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Firefox Friday: On life after Aza, making your own browser, beta 8, bigger bug bounties, and more!
The open source community shudders with equal measures of saddening loss and anxious anticipation. Mozilla Firefox, one of the most important open source projects, has lost a very big player, and no one quite knows how extensive the repercussions will be.Aza Raskin, the creative lead behind most of the magic in Firefox 4, resigned earlier this week to pursue the humanization of health care with startup Massive Health. Few details of the new venture have emerged yet, but Aza has reassured me that he is leaving "on great terms" with Mozilla, and he's positive that his beloved Panorama will be well looked after.
As for what Raskin's leaving means for the long term health of the open source and open Web movements, it's hard to say. Mozilla, in general, has always been one of the most important, humanist Web advocates, and Firefox 4 was a major proponent of this year's frantic we're-more-hardware-accelerated-than-you cockfight between Mozilla, Google and Microsoft. Without Aza to drive innovation in Firefox 5, will Google and Microsoft be left to battle it out for the crown -- and will the Web as a whole be less innovative?
Chromeless
Still, it's not all bad: Mozilla Labs, Aza's home before he became Firefox's Creative Lead, continues to churn out lovely goodies like Chromeless, a tool that lets you build your own Web browser using just CSS, HTML and JavaScript.
When Chromeless was first released back in October it was almost unusable. Now that it's reached the rather mature milestone of 0.1, however, it's good to go! Grab the code, unzip it, and run chromeless.bat to start it up. You'll need Python installed, but other than that, a quick check of the README should be enough to get you making your own Web browser!
I won't lie: unless you have a few nerdy muscles, you this won't interest you in the slightest. Still, watch the demo video before making your mind up; it's pretty cool!
Where is Firefox 4 beta 8?
I've actually been forcibly shifted back to Chrome and Internet Explorer 9 after finally being defeated by some very sluggish bugginess in FF4 beta 7. Here's hoping that beta 8, and 9, bring the browser closer to launch quality.
Mozilla extends its $3000 bounty for bugs found on its websites
Not every website is eligible for the bounty, and you will have to find a suitably gribbly bug to qualify for the full $3000, but still -- anyone that knows a bit of HTML or JavaScript can leap in and begin a vetting of Mozilla's code. As we move towards an 'open Web' in 2011, public scrutiny of JavaScript libraries will become a lot more common place. It makes sense for Mozilla to get ahead of the curve and tighten up its websites now.
The Mozilla Labs newsletter
I know -- a text resource that isn't a blog! Did Mozilla not get the memo? I mean, mailing lists are OK, and newsgroups are still very popular -- but an actual newsletter? Chrikee.In theory, the newsletter will contain original, never-before-seen content from the folks at Mozilla Labs. A brief glance at the first two editions -- yes, they're online; no, I don't understand why it isn't just a blog -- suggests it's more of a news digest or link dump, though. If you're still interested, you can sign up on the bottom right corner of the Mozilla Labs home page.
Mozilla Labs Gone Wild (in London)
I'm cursing myself for not going, but thankfully all of the talks and demonstrations have been posted online. Remember, it's not too late to develop your first Open Web game!
Comments
19
Subscribe to commentsAndy PielorzDec 17th 2010 3:07PM
I didn't realise that Raskin was the only developer on Firefox... may as well uninstall right now.
Sebastian AnthonyDec 17th 2010 3:09PM
@Andy Pielorz Nah, there are quite a few developers at Mozilla, don't worry! But compare the 'coolness' of Firefox 3.6 against 4.0 -- one was led by Aza, the other wasn't.
It will be interesting to see who takes his place, that's for sure :)
SilverWaveDec 17th 2010 7:37PM
@Sebastian Anthony
Don't look now but your hero worship is showing ;-)
LOL
SilverWaveDec 17th 2010 7:39PM
@Sebastian Anthony
> But compare the 'coolness' of Firefox 3.6 against 4.0 -- one was led by Aza, the other wasn't.
Oh come on!
ffs its a very different world now than when 3.6 was being developed.
SilverWaveDec 17th 2010 7:55PM
@Sebastian Anthony
feet of clay... some good ideas imperfectly implemented...
For instance:
1. I do agree with the the creation of an Add-on Bar, but it is too big as it stands.
(Luckily I can use Barlesque to makes it perfect).
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/259879/
I cannot say I agree with the Link Target being jammed into the right of the Locationbar.
Again thanks to an Add-on we can avoid this problem until the devs correct it or change the implementation.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/55724/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4014/
2. Also TabCandy is interesting but cant compete with Tree Style Tabs for functionality and ease of use.
FranciscoDec 18th 2010 2:23AM
+1 To the Where's Beta 8, or RC, for that matter...
NyaRDec 17th 2010 5:38PM
Since the days of phoenix firefox has taken a 90 degree turn, from catering to professionals and improving speed, to mimicking safari and adding useless bloat. Firefox 4 will be the dawn of the end of firefox use amongst the leet.
SilverWaveDec 17th 2010 7:36PM
@NyaR
That's a weird comment as 90% of the changes are related to matching chrome speed and modernising Firefox.
FF4.0 has been a terribly ambitious version... but its well on track to being a great foundation for Firefox in the years to come.
