Firefox Extension Lets You Pick the Name 479
Rovaedne writes "Mozilla
Firefox , the web browser
formerly known as Firebird,
formerly known as Phoenix, has a new extension which allows you to change the name to something palatable. The extension called
Firesomething lets users change the name seen in the browser titlebar, Help menu, and About dialog, thus erradicating all traces of "Firefox" in
Firefox (currently version 0.8). There is a
name change FAQ, but it currently does not mention this extension. This extension should hopefully help curb some of the criticism that Mozilla has received from its most recent
choice of name."
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
What about Thunderbird? (Score:0, Interesting)
Old news (Score:4, Interesting)
The plugin was actually released the same day as 0.8.
Re:I'm calling mine slash dot.dot (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember, FF is not yet out of Beta so a name change is trivial.
That said, it needs to start building a brand name and that brand will be Firefox. I believe the developers have said clearly that it will not change again.
Anyway, I love the new FF icon. Much nicer than Moz
Re:Next step for microsoft (Score:4, Interesting)
Attach the IE icon to it and voila... the users act as if there is no difference except it's massively faster, no popup's, no crashes, no freezes.
It's funny, many people scream about the massive retraining required switching workers to Open Source... It's not real.
Excuse me, but it's the TV series (Score:4, Interesting)
Or the Triumph Thunderbird motorcycle.
Oooh. Look not a Ford in sight.
In the real world, not necessarily the one you inhabit, the Thunderbird is a mythical beast from native Indian legend.
Re:I know what I want to call it... (Score:3, Interesting)
On a more serious note, this extension is GREAT (Score:5, Interesting)
When I set up a Windows box for a neophyte (admittedly, not often) I do everything I can to purge Internet Exploder from the system. Some might find this unjustifiable, but the only time I'm ever asked (begged) to help Windows is when a friend of my wife's computer is running badly due to six billion viruses and twenty-two trillion Spyware programs.
Anyhow. I hunt down all the shortcuts to IE and file associations to IE (i.e. as a viewer, default browser, blah blah blah) and replace them with Firebird. Then, I swap Firebird's icon with IE's icon. (I do a similar thing with with Lookout Express and ThunderBird). I used to even install the IE theme, but it's been busted for a while.
This will help to complete the illusion.
Of course, when I'm done, I just tell them I put on a new version of "The Internet" called Mozilla to help them not get viruses and spyware in the first place. I make sure they hear the brand at least a dozen times when I'm talking to them, because I want to build brand recognition. Maybe they'll tell their stupid friends how great Mozilla is and their friends will download it and use it. (Wishful thinking, I know).
But we all know that telling a Windows user to use Mozilla Fire* instead of IE will far on deaf ears; these people will click that stupid fuckin' blue E because they want to "get on the Internet". You have to make them use something else, or they WILL succumb to temptation and get infected again.
So far, nobody's come back. Either they hate me now, or they are relatively virus-free; I really don't care which.
At least my daughter was easier to set up. She knows to use Mozilla (full suite) instead of IE/OE. If she truly *needs* to use IE (i.e. one of her favourite sites doesn't work with Moz), she can ask me to add it to IE for her. I do this by modifying the automatic proxy configuration URL -- if it's on my safe site list, it points to Squid; otherwise it points to an inetd->shell hack which tells her to come and see me.
Re:What's wrong with Firefox? (Score:3, Interesting)
1) mozilla ? Their old browsers sucked.
2) firefox ? It sounds like a firewall software.
anyways, after taking the time to explain them what firefox really is, they were all convinced.
Linux branding oppoptunity. (Score:4, Interesting)
Whenever you get a Linux distribution, it insalls about 5 differeent web browsers with confusing names such as Konqueror, Mozilla, Lynx, Galeon and Epiphany. There is no need for all those web browsers. And don't scream CHOICE either, you are only going to be using ONE, so why have 5 installed?
This is where this extension comes in. Linux distributions could now just ship one browser, but customised with their experiance. Imagine Debianavigator, Fedora the explorer, SuSEscape, Webdrake, Genfox and Slackzilla web browsers, with their own themeing, but still firefox internally, and "hardcore" users could still change it back if they wanted by downloading the extention.
Lindows already ship a customised Mozilla known as "Lindows Internet Suite", so why can't other Linux distributions do this? They already brand KDE/GNOME/ETC with their menu layouts, icons and apps, so why not do web browsers?
Fire-star (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:On a more serious note, this extension is GREAT (Score:3, Interesting)
That's why they are trained to say "so and so set me up" when talking to tech support; I know the techs at the local ISP.
But even so, yeah, I admit this could cause some problems, but a clever tech will out what's going on anyhow.
The main point being, they don't call *me*. LOL.
