Interview with the Vice-President of Mozilla Corporation Chris Byrd (Chris Beard), dedicated to the release of Firefox 2.0
The interview touches on the growing number of Firefox corporate users, security and user interface; the views of Firefox developers on the RSS technology, as well as the reasons why the new version does not have an integrated RSS reader; development of extensions subsystem, work off-line, and why all this is already Firefox <p align = "justify> 2.0, rather than 1.x. In conclusion, Chris talked a little about the future of the browser.
Chris began by reviewing the Firefox position in the browser market. He said that Firefox is a global community and social organization that brings together its free open source products:
Chris also noted a significant increase in demand. At the time of release of version 1.5 a year ago, Firefox downloaded about 200 thousand people per day. Today, this figure is already close to 350 thousand and continues to grow, which Chris explains as a natural growth, and increased virus threat.
I asked Chris if the number of corporate Firefox users is growing. He answered - yes, it is noticeable more and more. Although Mozilla focuses on product development for individual users, not for enterprises and organizations, it turns out that users distribute Firefox in their companies due to the benefits of security and productivity gains [, etc.]
Current statistics show that the peak usage of Firefox falls on the middle of the week, and not on the weekend as two years ago, when the first version was released. Chris believes this confirms the heavy use of their browser in the workplace. He also noted that according to rumors, more and more IT departments are “giving up”, which is undoubtedly in the case of large high-tech companies like IBM, where Firefox is a mandatory corporate application.
Speaking of new in Firefox, Chris highlighted two key aspects that Mozilla focused on when developing the second version of the browser: 1) refinement of the user interface in order to increase its efficiency and expand the possibilities of customization; and 2) security.
Regarding the user interface, Chris mentioned the development of the tab system, the possibility of restoring recently closed tabs and the “restore session”, and auto-completion as the search string was typed by search engines as examples of improved usability. In addition, Firefox 2 is focused on introducing into the browser the possibilities peculiar to desktop applications , the most obvious of which is spell checking in text fields that supports many languages.
Turning to security, Chris admitted that he was proud of the minimum time for fixing vulnerabilities, among other manufacturers. Firefox developers close vulnerabilities in browser code for a period of days, “unlike weeks and months from other manufacturers.” Chris also noted that Firefox developers pay attention to proactive security measures — for example, their protection against phishing. Another prominent feature of Firefox is the use of a simple, everyday language: for example, the term phishing is not used in pop-up messages.
Firefox 2 has improved the RSS Feed Integration subsystem - Live Bookmarks: it is now easier for users to find and use RSS feeds - provided with the ability to view the site samrosmarine and optional integration with third-party RSS readers.
I asked Chris if they were planning to integrate their own (full-featured) RSS reader in Firefox. He replied:
"We hesitated. Should we make a full-fledged news reader out of Firefox or something open to any content? We decided that the browser should be something that helps you find information and then use it, directing it to the appropriate services. [...] at the same time, there are extensions that, integrating into Firefox, give it the full functionality of a news reader [...] such as Sage. "
When asked whether Mozilla could reconsider its refusal to integrate the RSS reader into its browser (in the base delivery) in the near future, Chris answered:
“We believe that the RSS technology is still far from being fully assimilated and universally used. People who use it effectively today are mostly news hunters. Planning today the future development of our products, we think that RSS is only a basic technology — such as HTML — and what its real use is. I think the direction we are moving in terms of personalizing news is illustrated by examples of MyYahoo and iGoogle, where you don’t need to know that this is RSS. Naturally, we will develop the browser accordingly, though in this case we will lose the flexibility of managing the RSS feeds for the user. ”
Extensions (from version 2.0 officially called add-ons) is a key feature of Firefox 2. It allows you to keep the browser's core consistent, while at the same time giving users a wide range of personalization options for Firefox.
Chris noted that the expansion "last year grew like mushrooms after rain." Today there are about 2,000 of them and they perform a variety of tasks: from comparing prices for goods to blogging.
Chris emphasized that in extensions there is a "huge amount of innovation" - Firefox developers use them as a test site, transferring as ideas develop from extensions to the main browser code. In his opinion, writing extensions is simple - it reminds the creation of web applications.
Chris mentioned that their implementation of the WhatWG DOMStorage specification could potentially make offline browsing possible. At the moment, Firefox developers are not aware of any applications that support this off-line mode, but in the future, Chris sees off-line browsing (for example, writing an e-mail on board an aircraft) as a significant step forward. Therefore, Mozilla is involved in the implementation of individual elements of this concept.
I asked Chris why the release version has an index of 2.0 rather than 1.x.
“This is a natural evolution. When we look at today's version from the position 1.0, we feel it exactly as 2.0. Between 1.0 and 1.5, between 1.5 and 2.0, we did as if half a step. In addition, it is already a very stable, integral and landmark release - it is really ready for the mass user. Therefore, it is exactly 2.0, not 1.x. We figured that in Firefox 2 there were made 3-4 times more fixes than in Firefox 1.5. But 2.0 is not only fixing bugs and fixing vulnerabilities, but developing the entire browser — working with memory, stability, security — there’s a lot in it that makes the release really quality. ”
Finally, I asked Chris to share his thoughts on the future browser. Here is what he said:
"[...] if, at some stage of development, web content really becomes the most significant product, the line between off-line and online life is erased, then the browser may be relegated to the background [...] no longer matters, you get access to to this content through a computer, telephone or television - and we are going to carefully watch it. "
In conclusion, Chris said that Mozilla "is very pleased that the Web is developing again, there are a lot of new things that are directly related to browsers - such as web 2.0." Mozilla and Firefox have shown us that “browser matters”, has already made a lot possible and will continue to do so. Mozilla is constantly striving to expand the boundaries of the possible and we will see a lot more from them and from the Web as a whole.
