As Mozilla 'upgrades the Web,' Microsoft must upgrade its pace
As I type this, Firefox 3.5 is blazing past 5.6 million downloads, having been released just a day and a half ago. While such uptake for Mozilla's upgraded browser is impressive, the bigger story is how Firefox 3.5 is upgrading the Web with its extensive support for HTML 5. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) 8 has brought the company's browser back into the 21st century, but its sluggish (and perhaps perverse) response to emerging Web standards threatens to leave it in Web 1.0 Blunderland.
ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley wonders if the departure of Bill Gates has taken some of the bite out of Microsoft, and she may be on to something. Regardless, Microsoft needs to quickly execute to outflank Firefox or it threatens to let Mozilla, not Microsoft, define the Web, as Slate implies:
The best thing about the new Firefox is that it gives us a peek at the Internet of tomorrow...Firefox 3.5 offers the best implementation of the (HTML 5) standard--and because it's the second-most-popular Web browser in the world, the new release is sure to prompt Web designers to create pages tailored to the Web's new language. In other words, Firefox isn't just an upgrade for your computer; it could well prompt a re-engineering of the Web itself.
But it's not just HTML 5. Firefox is innovating in a number of other areas, including "location-aware browsing" on the "desktop," while Mozilla's Weave is experimenting with new ways to enrich identity in the browser. In tandem, Mozilla's team is also actively working on improving the online video experience.
And that's just this week.
It took Microsoft two-and-a-half years to move from IE7 to IE8, while five years passed before the company updated IE6 with IE7. The company seems to be moving faster on browser development now, but is it fast enough to keep up with Mozilla, not to mention Apple (Safari) and Google (Chrome)?
It won't be enough for Microsoft to borrow features from Mozilla's Firefox. Microsoft needs to innovate again, and not simply in its marketing department.
Also, it would be nice if IE were available for more than Windows. Mozilla is available on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, and it doesn't seem to slow its development pace down. Perhaps Microsoft should stop trying to protect Windows at the expense of losing the Web?
Of course, Mozilla, too, faces a host of competitive issues, as CNET describes. But Mozilla has never been shy about innovating. It exists to improve the Web, and understands that a competitive browser market does that...even if Firefox sometimes has to play catch up.
For today, however, the field is Mozilla's to lose.
Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
What it does have to worry about is what's happening on the server. Cloud computing is a real threat to the importance of a desktop OS. Google Apps, not browser x, is what should be keeping MS and Apple sleepless these days....
They can make their Browser as sloooooow as they like, its a free country after all.
Google gets it. Mozilla gets it.
And Apple absolutely gets it. Apple's focus has shifted greatly to Safari for both Mac OS and iPhone OS (powered on iPods too). That little browser is Apple understanding that people are accessing the cloud from their desktop, their phone, and their iPod.
The war is on and everyone is off to the races except Microsoft. They are dragging their feet and it could end up costing them everything (not for many years I suspect but it could still cost them).
Until internet providers offer UNLIMITED internet, expect the 'bulky OS' ala Linux, Windows XP/Vista/7 and OSX to be alive and well for the rest of eternity.
Explain smartphones. After all, a typical smartphone nowadays runs with the approximate computing power of an early Pentium (call it almost PII), with faster clock speeds...
Already, ASUS is shipping mobos with an embedded OS that carries a basic browser and email client, along with some simple tools. You don't need a hard disk to use it.
Outside of the Windows world, Live CD's (e.g. Ubuntu, Knoppix, etc) can happily boot a typical desktop (or server, or laptop, or...?), and can utilize all of its non-storage resources without ever having to touch a hard disk.
Sorry, but the very definition of what an OS is gets more outdated and convoluted by the year...
If you have a newish Asus motherboard, there's an option to boot almost instantaneously into a mini-OS that's really just a web browser. That's the future.
This could be MS big thing if they can get it off the ground. Maybe this is part of their Windows 8 project?
Why on earth do you keep repeating this garbage?
I have been hearing this nonsense about the "browser is soon becoming the new operating system" since Netscape came out with their browser over 10 years ago, and today, Windows still dominate's the world's desktops with over 90% market share, and no browser has come even close to replacing Windows on any desktop operating system on the planet. Yet we keep hearing the same old refrain from the open source, Microsoft-hating crazies, that the browser will "soon" replace Windows?
How soon is "soon", given that you guys have been saying the same "soon" since 1996 at least!
Sigh.
Let's face it. No browser is replacing no Windows on no desptop nowhere. Time to lay that old bugaboo to rest already.
