mozilla

Mozilla aims Firefox at mobile devices

Another star is coming into alignment in the mobile Linux galaxy: Firefox.

Mozilla has set up a group to develop the Firefox Web browser for mobile devices, hiring new staff and elevating the priority of the work to the same level as desktop computers. Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's vice president of engineering, announced the mobile Firefox move on his blog Tuesday evening.

"We are serious about bringing the Firefox experience and technology to mobile devices," he said. "Bringing Firefox add-ons, the Mozilla platform, open source, and a large and passionate community to the closed and fragmented mobile … Read more

More Thunderbird changes: Core coders depart

Shortly after the Mozilla Foundation announced a subsidiary to focus more attention on the Thunderbird e-mail software, two of its main developers are leaving Mozilla for other pastures.

Scott McGregor and David Bienvenu each announced their departures on blog postings last week. And David Ascher, chief executive of the Thunderbird company, confirmed the move Saturday on his own blog.

"Both Scott McGregor and David Bienvenu have posted that they are leaving Mozilla Corp. My understanding from chats with them weeks ago...is that they have decided to start a new venture," Ascher said. "They've worked on … Read more

The mobile future is wide open

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--If you're not exactly sure what you want in a mobile computer, don't worry: the folks who are building them aren't entirely sure themselves.

The consensus among five panelists gathered here at the ARM Developers Conference was that this is a very interesting and confusing time to be thinking about the future of mobile computing, because the playing field is so wide open and because consumers haven't decided exactly what they want.

"It's sort of like Darwin," said Tony Milbourn, director of mobile devices at Motorola. "We don't … Read more

Collaboration aims to better Linux on ARM chips

Things are getting spicier in the effort to court Linux allies for networked mobile devices.

ARM on Wednesday announced a collaboration with six companies that's intended to improve Linux for the processor cores that ARM licenses to numerous other companies. It's a nice counterpoint to Intel's work to try to make a go with Linux for the x86-based mini-PCs it calls mobile internet devices (MIDs).

The companies--Marvell, MontaVista, Movial, Mozilla, Samsung, and Texas Instruments--"are all working to accelerate the enablement of truly always on, connected mobile computing (CMC) devices," ARM said in a statement … Read more

Firefox patches elusive Quicktime security flaw

Mozilla today fixed a vulnerable in how Apple QuickTime Media-Link files contain a qtnext attribute that could be used on Windows systems to launch the default browser with arbitrary command-line options. Although the problem appeared to be resolved earlier this year, researcher Petko D. Petkov and others found recently that it could still be exploited.

A previous fix in July's Firefox version 2.0.05 was intended to resolve this issue, but, according to Mozilla, "QuickTime calls the browser in an unexpected way that bypasses that fix." Also, Apple's own fix in the release of QuickTime 7.1.5 … Read more

Mozilla gets serious about e-mail

This is very good news. We've long needed real competition in the e-mail market, given how much time people spend in e-mail. Now the organization that gave us competition in the browser market has decided to get serious about e-mail. This is a Very Good Thing.

Mozilla (on Monday) announced a new initiative to stimulate innovation in Internet mail and communications. Mozilla plans to develop Internet communications software based on the Thunderbird product, code and brand. The new initiative also aims to nurture a robust developer ecosystem in order to drive improvements through open source and community innovation, in the tradition of the Firefox web browser.

Why is this such a good thing? Let me count the ways...… Read more

Firefox turns 400 million; looking to Eclipse for where to go next

Most open-source projects would be ecstatic for even a fraction of the kind of growth that Mozilla is reporting for Firefox. Consider this: 25 million downloads in the first 99 days; 100 million downloads in the first year; and 400 million in the first three years.

As Glyn Moody points out, the importance here is not in the sheer volume, but rather in the increasing volume. Firefox to date has doubled every year. Every single year.

So, what should Mozilla do with this?… Read more

Firefox passes 400 million downloads

Firefox just passed the 400 million download mark, according to the Spread Firefox site for promoting the open-source, extendable Web browser.

That number shouldn't be confused with actual installations, Mozilla's public relations folks rightly caution. (I'm sure I've downloaded it at least a dozen times this year, and I'm only using copies on three computers at present. On the flip side, there are any number of other ways to get Firefox, including Linux installations.) Nevertheless, 400 million is an achievement worth noting, given that just a few years ago it looked like Microsoft had the … Read more

Mozilla offers open-source Eudora beta

Qualcomm's handoff of its Eudora e-mail software to the Mozilla Foundation has taken an important step: release of the first beta version of the software, 8.0.0b1.

Mozilla already has an open-source e-mail program, Thunderbird, and the new Eudora will be a branded offshoot with some new features, according to the release site. In addition, a related extension called Penelope will provide some extra features to both Eudora and the regular Thunderbird.

Eudora rose to popularity in the dial-up days of the Internet, but it was mostly supplanted by Microsoft Outlook Express and by Web-based e-mail services. Qualcomm … Read more