Firefox and Open Standards the Way Forward 254
lamasquerade writes "A major Australian newspaper has a lengthy and detailed feature on open source/standards, avoiding vendor lock-in, and specifically the increasing uptake of Firefox by major organisations' IT departments. It touches on security and price advantages of open source but mainly focuses on open standards -- the perils of vendor lock-in, and their importance to technologies like the Internet and digital music. Linux, OpenOffice.org and even Bugzilla get a mention and all told it is a very pro-open source/standards article, especially considering it is in a mass-circulation publication."
For those who don't know.... (Score:5, Informative)
Identical article, but shows that the coverage is even bigger than you might initially expect if you weren't familiar with Fairfax.
Re:Kind of vague article (Score:3, Informative)
Re:MoFo == US based charity? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:eh (Score:0, Informative)
Re:No lock-in? (Score:2, Informative)
What hacks? The link you supplied is about a book which teaches several Firefox tricks, but not about designing Firefox-only websites. It's for those who want to learn how to take the most from their browser.
Yes, there are features specific for Mozilla browsers, but they are mostly for internal use (XUL, for instance). Not to mention they're all prefixed (CSS properties start with "-moz-"), so you know for sure when you're making something that is not standards-oriented, unlike IE's exclusive features.
Re:Kind of vague article (Score:5, Informative)
Whilst it is not as popular as the Herald Sun, the leading newspaper in Melbourne, it is regarded as the `more intelligent' paper whilst the Herald Sun is the tabloid equivalent.
It would seem this doesn't account for much, but greater Melbourne has a population of over 4 million and afaik The Age is relatively well known internationally.
Re:Kind of vague article (Score:2, Informative)
MOD PARENT DOWN (Score:1, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Is Firefox really more secure than IE (Score:1, Informative)
IE has huge problems with even simple Level 2 CSS Rules.
eg: td:hover { background: color: #eee; }
Every other browser in existance after netscape 4 supports this completely.
Opera, Firefox, Mozilla Suite, Safari, Konqueror.
But IE? noooooo.
Re:Henh. (Score:3, Informative)
The quote businesses need to see (Score:5, Informative)
On standards, Firefox has an advantage over Explorer. That gives organisations latitude to commit to standards rather than to products. That in turn reduces the leverage that vendors have over customers.
Microsoft has hampered standards support in Explorer for five years with its go-slow campaign against the web. Standards-oriented page layout is not possible on most versions of Explorer (CSS box model). Explorer has never met standards for web document identification (HTTP MIME content types), or if one is supported, then simultaneously the other is not. Microsoft has shown an antipathy to web standards, because in the view of many they provide an alternative to the Windows desktop - Microsoft's core business. The success of web-based applications such as Amazon, Google, eBay, the open source Wikipedia encyclopedia and online banking point to the decreasing importance of Windows in a world where a web browser is sufficient.
Look, a major newspaper calling out Microsoft for its obvious "Go-Slow" campaign. When more and more businesses start understanding at this point, and more and more businesses start understanding the implications of the lock-in they have let themselves get into - then things will get interesting.
Re:This is soon to fall. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What standards? (Score:3, Informative)
Cascadi
Also read
http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=Progre
http://emps.l-c-n.com/articles/84/the-
http://www.alistapart.com/
I would also grumble if it weren't for Flashblock. (Score:2, Informative)
Which web sites?
What version of Firefox?
Do you have Flash installed? Flash uses a loophole in popup-blocking, since plugins are actually different programs (or modules) and can use alternate methods to open popups.
To fix this, install Flashblock (requires you to click to open Flash movies/games (in other words, you have a choice not to open advertisements that create popups.
Adblock is another method that works well. Simply right click to block ads, and there are numbers of blocklists already on the web for you to import.
If you install these two programs (or else just uninstall Flash), I can guarantee that you won't see popups often if at all.
I understand that alternate methods exist, like tricking the browser into thinking it is a "requested" popup, but this can be disabled, and from my experience, I've never had a problem with this.
The last time I have seen a popup was when I was using a public computer, and I didn't have enough time to install Firefox on it. Even there, if you go to the right sites, you will see only at most one popup or so.
Re:Don't rest on your laurels (Score:2, Informative)
"Open Standards" != software freedom (Score:5, Informative)
Photoshop's ability to load and save PNG files doesn't mean I can inspect, share, or modify Photoshop to suit my needs. Depending on the license agreement and the method by which I have to install the program, I might even be restricted from running the software whenever I want. The closest free software image editing program to Photoshop is The GIMP. The GIMP's native image format is well-documented, at the very least, within the source code of that program which all are free to inspect, share, and modify.
Re:The next generation web apps will be different (Score:3, Informative)
XAML is to XUL what J++ (or c#) is to Java: Microsoft "innovation". They see a promising technology, reimplement (badly, if not ass-backwards) it to suit their purposes, call it new, and the PHB's are none the wiser.
Since it's against MS's interests to be cross platform, and XAML/Avalon is Longhorn/XP+SP3 (IE7) only, users/corporations have no choice but to choose the original technology, or pay for another ride on the upgrade-go-round.
Applications are already being built in XUL, go check out MozDev [mozdev.org], or ActiveState's Komodo [activestate.com], or Nvu [nvu.com]. At least one web-based application plans to have an available XUL interface (see my sig).
Re:This is a public service announcement (Score:2, Informative)
The word is its. He wrote it correctly, why did you have to insert an error?
Re:But Slashdot worked with Mozilla back then! (Score:5, Informative)
Also note that Slashdot works fine with Opera and KHTML-based browsers.
Bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2175
Note that bugzilla blocks slashdot referrers.
Re:For those who don't know.... (Score:0, Informative)
speaking of Mozilla (Score:2, Informative)
Updating (Score:2, Informative)
Get that sorted and it can take over.
Re:Is Firefox really more secure than IE (Score:3, Informative)
Well, I think on /. you could cut him some slack on a typo, given that you missed capitalisation of your third sentence ;-)
To answer your questions:
I'll accept that very light grey isn't a well-thought out colour if the page has a #fff background...
Re:Shame (Score:4, Informative)
Re:1998 called.... (Score:3, Informative)