Chris began by reviewing the Firefox position in the browser market. He said that Firefox is a global community and social organization that brings together its free open source products:
- hundreds of active developers;
- tens of thousands of beta testers;
- hundreds of thousands of supporters and distributors;
- over 70 million end users speaking more than 40 languages.
Chris also noted a significant increase in demand. At the time of release of version 1.5 a year ago, Firefox downloaded about 200 thousand people per day. Today, this figure is already close to 350 thousand and continues to grow, which Chris explains as a natural growth, and increased virus threat.
I asked Chris if the number of corporate Firefox users is growing. He answered - yes, it is noticeable more and more. Although Mozilla focuses on product development for individual users, not for enterprises and organizations, it turns out that users distribute Firefox in their companies due to the benefits of security and productivity gains [, etc.]
Current statistics show that the peak usage of Firefox falls on the middle of the week, and not on the weekend as two years ago, when the first version was released. Chris believes this confirms the heavy use of their browser in the workplace. He also noted that according to rumors, more and more IT departments are “giving up”, which is undoubtedly in the case of large high-tech companies like IBM, where Firefox is a mandatory corporate application.
Speaking of new in Firefox, Chris highlighted two key aspects that Mozilla focused on when developing the second version of the browser: 1) refinement of the user interface in order to increase its efficiency and expand the possibilities of customization; and 2) security.
Regarding the user interface, Chris mentioned the development of the tab system, the possibility of restoring recently closed tabs and the “restore session”, and auto-completion as the search string was typed by search engines as examples of improved usability. In addition, Firefox 2 is focused on introducing into the browser the possibilities peculiar to desktop applications , the most obvious of which is spell checking in text fields that supports many languages.
Turning to security, Chris admitted that he was proud of the minimum time for fixing vulnerabilities, among other manufacturers. Firefox developers close vulnerabilities in browser code for a period of days, “unlike weeks and months from other manufacturers.” Chris also noted that Firefox developers pay attention to proactive security measures — for example, their protection against phishing. Another prominent feature of Firefox is the use of a simple, everyday language: for example, the term phishing is not used in pop-up messages.
Firefox 2 has improved the RSS Feed Integration subsystem - Live Bookmarks: it is now easier for users to find and use RSS feeds - provided with the ability to view the site samrosmarine and optional integration with third-party RSS readers.
I asked Chris if they were planning to integrate their own (full-featured) RSS reader in Firefox. He replied:
"We hesitated. Should we make a full-fledged news reader out of Firefox or something open to any content? We decided that the browser should be something that helps you find information and then use it, directing it to the appropriate services. [...] at the same time, there are extensions that, integrating into Firefox, give it the full functionality of a news reader [...] such as Sage. "
When asked whether Mozilla could reconsider its refusal to integrate the RSS reader into its browser (in the base delivery) in the near future, Chris answered:
“We believe that the RSS technology is still far from being fully assimilated and universally used. People who use it effectively today are mostly news hunters. Planning today the future development of our products, we think that RSS is only a basic technology — such as HTML — and what its real use is. I think the direction we are moving in terms of personalizing news is illustrated by examples of MyYahoo and iGoogle, where you don’t need to know that this is RSS. Naturally, we will develop the browser accordingly, though in this case we will lose the flexibility of managing the RSS feeds for the user. ”
Extensions (from version 2.0 officially called add-ons) is a key feature of Firefox 2. It allows you to keep the browser's core consistent, while at the same time giving users a wide range of personalization options for Firefox.
Chris noted that the expansion "last year grew like mushrooms after rain." Today there are about 2,000 of them and they perform a variety of tasks: from comparing prices for goods to blogging.
Chris emphasized that in extensions there is a "huge amount of innovation" - Firefox developers use them as a test site, transferring as ideas develop from extensions to the main browser code. In his opinion, writing extensions is simple - it reminds the creation of web applications.
Chris mentioned that their implementation of the WhatWG DOMStorage specification could potentially make offline browsing possible. At the moment, Firefox developers are not aware of any applications that support this off-line mode, but in the future, Chris sees off-line browsing (for example, writing an e-mail on board an aircraft) as a significant step forward. Therefore, Mozilla is involved in the implementation of individual elements of this concept.
I asked Chris why the release version has an index of 2.0 rather than 1.x.
“This is a natural evolution. When we look at today's version from the position 1.0, we feel it exactly as 2.0. Between 1.0 and 1.5, between 1.5 and 2.0, we did as if half a step. In addition, it is already a very stable, integral and landmark release - it is really ready for the mass user. Therefore, it is exactly 2.0, not 1.x. We figured that in Firefox 2 there were made 3-4 times more fixes than in Firefox 1.5. But 2.0 is not only fixing bugs and fixing vulnerabilities, but developing the entire browser — working with memory, stability, security — there’s a lot in it that makes the release really quality. ”
Finally, I asked Chris to share his thoughts on the future browser. Here is what he said:
"[...] if, at some stage of development, web content really becomes the most significant product, the line between off-line and online life is erased, then the browser may be relegated to the background [...] no longer matters, you get access to to this content through a computer, telephone or television - and we are going to carefully watch it. "
In conclusion, Chris said that Mozilla "is very pleased that the Web is developing again, there are a lot of new things that are directly related to browsers - such as web 2.0." Mozilla and Firefox have shown us that “browser matters”, has already made a lot possible and will continue to do so. Mozilla is constantly striving to expand the boundaries of the possible and we will see a lot more from them and from the Web as a whole.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/30872/
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