Re:On a more serious note, this extension is GREAT (Score:3, Interesting)
But even so, yeah, I admit this could cause some problems, but a clever tech will out what's going on anyhow.
Not in my neck of the woods. The braniac for an isp tech here came over to setup my cable internet service was throwing fits because he couldn't find the IE icon on my desktop. I simply told him to "use Firefox.... it's not vastly different from Netscape". He still was dumbfounded. Seriously, a browser is a browser is a browser, and this guy who is being paid to setup internet accounts for subscribers cowered when given something other than explorer to work with.
Very disturbing... I won't be calling these guys up for tech support anytime soon.
Re:On a more serious note, this extension is GREAT (Score:3, Interesting)
Isn't it time to work on essential things? (Score:2, Interesting)
This should be the hostname of the sending machine.
As it turns out, this was a duplicate of a bug reported in februari 2001, that is still open!
That bug in fact talked only about HELO so I did not find it using search. SMTP has been replaced by ESMTP in the meantime, but the issue remains.
Not that there were no contributions, there are 110 followups on the original report, many of them with good suggestions and patches. But in december 2003, things have again come to a standstill it seems.
With such issues, that should be trivial to fix in an evening, open for 3 years, I wonder how a change like this got checked in.
Maybe the remarks about OSS made in another thread are sometimes not that far off the mark?
So? (Score:2, Interesting)
Why the user agent string?? (Score:3, Interesting)
Argh... I can understand it if you wish to access a site that thinks it only works with IE when it actually doesn't, but it's stupid to change it if:
1. You make the name "Mozilla Seaturtle" or something else "just for fun".
2. You keep it set to IE's user agent even if you don't need it.
Why? Because Firefox popularity will decrease in statistics and web masters will feel less reasons to support Firefox when checking their access logs.
Re:What's wrong with Firefox? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Actually (Score:5, Interesting)
If I acutally wanted to USE this bot, it would be pretty trivial to hack it's resources to change the titlebar (actually, I'm sure the author has already randomized the title). We're going to see an increasing battle between 'bot programs for online gambling and those who run online gambling sites.
If you're curious, to a google groups search on rec.gambling.poker for "WinHoldEm"
Re:Windows Update (Score:4, Interesting)
Good point. It's worth noting that even Mozillatips [mozillatips.com] recommend keeping IE around for Windows Updates and also certain poorly-designed-but-necessary sites, like certain banks.
Incidentally, I keep IE as my 2nd browser at work for testing, and also to use the control panel app on a Cobalt Raq box. Irony, eh?
Re:Next step for microsoft (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:On a more serious note, this extension is GREAT (Score:2, Interesting)
Menu text is not copyrightable expression. Lotus v. Borland [panix.com]. Or do you think Microsoft would bring a frivolous lawsuit just to harass The Mozilla Organization?
The Gong show (Score:2, Interesting)
And this won't fix the criticism, since it will officially still be Firefox and that is what ISVs will have to certify against.
Find a good brand for both the browser and mail client and move along please. It is a shame it can't be Mozilla since people are finally certifying on that platform but at least if one is picked (and I don't care if it is "cool" as long as it is not "silly" or easily disdained) we can start re-edumacating the various companies that had been moving towards Mozilla.
Re:Diluting Mindshare (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Next step for microsoft (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Actually (Score:4, Interesting)
For example, I can communicate with mozilla with a command such as:
Link.LinkTopic = "Mozilla|WWW_GetWindowInfo"
Link.LinkMode = 2
Link.LinkRequest
I can grab all sort of nice information through this process. Netscape, Opera, IE -- all support this function. Firefox currenly does not.
If plug-ins like the one described in the original posting change the DDE information, then it will even be more complicated to develop applications that are compatable with this browser.
Davak
Re:Next step for microsoft (Score:1, Interesting)
I have since removed 0.8 and upgraded Mozilla to 1.7Beta and am so much happier.
Re:Next step for microsoft (Score:4, Interesting)
Necessary for distros (Score:4, Interesting)
It's come up as an issue with the Debian package [debian.org] for Firefox.
KDE can do this too (Score:5, Interesting)
many Kde applications can be started to display a different name. For example, if you were feeling particularly sadistic you could run konqueror like this
%> konqueror --caption "Internet Explorer"
although something like
%> juk --caption "iTunes"
is probably more palatable
nick
Seeing what you want to see (Score:2, Interesting)
As a native Windows application tied into the system, IE already has a distinct speed advantage. To pretend Mozilla and Firefox are somehow faster is something I've never been able to do.
Re:What about Thunderbird? (Score:3, Interesting)
Seems like browsers are supposed to just be named after cars....
What's next? the Nissan Opera????