP’s. Can be customized, etc.
Food for thought.
As Asa noted the other night, Mozilla 1.5b is coming real soon…. and now it’s out!
Horray, download now. Enjoy the lizard. New since 1.5a is:
Download and spread the word.
Lovin’ anything browser/html related.
David Hyatt has an interesting post on Browsers. A good read for any developer. A very good read. Interesting notes.
When designing this site, I wanted to be very compatible. Good code, and I am. Works in all browsers I tested.
I’ve used it before, but today I gave Safari a real go. Despite the fact that some bugs exist, it does a pretty good job. My biggest complement goes to the UI. It’s clean, simple, and totally Apple. It shares the same DNA as Steve Jobs.
I also like the snapback and iSync functionality. Some nice little Apple features make web browsing pleasant. Rendering is pretty good, fast, clean, and pretty compatible.
Still though, I favor Camino. From the pages I tested (including my own) it loaded faster, and had the best rendering of the two browsers (both of which blow Internet Explorer away). The biggest incompatibilities I’ve noted are mainly with JavaScript not functioning properly (especially sites with large complex scripts) or some XHTML pages. All of which Camino and Mozilla do very well.
IMHO the winner is still Camino, and the entire Gecko line of browsers, although Safari gets an honorable mention. It’s UI features are clearly superior.
I don’t think many sites will cater to KHTML browsers though. I think it’s much more likely for them to test in Netscape or other Gecko browsers, than KHTML based browsers. As a result, Gecko based browsers will most likely always have an upper hand in compatibility, unless KHTML manages to really keep up, despite the never ending obstacles that lie in it’s way.
A side note: I’m need to check out OmniWeb (the WebCore version), and give that a go. I haven’t gotten to that yet.