Posted on 01/04/2005 4:26:26 PM PST by Coleus
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Is this internet prodigy about to knock Microsoft off its pedestal? A Miami teenager has created a free web browser that has been called Bill Gates's worst nightmare |
A MIAMI teenager is basking in the glory of helping to create a new internet browser at 17 that is now challenging the grip of Microsoft, which once held a virtual monopoly on web surfing.
Computer analysts say that Blake Ross’s browser, Firefox, is a faster, more versatile program that also offers better protection from viruses and unwanted advertising.
Industry experts have dubbed the new software “Microsoft’s worst nightmare”, according to the technology magazine Business 2.0. It hailed Mr Ross, now 19, as a software prodigy. He is also a talented pianist and “an unbelievable creative writer”, according to his mother, Ross. “Anything he does, he does well,” she said.
As a seven-year-old Mr Ross became hooked on the popular computer game SimCity, designing and budgeting his own virtual city. By 10, he had created his own website. He later created his own computer applications and online text games.Soon he was reporting computer software flaws to manufacturers online.
At 14 he was offered an internship at Netscape in Silicon Valley. His mother drove him out to California for three summers in succession.
At Netscape, Mr Ross was introduced to the Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes “choice and innovation on the web”.
Mozilla was already trying to develop an open-source alternative browser to Microsoft’s Explorer, which many analysts felt had grown clumsy and outdated. Mr Ross and his friend David Hyatt began working on a small, user-focused browser. What began as an experimental side-project turned into Firefox.
Mr Ross is quick to point out that he was one of a large team at Mozilla who worked on the project for five years. “It’s a big volunteer effort,” he said. In fact, the pair left before the work was completed, but Mozilla credits them with making the breakthrough. After he left to go to university, Mr Ross continued to be a “significant contributor”, according to Mozilla.
The task involved throwing out all the old codes and rewriting the entire system so it would support all websites on the internet. While Firefox still has a long way to go to rival Microsoft, it seems to be catching on. Firefox has received dazzling reviews from industry analysts. Recently some 10,000 Firefox fans raised $250,000 (£131,000) to take out a two-page advertisement in The New York Times. It is not just in dividual users who are taking interest. In December, the information technology department at Pennsylvania State University sent a note to college deans recommending that the entire 100,000-strong staff, faculty and student body switch to Firefox.
Mr Ross, now a student at Stanford University studying computer science, is taking it all in his stride. As a volunteer on an open-source product, there was no financial reward.
Microsoft professes to be unfazed. Windows executive Gary Schare said: “We’re seeing the natural ebb and flow of a competitive marketplace with new products being introduced. It’s not surprising to see curious early adopters checking them out.”
Not content with making a huge dent in Microsoft’s browser share, Mozilla, the foundation behind Firefox, is also going after Microsoft’s Outlook and other e-mail packages.
Called Thunderbird 1.0, the package works on Windows, Macintosh and Linux and has been praised by the industry and press for finally offering a challenge to Microsoft’s dominance in the e-mail arena.
The software provides a number of features which other packages are struggling to offer. Key features include e-mail junk filters that analyse and sort incoming mail and greater security elements.
Blake? That's a first name for someone?
That's the 'in' thing to do--give your kid a surname as a first name, or, as another freeper calls it--a "soap opera name".
Thanks to recommendations of freepers, I switched to Firefox a couple months ago and LOVE IT! Not only is it troublefree so far, my spyware shows it has decreased spyware being picked up by more than 90%.
I skimmed through the article. Where did you get Firefox? How much did it cost? I'm about sick of Windows.
This is impossible! Microsoft has a monopoly! The Clinton Administration said so!
Boy this free software war is getting intense! Sombody's going to lose...well...nothing!
I also agree. Thanks to the others on FreeRepublic, I gained confidence and downloaded FireFox. It is an incredibly sweet browser and within the first five minutes, it became our DEFAULT browser.
Here ya' go:
http://www.mozilla.org/
Well, just do a google search for FireFox and download it from their website. The program imports all your bookmarks from IE. Sorry I did not give you a URL.
A new O.S. to rival windows may cause some concern,but I don't see that happening.
I use Netscape for the email package mainly. I'll wait for Firefox's email program to come out to try it. I HATE OUTLOOK!
Browser war ended years ago - nobody cares and there is nothing to gain
They give FireFox away for free - if every American got a copy of FireFox this guy would make zero dollars. Some clown actually thinks Bill Gates is losing sleep over this?
If this guy wants to "knock Microsoft off its pedestal" he might consider creating something he does not give away for free. Reinventing the wheel is not that exciting - no matter how cool the new wheel is.
BTW: I use FireFox. I like it. From what I understand it currently has CSS problems so it is not a business contender.
Microsoft's success is not build on the browser they give away for free.
In the late-90's Linux was going to knock Microsoft off its pedestal (funny how the free software model never really works out as planned)
I used Firefox and I got a bigger, firmer, better quality web surfing experience.
I'm a waste.
I installed Firefox two weeks ago and have never used IE since. I no longer worry about the security problems and most especially the hated pop-ups that frequently occured with IE. Also the abominable hijacking and re-routing of websites have now stopped.