As for this "5.6 million downloads" or whatever, Mozilla has been known touse every trick to inflate their download figures, as open source jihadists, who have nothng better to do with their lives, deliberately continue to down the same browser over and over again unto the same computer. Not to mention there are like 80 million Windows PC's sold every quarter, with IE8 already installed, which makes this "5.6 million" Firefox "downloads" irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things. They are gonna have to keep running at that download rate for the next 3 months, if they want to even keep even with all the new IE8's that are being shipped with new Windows PC's.
Not to mention IE8 is by far the best browser I have ever used, which does everything i want in a browser, so why on earth would I waste my time downloading a piece of software that is being peddled by a bunch of rabid communists that I absolutely detest?
I have been hearing that nonsense since Netscape came out with their bowser over 10 years ago. The open source crazies have been promising the "browser wil become the opearting system soon" since ag least 1996, yet today ,Windows continues to dominate the world's desktops, with over 90% market share, and neither Linux, not Firefox, nor any open source attempt to grab market shae from Windows has made the slightest impression on indows dominance.
Let's face it, no browser is taking taking over from no Windows OS on no desktop nowhere at no time. Time to put that old bugaboo to rest for good.
...Or did you think we all still code web pages by hand? I retired "Visual Notepad" a decade ago.
;^)
But, then, you'll probably reply that *I* must be a Firefox, Safari, o r Chrome fanboy.
Now, there are still SOME SITES AND APPLICATIONS that won't work in Firefox (mainly because they insist on using WMP ActiveX controls) but those are becoming more and more rare as time goes on.
Tell me this: have you acrually timed the speed difference between browing on IE8 and brosing on /Firefox?
The speed differences are so tiny, that you'd need a slow-motion camera just to capture it. It's essentially inisgnificant. Browsing the internet for the average guy, is gonna depend a heck of a lot more on ISP speed of connection to the internet, the speed of the servers you are connecting to, the specs of your computer, etc. All things being equal, you are going to find it hard to actually tell any difference in speed between the Firefox and IE8, when it comes to speed. They are all very fast in their own ways.
However, there are plenty of other factors, that make IE8 the better choice for most consumers and firms, like developer tools and compatibility with more sites, where IE8 is superior.
Yeah. Way to support your fellow MS troll fanboy's there. IE8 better choice for consumers. PLEASE!!
To suggest that MS should develop a browser for non Windows platforms is even worse. Not only would that be a collosal waste of money and time, not only do those platforms have a trivial amount of market share, but different platforms exist for a reason. It is up to the user to pick the best platform / app combination for their usage. As a developer, I would never consider developing apps for a platform on which I cannot make real money. Developing to be cross platform from square 1 means that I've wasted development time as doing so is slower and leads to lowest common denominator apps.
@seespottype - I'd be really pissed if MS had to ship non-MS apps with Windows. Each time I get a new pc I must reformat to kill all the crap that Dell ships (who by the way is the appropriate person to make a choice to install FF). It doesn't matter what product it is or how much better than MS alternatives it is. I don't want it. Don't force it on me. If I think FF is better, I'll download it on my own.
Non-MS OS's are enjoying double digit growth rates while MS's is negative.
A company that ignores anything but MS, is going to be irrelevant within 5 years.
The more people migrate from IE, the more standards compliant sites will become, allowing you to use whatever web browser you prefer to use. That is what customer choice is all about.
The problem with the web today is the fact that IE ever existed.
Even the truly talented are held back by the corrosive culture at MS.
Its a new type of console where games are streamed to your computer so you don't have to have a physical disk. Its instant play so you don't need to download a game and wait hours. If this type of thing actually works (EA and other big gaming developers are helping out with the project), it would be really simple for regular programs like Office and such.
This is why I think the Gazelle project (that I mentioned in another comment) is important for MS. If MS doesn't come out with the next major generation of OS (and I'm talking something revolutionary) then they'll at least have the OS browser and people will still buy MS products. If Mozilla and Google have a similar idea (which they probably do) it might not make a difference.
You sicken me.
Microsoft seems to be really out of touch with current web standards & technologies. It's better for users to move on to other modern browsers, until Microsoft finally wakes up and does something about it.
On my last three computers, I paid for Windows and never once used Internet Explorer. If I were Microsoft, I would spend my energies fixing the hang-ups in their websites and operating systems. Let browser organizations like Mozilla make browsers. That's not taking a single bite out of MS's profit.
