New Year's resolution for Firefox: Grow

Published on December 27, 2004 By Black Xero In WinCustomize News

Forty-five days and some 13 million downloads after its official release, Mozilla's Firefox browser is showing undeniable momentum--but does it signal the beginning of the end to Microsoft's monopoly over the basic software used to access the Web?

Even as Firefox gathers steam, powerful brakes are poised to kick in that could limit its long-term growth: Interoperability has long dogged non-Microsoft browsers, which are often glitchy on some Web sites. Firefox claims some significant progress on this front, but a handful of sites, including Microsoft's Windows Update site, are still inaccessible.

In addition, Microsoft's deep hooks in corporate IT departments could make it impractical for many businesses to consider switching from Internet Explorer for the foreseeable future. Microsoft, for one, sees those hooks as a staunch bulwark against corporate defections, keeping its most profitable customers close to the fold.

Since its launch last month, Firefox has already nudged Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser below the 90 percent mark for the first time in years, according to one survey. Now the question is whether the Web browser can surmount thorny market dynamics to become more than just another niche player among the crowd of lilliputian rivals that have long stood in IE's shadow.

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With the success of Firefox in winning market share, Mozilla is finding Web authors more receptive to its message about standards and compatibility. The group is now fielding between 10 and 15 calls per week from individuals and organizations asking how to make their sites work with Firefox.

These are only exerpts from C|Net News. Read detailed article at Link

Comments (Page 3)

dtk69

on Dec 31, 2004

Why dosn't Wincustomize have Firefox themes?

Kobrano

on Dec 31, 2004

After the incessant bugs with Outlook 2003, i'm considering switching to Thunderbird..

Outlook is soo annoying.. At home, and at work, when I check multiple email accounts, it pauses at 75% about half the time, and locks up.. Regardless of what machine, and regardless of where i'm at. Worse, outlook tends to stick in ram at times.

Guess its Thunderbird time. Might as well, since i stopped using IE months ago.

Black Xero

on Dec 31, 2004

Outlook is soo annoying.. At home, and at work, when I check multiple email accounts, it pauses at 75% about half the time, and locks up.. Regardless of what machine, and regardless of where i'm at. Worse, outlook tends to stick in ram at times.

Same here ............

MrChriZ

on Dec 31, 2004

I've had firefox installed for a couple of weeks... and i really can't see what all the fuss is about. On my System it's actually fractionally slower than
explorer to appear, by hotkey. There are three things it does that aren't standard to IE.
Tabbed Grouping. Well Blow me over... Isn't that what the task bar's for?! Plus it doesn't seem to work all that well, half the time it still opens another window altogether. XP even does that grouping thing on the taskbar tho most people turn it off because it's just annoying. To be honest it's just going back to the way of MDI interfaces which we abandoned about 4 years ago! SDI is so much better because you know when you press ALT-F4 you are only closing the window you are looking at. (I know you could theoretically press CTRL F4)
Download pause/resume Facilitys... Erm yeh I've had one of those bolted on to explorer about 9 years ago now, yes it would be nice to see it integrated... but so what!
Pop Up Blocker... erm see above.

On top of that the standard toolbar shipped with it doesn't have the buttons explorer does.

To me its just another browser. Lets face it they aren't that difficult to make either. Just about every programming language comes with an HTML renderer now adays.....

I suppose you do always have the advantage that it's open source though!
Mind you which would you prefer to be given, a house that cost a company many millions to build, and to which joe bloggs can't see the plans for the security for, OR a house which every can see the plans too, built for free by people that have too much time on there hands? Just a thought.

Anyway. Surely it plays right into Microsofts hands if FireFox users do increase.
They don't make much money from Explorer do they? Just Windows. Better interfaces/Greater Stability or Security for Windows will only stop greater flows of people to LinuX.

Anyway to much ranting!
Happy New Year Everyone.
Thanks for all your brilliant customisations, and lets hope theres more in the new year

BTW I think there should be a sound section to this website. It's all very well it looking funky, but it doesn't work if it has standard windows sounds really does it!
Mr (hriZ

CerebroJD

on Jan 01, 2005

#22 by GCube

Regarding the toolbar buttons: No they do NOT work. However, you can get Firefox themes that change the look of many bits of the Firefox interface.

Kobrano

on Jan 01, 2005

Tabbed Grouping. Well Blow me over... Isn't that what the task bar's for?! Plus it doesn't seem to work all that well, half the time it still opens another window altogether

Sounds like you didn't setup Firefox right, and don't understand it very well.

Try getting Tabbed Browser Preferences extension, then going into options and turning its features ON. *THAT* is how Tabbed Browsing is supposed to work, and IE can't TOUCH that.

I only use three extensions, but the 3 I use, pretty much means IE is USELESS to me in comparison.. (Tabbed Preferences, Download Manager Tweak, SearchStatus)

Its like going back into the stoneage to use IE now. Taskbar? Pffft.

Kobrano

on Jan 02, 2005

Lets hope in the new year, JoeUser.Com is fixed so it works right with Firefox.

paxx

on Jan 02, 2005

Mouse Gestures, IEView (for those few sites that are hard coded for IE), Smiley Xtra (to quickly add extra smilies/images to forums such as here

), Spellbound (spell checker), Firesomething (useless but fun, changes the name of the browser in the titlebar), Google Preview (show a thumbnail of the web page when doing a google search), Tiny URL Creator (handy way to paste lengthy URLs in forums), TabBrowser Preference (enhances the Tab browsing experience), Forecastfox (local weather and forecast in the status bar), CuteMenus (adds cute icons to the menus), View Cookies (allows to view and delete cookies when visiting a site), QuickNote (a little Post-it kind of thing), Measure It (a little ruler thingy that enables me to measure the width and height of things on a web page).

These are the extensions I use and are enough reasons never to go back to IE ever again.

Ericsonic

on Jan 04, 2005

Hello everyone,I'm from Beijing,China,so happy to enter the family, and my English is not very well,I hope someone could else help me,I wonder where are you from,yes I choose the size ,so I choose the whole friends here,Happy new year,supporting the family,expacting the new future she will own.

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