The Inside Track on Firefox Development.
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February 25, 2004
I come to you now at the turn of the tide
Download numbers for the first 2.5 weeks of Firefox 0.8 downloading are in:
2.1 million downloads (approx)
Details:
Linux - 13.5%
MacOS X - 8.3%
Windows - 78.2%
Posted by ben at 11:26 PM | Comments (20)
LOL
Bryner found some code tonight that we both found very amusing:
if (baz != FOO)
goto BAR;
else
baz = FOO;
Posted by ben at 10:26 PM | Comments (1)
February 23, 2004
Firefox in Scary Movie 3
!!
Thanks to Keith Lea for the tip off, and Myk for finding the link.
Posted by ben at 1:34 PM | Comments (1)
February 10, 2004
Bart Decrem on Mozilla Trademark Policy
Mozilla is developing a trademark policy to cover its new Firefox icons. There has been some hubbub over this. In this forum posting, Bart Decrem explains why we have this, and what we're trying to achieve.
Posted by ben at 1:04 AM | Comments (1)
February 8, 2004
Firefox 0.8 - The Browser, Rebranded
As you've probably noticed, we've changed the name again. For more information regarding the change, see the press release and FAQ.
This entry isn't so much about the reasons for the name change as much as about the road that lead us to the new name. It was not an easy one. This was by far the most difficult problem we've yet tackled in the history of this project. It involved people across multiple timezones and even continents. The name we have chosen took nearly 2 months to lock down, and while that might seem like a short time in the world of trademark law, it was the primary reason for the six week delay in shipping our 0.8 release.
The process began in late November. Mozilla's Chief Architect Brendan Eich had made a commitment to resolve the dispute over Firebird's code name (which was being widely adopted as the browser's actual name) by the 0.8 milestone. Over the span of about 2 weeks a small group at The Mozilla Foundation including Catherine Corre, Bart Decrem, Brendan Eich, Chris Hofmann and myself pored over lists of over two hundred names, many gleaned from the Phoenix to Firebird transition. We reached a point where we had a handful that were the best of that lot, but none of us was entirely satisfied. Searches of the United States Patent and Trademark Office website showed that all of the options we had picked up were potential minefields from a trademark point of view. We refocused our energy on names beginning with "Fire-" in an attempt to preserve the link with the past, and so that we could retain some of our evocative flame imagery.
Ultimately it was Jason Kersey of MozillaZine that came up with the winner. I don't think he was serious with his suggestion, but the naming group liked it well enough. A scan of the USPTO database was positive. We filed for a trademark registration in the United States in December 2003.
At the same time our lawyers scanned uses elsewhere in the world and spotted a potential red flag in Europe. Initially it seemed like there would be no problem and we prepared for a release on December 23. Unfortunately the situation in Europe turned out to be a very real problem and the release had to be delayed.
After the Christmas/New Year break, the situation played out over the following six weeks, with our lawyers in the United States and Europe as well as Bart Decrem at The Mozilla Foundation working to resolve the issues. At times it seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel. We contemplated releasing under an interim name. I was optimistic however and held the release, and eventually we turned the corner and the issues were resolved.
I wanted to explain this in some detail in the hopes that it might impress upon people how non-trivial the process of picking a name for a high profile project is. Many companies end up buying their names from others. Mozilla as a small non-profit organization can't afford such luxuries. We needed to be smart and cost effective. While I'm sure many people will consider this a misstep or otherwise take issue with the decisions we've made, we think we've done the best we could, and I challenge anyone to reach a better outcome on the same resources.
This release is nothing without Bart Decrem, whose tireless efforts, 2 AM phonecalls to Europe, creativity and optimism saw the name change through to the end. I extend my thanks to him from myself and the Firefox community.