Privacy
Ease of Use
Developer Tools (Internet Explorer 8 has the most comprehensive developer tools built in, including HTML, CSS and JavaScript editing, but also JavaScript profiling; other browsers have developer tools available, but either require you to download them separately, or aren't as complete)
Reliability
Compatibility (Internet Explorer 8 is more compatible with more sites on the Internet than any other browser).
Manageability (Neither Firefox nor Chrome provide guidance or enterprise tools)
When it comes to security, IE8 is at least as good as Firefox and Chrome.
In speed performance, the difference in speed between the 3 browsers is so tiny, that you would need a slow-motion video to actually tell the difference. Browsing the internet depends on so many factors, like your ISP, speed of connection to the internet, the speed of the servers you are connecting to, the specs of your computer, etc etc. What is the good of a 200 MPH Ferarri when you are stuck in a traffic jam in downtown Manhattan?
IE is a burden to web developers & emerging web technologies. Microsoft either need to join the community, or the global user community needs to relegate IE to the past.
What really matters to most users of the iinternet is, Internet Explorer 8 is more compatible with more sites on the Internet than any other browser. That's what counts.
@ forever4now :"or the global user community needs to relegate IE to the past. "
The global internet community, use IE more than any other browser out there, because it works for them. They don't seem to be consumed by the same burning anti-Microsoft bile as you are.
You are always good for a laugh Kwas.
Yeah, IE is the choice of incompetent web "programmers".
I haven't seen one in at least 5 years.
Except for the craptastic windows update site.
- by libberx July 1, 2009 7:57 PM PDT
- Microsoft can't catch up.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- by Kwasiowusu July 2, 2009 1:12 AM PDT
- @ libberx :"Microsoft can't catch up. "
- Like this
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- by pentest July 2, 2009 9:32 AM PDT
- Kwas,
- Like this
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (71 Comments)It never will because its business philosophy and corporate mindset will not permit it.
Ballmer and Co. are locked into the proprietary software business.
In this regard they are like Republicans; people of yesterday.
When they had absolute dominance they wanted everyone to accept MS as the standard way to do things, it did not work.
The rationale was to get everyone to use nothing but MS products and hence stifle all competitions and hence further developments (Firefox being one ex.)
MS has a big problem with:
A) accepting web standards as defined by the community and not by themselves;
B) they can't go open source, their business model is based on the above, secrecy, proprietary ware and monopolistic practices.
This means they don't (and cannot) have a community like Firefox where problems are ironed much faster.
This also applies to R&D, Mozilla has lots more soldiers on that front than MS and, they are more motivated as well.
Just look at the series of MS Op systems we've seen over the last 10 years.
They are so lame that an entire army of small companies have sprouted up by fixing or improving on aspects that they (MS) should have tackled years ago. Folder size and Audio shell are just two examples of this.
Ask yourself this: Why haven't they been able to add a simple functionality such as showing the size of folders in Windows Explorer in what? 15 years of Windows?
The answer is this is not what they are concerned with.
MS ware is expensive and mediocre at best, it emphasizes looks over true functionality and people are beginning to see that.
Their software products are huge and unwieldy largely because of this mindset and don't expect big improvements soon. Windows 7 is said to be based on Vista!
This is the best they can do?
Basing their newest product on something that was a dud says a lot about MS.
As another reader said, they'll be around for quite a while but they are already yesterday's people with yesterday's mindset.
L
Ummm..MS is already ahead in desktop OS, in servers, in browsers. They don't nee to caatch up with nobody.
libberx :"Ballmer and Co. are locked into the proprietary software business."
That" proprietary software business" hasn't done too badly for them has it?
Microsoft Windows still controls over 90% of the world's desktops, using that same "proprietary software business" you are whinning about.
libberx :"In this regard they are like Republicans; people of yesterday"
The open source movement is like the communist Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain, and the Warsaw Pact, and Soviet tanks all rolled into one, and we all know what happend to them don't we? The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and communism in those countries are gone FOR GOOD, never to come back again. Going by the utter economic mess, curruption, sleaze, and toral mayhem brought about by the Comrade Obama regime, the Republican Partyis on it's way to win the mid-term elections come 2010.
you truly are clueless.
MS is much closer to communism, they tell you want you can do and when. OSS is about complete freedom.
"the Republican Partyis on it's way to win the mid-term elections come 2010"
LOLOL
Yeah, their numbers are shrinking faster than MS's. Saying no and offering no ideas other than extreme hypocrisy is not going to help the regional party sometimes known as the GOP. Funny how MS fans are often freeptards.