Mozilla Exec Claims Apple is Hunting OSS Browsers

Rob writes with a link to a Computer Business Review article on the negative impact Mozilla COO John Lilly sees Apple is having on Open Source. Lilly claims that Jobs' recent discussion of Safari on Windows is an attempt to create a duopoly of browsers (IE and Safari), with Firefox and the rest on the outside looking in. "The graph 'betrays the way that Apple, so often looks at the world,' Lilly said. 'But make no mistake: this wasn't a careless presentation, or an accidental omission of all the other browsers out there, or even a crummy marketing trick,' he said. 'Lots of words describe Steve and his Stevenotes, but 'careless' and 'accidental' do not. This is, essentially, the way they're thinking about the problem, and shows the users they want to pick up.'" We discussed an analyst's opinion on this subject this past Friday.

The shoe is on the other foot

[TrIp0d]

Instead of Microsoft following Apple's lead, Apple is following Microsoft. What a concept!

This just in...

[mushupork]

"Public company aggressively pursues marketshare!"

Film at 11.

Re:Um... what?

[aichpvee]

You meant inferior, but I'll forgive you since I know you're using a mac and the keyboard has all the keys in funny places.

Re:Um... what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple's introducing a superior browser to Windows

You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

Apple is Hunting OSS Browsers

[syntap]

We're on a Safari and we're hunting OSS browsers. (slaps self) I mean we're developing Safari and HURTING OSS browsers.

Film at 11?

[wiredog]

How last century. These days it's all YouTube Video Right Now.

Re:Apple on Windows

[lewp]

Presumably when another user is running a copy.

Mozilla gets modded down

[Anonymous Coward]

Every time I point out Apple's brutally monopolistic worldview, my posts get modded down. Therefore, we should all agree that Mozilla now has zero Slashdot credibility, because they dare say something bad about Dear Lord and Master, Apple.

Down with FOSS!! Long live Apple!! Buggy and insecure applications and steeply overpriced hardware for all!!

Re:Apple on Windows

[gowen]

I share it with my girlfriend and what does she do? Kills my iTunes and then uses hers to play Elton John and the Moulin Rouge soundtrack.

It's a fucking travesty is what that is.

Re:Apple on Windows

[MyLongNickName]

Then uses hers to play Elton John and the Moulin Rouge soundtrack

Damn. I knew Slashdotters were hard up for female companionship, but this is over the top. Why don't you just stick to porn and wanking like the rest of us?

Pedantry is fun

[jb.hl.com]

All fucktarded communist open-sores loving fucktards should go earn themselves a darwin award by finding a razor, running a hot bath, and slitting their fucking wrists.

Technically that wouldn't be a Darwin Award, as they hadn't done anything particularly stupid to get themselves killed, they'd explicitly set out to kill themselves.

(Sorry.)

(No, really... sorry.)

In more ways than one...

[msauve]

Lilly claims that Jobs' recent discussion of Safari on Windows is an attempt to create a duopoly of browsers (IE and Safari), with Firefox and the rest on the outside looking in.

I feel that Mozilla is trying to do the same thing to Lynx [browser.org].

Re:Um... what?

[Volante3192]

I've got a nastly little anarchist streak in me. I think it'd be hilarious for the browser wars to play out like this. Download Windows update? IE takes control. Song off iTunes? Safari grabs control back.

Knock down drag out no holds barred browser war, np.

Re:Mozilla gets modded down

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

Every time I point out Apple's brutally monopolistic worldview, my posts get modded down.

Yeah, you'd think a person who doesn't know what a monopoly is would be modded up when making comments about them, huh?

Down with FOSS!! Long live Apple!!

Umm, Apple is a FOSS contributor. Webkit (the engine behind Safari) is LGPL and Apple is one of the largest contributors.

No wonder the only way you get modded up is as "funny" your opinions are a joke.

Re:Um... what?

[TheRaven64]

Cocoa has worked on Windows for ages. NeXT used to sell an OpenStep developers environment that ran on Windows NT, and Apple released an updated version with the Rhapsody developers previews called 'YellowBox.' Whether they'll ever release it to the public again is debatable. One of the things people have been complaining about with the cancellation of 64-bit Carbon is that it makes cross-platform development hard (since most cross-platform toolkits are built on top of Carbon, which uses a similar programming model to the Windows API), so this might make it attractive to release Cocoa-for-Windows. I hope they don't, because it would probably be very bad for GNUstep...

Re:Apple on Windows

[Shakrai]

Why don't you just stick to porn and wanking like the rest of us?

Because it's not as fun and a lil Elton John and Moulin Rouge is worth having access to a sex partner?

Re:Apple on Windows

[kashani]

Elton John and show tunes... are you sure that's a "girl" friend you've got there?

kashani

Re:Not about market share

[geekboy642]

FF 0.1 beta was actually a text box on a plain Windows Form. It only supported the <html>, <body>, and <br> tags. You could, of course, get extensions for it to handle most of the HTML 4.5 tags, but if you got the <blink> extension, it disabled the <table> and <img> tag extensions.

Meh. Still better than IE.

Re:Um... what?

[dangitman]

Actually, from the looks of that picture [flickr.com] Jobs is actually targeting classic arcade gamers. Perhaps this is his solution for bringing more games to the Mac? Safari - now with Asteroids and Donkey Kong.