mozilla

Writing up a list of items for which I'm thankful is such a cliche at this time of year...that I can't pass up the opportunity to add my own contribution to the Thanksgiving fray. I have very little need for 3D turkey screensavers, but luckily, there are a few more valuable applications listed on CNET Download.com upon which I can bestow appropriate tribute.

In honor of Thanksgiving week, I've decided to serve up a heaping helpful of my nine "most useful" Windows utilities on the Download.com site. Now, notice that I didn'… Read more

Firefox 3.0 bugs: Mozilla sets the record straight

Whenever I'm writing something here and my subconscious whispers, "You're probably wrong," I should learn to stop and ask. Alas, I'm a blogger with a day job, so I usually hit "Publish" and wait for someone on the other side of the issue to set me straight.

Such is the case today with Mozilla's Firefox 3.0 release, which I (and a wide range of others) reported would be shipping with 80% of its (remaining) blocker bugs/issues still unresolved. The truth is not so simple, as it turns out.

Mike Shaver of Mozilla clarifies "blocker bugs" and puts things in perspective:

At some point, of course, the number of "bugs we'll ship with" will hit 100%, unless we manage to produce the first piece of bug free software I?ve ever worked with, but even with such numerical truisms aside, the picture here isn?t as simple as it seems.… Read more

New review: Mozilla Thunderbird for Mac

The Mozilla folks always think of Mac users. I've already extolled the virtues of Mozilla Firefox in the past and I still think it's a great browser even when up against Apple's Safari. Mozilla's other Mac browser, Camino, is like a slimmed-down model built from the ground up using native Mac OS X technologies and toolkits. But I'm not here to talk about browsers. The Mozilla folks have another great product for Mac that just got an update.… Read more

Firefox 3.0 may ship with a slew of serious bugs intact

Whatever happened to open-source projects being released according to development readiness, rather than an arbitrary release schedule?

Mozilla seems to have forgotten this, with The New York Times reporting that the upcoming Firefox 3.0 set to ship with only 20 percent of its remaining 700 "blocker" (serious enough to justify postponing a release) bugs resolved before it ships.

Of course, Mozilla has already fixed over 11,000 bugs, according to Mozilla developer Asa Dotzler. Even so, that doesn't answer the apparent fact that the Firefox development community is planning to ship a product before a wide range of known blocker bugs are resolved. (Firefox 3 meeting notes can be perused here.)

For now, the mountain to climb appears quite high, as The New York Times notes:

As Mozilla pushes to post Beta 1 of Firefox 3.0, it has asked developers to prioritize already-identified bugs so that the most important can be fixed. But according to notes of yesterday's Firefox 3.0 status meeting, that will leave about eight in 10 bugs untouched.… Read more

Mozilla responds: Firefox is independent

In this interview, Mozilla's technology strategist Mike Shaver responds to and rejects recent claims that Firefox and Google are getting a bit too close for comfort. Mozilla is independent, he says, with or without Google's $56 million.

I received a fair bit of criticism for a blog post that I wrote last week describing what I believe is the extremely close relationship between Google and Mozilla. Mozilla's PR people complained, Firefox developers left critical comments in the blog post itself, and I received a number of e-mails from upset individuals. All had concerns with the claims and … Read more

Killer Download: Get organized with free Personal Info Managers

Whether you're in college, work a 40-hour work week, or are a stay-at-home parent, keeping track of everything in your life is never easy. Whether it's meetings, appointments, keeping track of contacts, or even what time to pick up your daughter after soccer practice, without some help, it's difficult to keep track of it all.

Fortunately, there's a whole genre of software dedicated to reining in all your appointments, contacts, and important responsibilities. Personal Info Managers are designed to keep all your important information in one place. You can keep track of recurring meetings and appointments, special dates like birthdays and anniversaries, and contact information for friends, coworkers, and business clients. Though it takes some time to enter all this information, once your Personal Info Manager is up to speed, you'll never have to worry about forgetting a phone number or being late to a meeting again.… Read more

Lightning strikes again

The Mozilla Calendar Project has upgraded Lightning, the calendar plug-in for Thunderbird to 0.7, and is aiming for a 1.0 sometime in 2008.

As we've noted before, Lightning makes Thunderbird soar above Outlook for home use, and places them on nearly equal ground in the office. The latest update includes an overhauled interface with easier-to-use buttons for jumping from your mail to your calendar, LDAP directory support for event invites, and Sun Java Calendar Server support.

Community moves: Chris Blizzard leaves Red Hat for Mozilla

I'm late to the going away party on this one, but just noticed it on Stephen O'Grady's blog that Chris Blizzard is leaving Red Hat to join the evangelism team at Mozilla.

As for what?s next, starting in mid-November I will be joining the Evangelism team at Mozilla Corporation. Working with Shaver, Deb, Eric, John and Mark to help tell the story of the Open Web. My role will be to work with other open source projects that are well aligned with Mozilla?s mission and help them take part in writing that story.

I suppose … Read more

Red Hat coder moving to Mozilla

I'm a week late with this, but in case others also didn't notice, Christopher Blizzard, who has been a prominent programmer for Red Hat for nine years, has left to take a new job with Mozilla. He announced the move on his blog.

"Starting in mid-November I will be joining the evangelism team at Mozilla Corp....to help tell the story of the Open Web. My role will be to work with other open-source projects that are well aligned with Mozilla's mission and help them take part in writing that story," he said on his … Read more