mozilla

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

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

Firefox is the second-most-popular browser on the Internet, and with good reason--it rocks. Want to try out some specialized versions of it? Here are six flavors of Firefox, ranging from the Mac-centric all the way to bird-themed music jukeboxes.

Firefox Campus Edition The Campus edition is the most recent of the branded/sponsored/partnered Firefoxes. There's nothing particularly special or amazing about this version of Firefox that's different from the regular one, besides a bundle of extensions and add-ons that give Firefox a notably "social" feel. Campus edition ships with a trifecta of extensions, including Zotero, … Read more

So ... what happened?! It seems like I should be sitting by a pool, sipping a fruity cocktail. However, the calendar claims that it's back-to-school season. (Most frighteningly, I saw my first Christmas advertisement yesterday.)

The end of August is an excellent time to optimize that old laptop for your son's freshman year of college, or to find great free software for empowering that new PC with an arsenal of goodies. Check out two collections of excellent back-to-school software: the first (with video!) from honor-roll assistant editor Jessica Dolcourt; the second from our favorite superhero, Power Downloader.

In the … Read more

Last week's post about Living with Windows XP generated a virtual storm of comments. Most readers echoed my own personal notion of sticking with XP for the near future instead of upgrading to Windows Vista.

It's not surprising that a discussion about operating systems can arouse empassioned responses. After all, it's the most essential software many of us run. The only other current candidate for king of software apps is the mighty Web browser.

I've been thinking about browsers lately, as well as my allegiance to Mozilla Firefox as my personal surfing weapon of choice. With the amount of customization and third-party add-ons, the open-source browser is extremely tough to beat.… Read more

The free spyware-removal software Ad-Aware 2007 helps protect your system from browser hijackers, data miners, and other malware, but it can also wipe your Web surfing tracks for Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera with just one click. Rich DeMuro shows you how it's done.

Weary of mobile browsers that act like every other desktop browser, only shrunken to fit a smaller screen, browser-smiths are endeavoring to make Web interfaces a little more interesting. iPhone (see CNET's coverage) is the obvious rock star of the moment with its touch screen browser, and yesterday I reviewed Yahoo Go 2.0 Beta, the next generation of Yahoo's mobile delivery method for sampling the company's core Web services.

Today's lucky winner is Mozilla's Minimo, an open source mobile browser that acquired its name not from the more renowned Firefox browser, but from Mozilla's much earlier project. As one Minimo forums moderator quipped, "It ain't Firefox..."… Read more

Security vendor Secunia on Wednesday reported a highly critical JavaScript flaw in Opera 9.22 and earlier. Fortunately, Opera already knew about the problem and on Wednesday released a more secure version of Opera, version 9.23. How did it know? The Norwegian browser company said it used a tool that was released during this year's Black Hat USA by rival Mozilla, the makers of the Firefox browser.

According to Secunia, the Opera vulnerability is the result of an unspecified error when processing JavaScript code. The error can produce a virtual function call using an invalid pointer. This can … Read more

I won't go into the economics, but suffice it to say that I think there's little hope of Mozilla making Firefox (or any of its other software) into true public goods of any note. The best it can hope for, here on planet Earth, is for software in the public interest.

Mozilla Chief Executive Mitchell Baker suggests that the Web would be better off with robust public-interest aspects. She's 100 percent right.

Where she may be wrong is in how she thinks we get there:… Read more