SilverWaveDec 17th 2010 7:34PM
That's a weird comment as 90% of the changes are related to matching chrome speed and modernising Firefox.
FF4.0 has been a terribly ambitious version... but its well on track to being a great foundation for Firefox in the years to come.
NyaRDec 17th 2010 7:51PM
@SilverWave @(Unverified) I guess part of modernizing firefox is removing the CTRL+E shortcut which has been used to access the search bar across a number of browsers in windows operating systems for the past decade and changing it over to a modern eye candy tab thing that nobody other than a mac fanboy would find useful.
I'm almost ready to take up Sware iron or chromium as a main browser, just need to figure out how to configure tab behavior to mimic firefox with insertrelatedaftercurrent off.
This version of firefox, like every single thing in the software industry, has gathered its support by appealing to tech savvy and is now mature enough to turn its back on them.
Lets look at firefox's new features and how I use them (I'm pretty leet I think):
Tabs on top: DISABLED
Taborama: DISABLED
CTRL+E: Installed extension just to remap
Status bar addresses: Can't see sht, captain. Link gets truncated. Installed extension just to have it show in statusbar.
Insert tabs after related: DISABLED (created for noobies who can't navigate their own tabs).
So what do I get exactly? Firefox V3 (or 2?) with pretty popup menus and a number of plugins running to restore proper functionality. Notice how firefox development is developing things I don't give a crap about. Things that would appeal to noobs.
They've done it. 30 something percent market share. Not an underground browser. And given that IE is, in actuality, more secure - get ready to get your megahurtz stoeled111!11one.
Sebastian AnthonyDec 17th 2010 7:41PM
@SilverWave For who? Aza? He's not my hero! He's an interface guy -- an area I'm interested in, but I wouldn't class him as a 'hero'.
SilverWaveDec 17th 2010 7:44PM
@Sebastian Anthony
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
SilverWaveDec 17th 2010 7:43PM
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
LOL
SilverWaveDec 17th 2010 7:58PM
@NyaR
>leet
Every time you say the leet God Kills a Kitten.
Just Saying.
SilverWaveDec 17th 2010 8:02PM
@NyaR
oh fuck I'm talking to a teenager :-(
ffs group.
And stop whinging.
NyaRDec 17th 2010 8:10PM
@SilverWave Your unwarranted misconceptions are irrelevant to me, I've been using firefox since phoenix released so I will call myself leet regarding this subject if I so choose. The flashbacks you get to Counterstrike are your own and do not represent the word or my use thereof. Leet, elite, 1337, and otherwise are a standard part of internet lingo and if they are applicable they will be used.
The issue here is the split between inexperienced and tech savvy users. You wanna type that out, go right ahead, I'll refer to it as leet and noob (or newb) as these words specifically represent the divide I am talking about.
Rather than attempt to belittle me by underestimating my age do attempt to answer the question: What is modern about firefox as you've claimed (skip the new JS engine)?
SilverWaveDec 18th 2010 12:19AM
@NyaR
OK all joking apart ;-) here we go...
Firefox is an amazing browsers but it was in danger of being eclipsed by chrome. I am particularly impressed by the way Mozilla have not shrank from taking the hard choices that were needed.
1. A large part of Firefox's success is because of it extensions but the old system was causing some drag and would be an increasing burden in the future... so they have created a new architecture "JetPack" that will solve this. It addresses the main problem of extensions needing updating after each new Firefox version by providing a separate api and a new way of assigning permissions that looks very scalable.
2. Firefox Sync. This is the killer app atm for Firefox and enormously extends its relevance and usefulness woking hand-in-hand with Firefox Mobile.
3. Firefox Mobile, basing it on 4.0 code and running it as a native application under Android is a master stroke and will pay huge dividends in the future. An incredibly ballsy move, bravo Mozilla.
4. Speed audits and rewrites of bottlenecks in the code. Some of this is yet to land IIRC e.g. the Places storage code.
5. HTML 5 support.
So yes Chrome was a disruptive change but Mozilla have used it a driver for renewing Firefox's direction and rearchitecturing the fundamentals that it is based on.
They will not reap all the rewards immediately, JetPack for instance is a more long term play, but Mozilla are punching well above their weight and serving their users and the open web well.
KualaBeeDec 18th 2010 2:04AM
@SilverWave I mostly agree with this statement. If anything my only complaint is that Mozilla's development cycle has been too slow and there is a perception that Mozilla is being too cautious in trying implement features that would keep Firefox relevant, but elicit complaints from "professionals."
@Nyar
Here a quick list of features Chrome has added to its stable releases since FF 3.6 was released and I haven't heard of any bloat associated with Chrome at all. In fact my Chrome folder is a 400 megs by itself while my Firefox is only 30 megs.
- HTML 5 video and audio tag support
- Extensions
- Bookmark Sync
- Enhanced Developer tools
- Http byte range support
- Translate inforbar
- Streamlined GUI
- Autofill
- WebM suport
- PDF viewer
- GPU accelerated compositing
- Javascript engine overhaul
................................list goes on and on. (courtesy of wiki) Point being Firefox needs to evolve or else be left in the dust.
EuroSceptiCDec 18th 2010 10:18AM
I hope he will get "Πανόραμα" with him!
Writer, too much Δράμα, bro! Chill! One left, one will come if Mozilla needs.