The nice thing about Firefox is you can use it just like IE, no programing knowledge required. But much safer and with some nice features like the tabbed pages.
Go to http://www.spreadfirefox.com/ and click on the "Get Firefox" button.
Ed:-)
Edgewood, MD?
Mozilla's ThunderBird Email package works as well or better than Netscape..!
I've tried Foxfire on two occasions now and for some reason I find it "lacking." It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason but I keep returning to IE. I do keep Windows XP Pro and IE patched and have never experienced problems.
FireFox is a browser
Windows is an operating system
I understand how silly headlines can confuse people.
Get FireFox at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
FireFox is currently less vulnerable because it does less (that is pretty much how the model works - expanded functionality means expanded vulnerability and less options means less vulnerability - this is not rocket science). Home users - by all means switch to FireFox.
I'd like to try firefox but I don't want two browsers as I like a "lean" computer
I also want to keep my active desktop.
If I thought I could keep the best of I.E. and delete the rest I would,but trying separate I.E. from Windows without causing major problems in Windows could be tricky.
The amount of effort, time and expense Microsoft went through to create, debug and embed Internet explorer into Windows, suggest that there was a reason why it was created.
You are not employed by Microsoft are you?
If it makes no sense for a student to go to all that trouble for zero profit, why would a publicly held company do it?
Hmmmmmmmm?
In a market, goods and services are bought and sold. Opera is about the only outfit in the browser "market".
Sure, Microsoft makes standards, violates ("extends" them) or ignores them completely. Technological leaders always do, whether it's Microsoft, IBM or whoever. So, when (if) open source becomes the technology leader they'll call the shots and cycle starts anew. I don't see this as "forcing" anything. Its progress.
I like Firefox, but I don't like the way page fonts are rendered. Maxthon is a good 'tabbed' version of IE.
Yeah, I know, my mistake. But Windows and IE are almost synonymous.
Your wait is officially now OVER.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
It's out. I use it.
Microsoft dominates the browser "market"
Amount Microsoft makes off of IE (monthly - multiply by 12 for annual amount): $0.00
If FireFox takes over the world and nobody used IE ever again - amount Microsoft will lose: $0.00
The browser is nearly valueless - what is in the browser and what serves up the content for the browser is where the value lies.
That being said, I have been using Firefox for about six months now and love it. In addition to being fast and easy, I just ran Ad-aware for the first time in two months and it found 0 new objects. I'm sure hackers will target Firefox for viruses if its use becomes ubiquitous, but that's probably way off.
Thanks everybody!
I'm trying to convince my wife to give up IE and Outlook. I use Netscape and Eudora Pro.
I use both Firefox and IE. I think IE is the better browser, but I do like Firefox because I can keep it stripped down to the bare minimum, so no shockwave or other plug-ins there.
I've used the Google toolbar for a couple of years now, and with SP-2 IE finally got the popup blocker it needed so I don't have the nightmares others will tell about.
Basically, I use Firefox for online shopping, reading the news, etc. and IE for fun.
Yes and no: Blake Edwards, born William Blake McEdwards.
bump
and there is the genius of Gates.
He had the vision to see what was to come, got there first,made,bought,stoled,depending on ones point of view,a great product,and now he owns the market.
Free products like Firefox keeps Interent Explorer free.
It's good to have a big American software corporation to compete against the rest of the world. If Microsoft were owned by anyone else and had as huge a monopoly, then I would want and demand more competition. If other countries could hold a monopoly over anyone else, with like let's say oil, then they would make others pay through the nose. I guess that's how OPEC treats Europe. Thus, it's good to have an American Microsoft. Knowing that it's good and important to have a big American Corporation that exerts so much influence, I can understand more and more why anti-Americans (like American ultra-leftists) absolutely hate Microsoft even though Bill Gates is a solidly left-of-center guy in politics.
I switched to Firefox a few weeks ago on the advice of several Freepers. Smartest Web move I've ever done. I LOVE Firefox.
I just did a Spyware Sweep and it showed only 6 spywares for a period of over a week. Before Firefox I would have had at least 2 dozen spywares in that same timeframe.
If they drop below 50%, then they lose a lot of that. And thats worth a lot.
Nonsense. Content is all that matters - not the container for the content.
Netscape controlled the browsers "market" and at one time Netscape had a better product. Microsoft started from the position of 0% and cleaned Netscape's clock but good.
Microsoft makes its money on operating systems, development environments, and services to provide web content (as well as office software). If everybody was using FireFox, Microsoft will make the same amount of money.
Content is king, not the thing that displays the content.
Let's review:
Amount Microsoft made off of IE last year: $0,000.00
Amount FireFox dude will make if every human downloads a copy of FireFox: $0,000.00
Do you elect to open it or to save it to your computer?
It was 17 years ago.
But I digress...
Just last Friday I spent the evening cleaning spyware and other junk out of a friend's computer. (Internet Exploder was lifting its skirt for anyone and anything on the Internet.) Once I was done, I installed Firefox and threatened bodily harm if they use the 'net slut again.
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