Firefox

Overheard - Wikimedia and Mozilla hook up to shake up

Today, video and audio on the web are dominated by proprietary technologies, most frequently patent-encumbered codecs wrapped into closed-source player widgets. Wikimedia and Mozilla want to help to build a web where video and audio are first class citizens: easy to use and manipulate by anyone, without compulsory royalty schemes or other barriers to participation. Erik Möller, Mozilla and Wikimedia Join Forces to Support Open Video

Mozilla and Wikimedia share a strong commitment to open standards. Version 3.1 of the Mozilla Firefox web browser will include built-in support to play audio and video in the open source Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora formats. All audio and video in Wikipedia is stored in these formats.

This is interesting. Mozilla gave $100,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation to “help coordinate improvements to the development of Ogg Theora and related open video technologies.”  That’s not a lot of money, but it’s generating a lot of buzz because it’s a step towards open video standards.  Christopher Blizzard (Mozilla) does a nice job explaining how a better Ogg would potentially open up the market for streaming video and knock both Adobe (Flash) and Microsoft (Silverlight) off their proprietary thrones.

Ogg isn’t a file format — it’s a container format.  What’s that? Well, when you order something from Amazon, it’s put in a box and the UPS guy delivers the box to your house.  On the Web, when you order a streaming video, think of Ogg as the virtual box that’s used to deliver the video to your computer.   Wikipedia has a handy chart that compares container formats.

Overheard - Firefox wins No. 1 spot for critical vulnerabilities

Bit9’s come out with their list of 2008’s Popular Applications with Critical Vulnerabilities. Top of the list? Mozilla Firefox.  Is IE even on the list? Nope.

This caught my attention because I’m just about to FedEx back my old hard drive so it can be wiped clean and reformatted. You see, I was hit by the Backdoor.Tidserv Trojan and it shut me down in about ten minutes.

As soon as my Symantec warning came up, I shut down and rebooted in safe mode. The tricky little Trojan told me (usuing its Symantec voice) that I had successfully cleaned up, but it was lying. When I started back up, I was in pop-up city. Another shut-down and scan told my computer that a Trojan was found and quarantined.  Again, it was lying. What the Trojan was doing was shutting me down a little bit more each time I ran a virus scan. After about five scans,  I was toast.

My 2009 resolution? Remove Firefox.

Overheard: Is Firefox 3 really ready for prime time?

It’s clearly come a long way, but with all the download hype, is Mozilla pushing out a not-quite solid product just for a publicity stunt? Fahmida Y. Rashid, Firefox 3 on Linux: Questions about Stability

Today is Download Day 2008 for Firefox 3. Mozilla is attempting to set a Guinness Book of World Records for the largest number of software downloads within a 24-hour period. I sort of want to join in the fun - but I just can’t risk it today — too many fires already.

Overheard: Piracy hurting open source movement in China

In China, the open-source movement is having a harder time gaining traction because of widespread software piracy. With pirated copies of Windows XP or Vista selling on the street for less than $2, there is little economic incentive for Chinese Internet users to download Firefox. Bill Xu, founder of the ZEUUX Free Software Community, a Beijing group that promotes open source, points out that for Firefox to succeed in China, it shouldn’t compete on cost but by stressing its security features. Chi-Chu Tschang, Mozilla Takes on Microsoft in China

Overheard: John Jilly becomes Mozilla CEO - no plans to go public

As in a relay race, the key to a successful enterprise is often the hand-off, a change in leadership at the top.When it’s messy the whole company can suffer. It can die or be taken over. When it’s done right the chief operating officer slides into the chief executive’s chair, the old CEO waves buh-bye, and there’s not much to see. Dana Blankenhorn, A clean hand-off at Mozilla

Dana is right. This does seem to be one of the smoother hand-offs.  John Lilly is now the CEO at Mozilla, the developer of the open-source browser Firefox. The New York Times did a good job covering the politics of the hand-off, although the photo they ran makes him look ridiculously young. The announcement was made on John’s blog.