Brand Identity
While the name was being finalized, a crack team of designers under the guidance of our new Visual Design Coordinator Steven Garrity (of silverorange) was hard at work developing our new icon. With this release we roll out our new logo. Special thanks go to Daniel Burka and Steven Desroches for the concept, and Jon Hicks for the implementation. We have many more changes coming down the pipe from our talented design crew and we look forward to sharing them with you in the coming months.
Update - Steve Garrity has made an excellent post about the design process, as has icon artist Jon Hicks. Bart Decrem is also posting.
Marketing - Take Back the Web
With this release of Firefox we're kicking off the first of many marketing initiatives. We've launched a new button campaign with a number of attractive badges for web pages. If you use Firefox and you have a website, show your support. This year we want to make the whole world listen. We will be expanding our marketing efforts further in the coming months, so stay tuned.
Firefox - The Browser, Reloaded.
Firefox 0.8 is our best preview yet. Combining easier downloading, a new aqua-rific theme for MacOS X users (thanks to Kevin Gerich and Stephen Horlander), an installer for Windows users and countless other improvements, Firefox 0.8 raises the bar once again.
In recent months there has been what seems a constant stream of new security flaws coming to light in the dominant Windows web browser. Couple this with bombardments of advertising, spyware and other web annoyances, the magical innocence of the internet that many of us remember has faded. There has never been a better time to kick IE off the desktop. Take back the web. Come download Firefox today!
- Ben Goodger; February 9, 2004.
Posted by ben at 10:45 PM | Comments (38)
1 DAY
But hours remain!
Posted by ben at 2:04 PM | Comments (4)
February 7, 2004
2 DAYS
Dun dun dun...
Posted by ben at 5:29 PM | Comments (9)
February 6, 2004
3 DAYS
Until 0.8.
Are you ready?
Posted by ben at 1:57 PM | Comments (1)
Installer Deleting Files
So there's been quite a bit of controversy about Firebird's installer, which inherits an interesting function from Seamonkey designed to prevent against file conflicts when installing over the top of an existing version. Here's the problem.
Say you install Firebird into
C:\Program Files\
(directly into that directory, not into a subfolder so that the executable and other files live in C:\Program Files\)
... and then install another build, and choose the Custom install path, and choose "Clean Install", the entire contents of C:\Program Files\ is removed. Bye bye, programs.
This function was introduced in the original Seamonkey installer years ago. The dialog it presented when it found an existing installation in the directory contained a bunch of text, which read:
"Uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga uga buga"
And had two buttons, one labeled "Uga" and the other labeled "Buga"
By this I mean the dialog presented a concept so dizzyingly complicated to your average user with a sufficient quantiy of text and obscure pathways that there is a 50% probability that the user would pick the wrong choice and delete all their programs. Since this dialog was so poorly worded no one really figured this one out. Mozilla has shipped every version it has released with the installer with this issue, as has every Netscape release in memory. Mozilla continues to ship this problem today.
Firebird 0.8 features a new front end on the Seamonkey installer, and out of perceived necessity included this panel, although for the first time what was happening was explained in a clear, easy to understand fashion.
Now, it's a big deal, a critical failure of the installer, a huge regression in my code. Um, no. OK, so it might be a bit stupid, and I've finally pulled the "safe upgrade" feature altogether, but this has been shipping in Mozilla for years, and continues to be shipped, and no one gave a rats ass.
I suppose I should take it as a compliment that I've finally made one of the horrors of Mozilla accessible to one and all :-P
My line on this issue remains that it's silly to install any application into a folder that contains other data, asking for trouble, system instability and other problems. This option is shut off from regular users who will just choose "Easy Install". It is only the people who think they know what they're doing but really don't that get tripped up.
Posted by ben at 1:31 AM | Comments (11)
©1997-2006 Ben Goodger. All Rights Reserved.
Opinions expressed here are my own, and not those of any organization that I may be affiliated with.
Reload icon is © Stephen Horlander;
Firefox logo is by
Jon Hicks, and is a
trademark of The Mozilla Foundation.
GetFirefox buttons are from rakaz
