Netscape Founder Backs New Browser 243
wirelessjb writes to share that after a resounding defeat at the hands of Microsoft in the first major browser war of the mid 1990s, Marc Andreessen is looking to have another go at the market by backing a new startup called "RockMelt." "Mr. Andreessen suggested the new browser would be different, saying that most other browsers had not kept pace with the evolution of the Web, which had grown from an array of static Web pages into a network of complex Web sites and applications. 'There are all kinds of things that you would do differently if you are building a browser from scratch,' Mr. Andreessen said.
RockMelt was co-founded by Eric Vishria and Tim Howes, both former executives at Opsware, a company that Mr. Andreessen co-founded and then sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2007 for about $1.6 billion. Mr. Howes also worked at Netscape with Mr. Andreessen."
May I say (Score:5, Insightful)
Netscape's interface was the best
Long live Seamonkey
Chrome 2 (Score:5, Insightful)
'There are all kinds of things that you would do differently if you are building a browser from scratch,' Mr. Andreessen said.
Yeah, I'd build a browser more like... Chrome. Which addressed this issue less than two years ago. Has the web changed a lot in two years?
What's the profit model for this startup? That's the most interesting question, to me.
The web site appears to have melted (Score:4, Insightful)
The Rockmelt website isn't too interesting. It's a bit presumptuous to assume it will get a /.ing. Perhaps it is suffering from the Marketing Dept assuming people will come back later in the hope of revelation, rather than them saying "ooh nice logo" and then instantly forgetting about them and moving along.
Chrome 0 (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd build a browser more like... Chrome.
I wouldn't. I'd dump most of the custom GUI features in Chrome and Firefox, and quit screwing around with the stuff around the browser window. It's the stuff inside the browser window that you actually care about, not whether the icons are grey metal or jello blue.
Re:Chrome 2 (Score:5, Insightful)
What's the profit model for this startup? That's the most interesting question, to me.
According to the various articles, RockMelt will attempt strong integration with social networking sites. So I would assume the profit model is mining users' privacy and selling advertising.
Re:The web site appears to have melted (Score:3, Insightful)
Bad juju replying to my own post but this is just a product placement ad. There is no substance whatsoever about what is actually different with this browser. There are no details either in either of the links. Surely money changed hands to put this drivel on /.
Keeping Pace with the Web (Score:5, Insightful)
There's no one out there making a good living by creating webpages that browsers can't display.
Re:Chrome 0 (Score:4, Insightful)
You mean completely useless and pointless things around the content like favorite & history menus and tabs too, right? I wish people would quit wasting time coming up with that nonsense and get back to the 'stuff inside the browser window'...
I'll even go back to your themes point and argue that. As hard as it is for the common /.er to process, we are humans and not machines. People love their colors and themes. When my mom, grandmother, uncle and other aunt got a new computer, I got the inevitable "you work with computers, right" call and every single last one of them had in their top 5 "how to" questions: Can't I change the picture behind my icon thingies? How do I do that?
Never underestimate the human desire to want to make their world their own. Even when they know they aren't.
not learning from history? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure someone already made Flock. :)
Re:It looks like a browser, it smells like a brows (Score:3, Insightful)
This "article" is just another marketing ploy for some vapourware. Can't you see that? By gum, /. isn't the same these days 8) There are a couple of good jokes in this topic but in the end this is all just an exercise in promotion and we are it's semi willing participants, breathing life into the marketing machine.
IT'S ALL JUST BOLLOCKS - I WANT NEWS ON MY /. NOT THIS SHIT.
Re:The web site appears to have melted (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Chrome 0 (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It looks like a browser, it smells like a brows (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Chrome 2 (Score:4, Insightful)
Born dead (Score:2, Insightful)
RockMelt is going to be born dead. There is nothing it can do in terms of Facebook integration that Firefox + Facebook-related theme + Facebook plugin. And RockMelt has no viable business model - there is no place anymore for mainstream browsers.
flock 2.0? (Score:3, Insightful)
we all know how popular flock turned out to be.
Re:Chrome 0 (Score:5, Insightful)
You work with computers, right? How do I set up my machine to display not "color", per se, but to be more visible for the "color blind". See, I fail all color vision tests - can't see red or green. I don't CARE about the colors so much, as I just want important stuff to be sharp and clear. (Why on earth does everyone use red to color "important shitzls", when red just fades into the backgroud? Use a nice electric blue - make it flash - THAT will get my attention!!)
