Take back the web
Oct 29, 2004
A year ago last summer, we received some devastating news: AOL had signed with the evil empire (Microsoft) to develop a new browser, while basically stabbing it's most recent acquisition, Netscape, in the back by putting it out to pasture. Netscape (and Opera, Mozilla, and Safari for that matter) was the better browser as far as web developers were concerned. It had better support for new technologies and was less buggy and more secure than Internet Explorer.
At the time, it seemed that the evil empire had triumphed - I.E. already enjoyed the lions share of the browser market thanks to its packaging with Windows on all new PC's. What was worse, the evil empire would no longer offer free upgrades to I.E. after version 6. To get the latest and greatest, you had to upgrade your operating system. Talk about holding the world hostage. Web developers all over the world could be heard crying in anguish.
AOL in an effort to assuage its guilt over killing its own progeny gave $2 million in seed money to the Mozilla organization, which was the highly lauded open source continuation of Netscape/ Gekko based browsers. Several other big name organizations also contributed, but it really seemed like a lame gesture. Mozilla was a great browser, but it didn't seem to be able to compete with Internet Explorer on any quantifiable level. As developers, my office embraced Mozilla, but we weren't really sure where it would lead. Then this summer, Mozilla released its newest effort called Firefox, and WOW- is all we can say. Talk about interactive, talk about customization, talk about the wave of the future, talk about great security, talk about listening to its users and creating add-ons that were really useful. According to Business 2.0, Firefox is being touted as Microsoft's Greatest Nightmare.
Hope amongst web developers has been resurrected with FireFox and in an effort to steal some market share from the evil empire, by placing a support ad in the New York Times in a campaign called Firefox, Take Back the Web. You can help spread the word and find out more about what seems like the second coming at www.spreadfirefox.com. This is truly a grass roots effort, where your voice can make a difference. Go and get the new Firefox browser - its FREE, yes FREE, help support the cause by making a small donation to Mozilla (a not for profit org) and use the best browser on earth. It will change your life, or at least your online user experience.