Alright, maybe I'm just mocking "normal" people. Whatever. But, it's fair to point out that eye candy isn't a priority with everyone. ;-)
Re:Chrome 2 (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly my thoughts.
Chrome has a fast JS engine. It separates plug-ins so they can't crash the browser. The interface doesn't get in your way. It sandboxes everything for security. It integrates Gears to use web apps offline.
What is this start-up going to do that Chrome doesn't do?
I haven't read the article, but if I was going with a start-up today, I'd build around Chromium to start, but port it to Qt to use one code-base on all platforms. With the per-process design, you could even call different versions of the rendering engine for different pages/sites, which would be useful for compatibility, and for web design. I'd automatically sync the browser profile online so you have the same settings anywhere you sit down, unless you want to opt-out for privacy concerns. I'd work on a notification system like this: http://blog.abi.sh/2009/silent-diving-seagulls/ [blog.abi.sh] I'd jump all over HTML 5, and I'd form strategic partnerships to pre-bundle certain web-apps into the browser for revenue.
Re:Chrome 0 (Score:3, Insightful)
Likewise, OSes that natively support theming (ur a UXTheme-hacked Windows) are a very good thing because every vertical pixel I can shave off the window decoration and widgets can mean the difference between a working app and one where the important buttons are offscreen. Interface customizability is very important right now.
Re:Chrome 0 (Score:3, Insightful)
I personally think a UI for these things in any way different than a web page of links is silly. If we can come up with a better way of navigating links to web pages, then the rest of the web should work that way, too.
Sandboxes? (Score:3, Insightful)
Each process is placed in a sandbox to protect your security and privacy.
Jails/partitions, or just chroot? What, on Windows?
Or do you mean the javascript engine is a separate instance (because it's a separate process) so they're sandboxed from each other because they're in different processes. Which is a good thing, but describing it as putting each PROCESS in a sandbox is misleading as hell.
Re:May I say (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Chrome 2 (Score:2, Insightful)
He's saying the Chrome interface is nothing innovative. It's an accurate observation. Just because he made the observation doesn't mean he's supposed to have answers on how to innovate a browser interface.
social netsresponsive & !practical +borders (Score:1, Insightful)
Social nets and their tools are less responsive and not practical across country borders. I prefer not to use them and I probably won't use this Rockmelt. Slashdot has been getting less and less responsive because of all of this social net/advertising/user click tracking. From China, I click a link which wants something from facebook and then the web freezes from my perspective. I have to seek other proxy alternatives to view the pages and turn them on. This makes the entire web viewing experience painfully slow and I can't watch live video in this proxy environment. If Rockmelt links to any web site that the Chinese firewall doesn't like it will slow down the entire web page visiting experience. Already with just firefox and slashdot linking to google/job ads the slashdot web page is very heavy and slow to load.
Seeing the existence of Facebook/Twitter/Rockmelt tells me that so-called web page designers fail to understand how bandwidth isn't the same everywhere in the world. I certainly prefer all the web designers having simple pages with ads/simple text/simple images coming from the same site. All this cross-site scripting stuff already is a security mess. Keep it simple. Keep it fast. If you provide video, give a link to download it. Don't force the user to view it in a web page because not all of us have that BANDWIDTH you take for granted. DRM is crap and I won't by anything built with it. I won't buy any monitors/tvs/stereos with it. If you want me to watch a video, then give me a link and give me the freedom to download it and play it when I want with whatever I want. If you want me to watch a video, then give it to me without restrictions. If not, I prefer not to watch your crap anyways.
Good luck to you all!
Anti-trust winners and losers (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a little off-topic, but here is another example. There is a litany of evidence that Intel used illegal, anti-competitive practices against AMD. Every major vendor lined up to testify against Intel because of this. Several countries have already found Intel guilty. But those illegal business tactics were effective to the point that it kept AMD from developing market share, even when they had superior products. Intel cheated, ran AMD into the ground, and even when all the anti-trust trials are over, AMD might not even exist anymore, let alone come out a victor in any way shape or form.
The lesson seems to be that cheaters do prosper. What you might pay in a fine later is a drop in the bucket to winning market share and becoming a monopoly.