Browsersphere

If you don’t let a single front page item on Digg pass you by unnoticed (like me), you’re likely to run into quite a few browser-related diggs over time.  Let’s take a look at some that have shown up over the course of the past month.

• Ubuntu Forums Firefox Plugin - “finding answers to stupid questions was never so easy.”
• Get your Firefox Wonder Edition, most efficient Firefox build! - “Firefox Wonder Edition is a special version of Firefox that combines one of the most efficient Firefox build[s] with special extras that make it the fastest Firefox around for Windows.”
• Firefox memory usage and memory leak news - “Many Mozilla community members, including both volunteers and Mozilla Corporation employees, have been helping to reduce Firefox’s memory usage and fix memory leak bugs lately. Hopefully, the result of this effort will be that Firefox 3 uses less memory than Firefox 2 did, especially after it has been used for several hours.”
• New Firefox 3.0 alpha blocks malware, secures plug-in updates - “Security features debut in latest preview, as Firefox 3.0 heads down the stretch.”
• Firefox/Camino vs. Safari Image Quality — Big difference (IMAGE) - “There seems to be a pretty big significance between these two browser[s] in terms of displaying this image. Not sure why this is happening…but it’s making me consider leaving my favorite browser.”
• New Konqueror web browser icon by Oxygen Team - “Konqueror, KDE web browser get[s] a new icon in Oxygen style. Check it out.”
• Justice in India is done with the help of Linux, OpenOffice and Firefox - “In Uttar Pradesh (most populated state of India), Judges have been distributed laptops powered by Linux, OpenOffice, Evolution, Gnome, Firefox.”
• Proposed Firefox 3 Theme For Mac OS X Looks Exactly Like Safari - “Firefox 3 is having an identity crisis on the Mac. Recent screenshots reveal that the new theme is striking similar to Apple’s Safari. If you can’t innovate, imitate.”
• Can IE’s architect explain why it’s so bloated? - “More good news for Internet Explorer users: Microsoft’s IE chief explains why IE is fatter than Firefox and will never have a similarly comprehensive plugin system.”
• Firefox Coming To Your Phone - “The iPhone, with its fully-functioning Safari browser, showed us that mobile browsing need not be a compromise. Now, the folks at Mozilla are working on a mobile version of Firefox.”
• Mozilla: We’re Ready to Rock the Mobile Web Now - “Here’s some information about what we’re planning to do with hiring, technology, partnerships, and products, and how you can get involved.”

As you can see, Digg is pretty heavy on Firefox, but you got a little Safari and Konqueror in there, too (the IE stuff probably doesn’t count ;)).

Tags: Camino, Digg, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Mobile, Mozilla, Safari, Themes and Skins

Buckle up, ’cause this one should be a doozy. There’s been a lot going on in the browsersphere lately, so I’ll try and break it down by browser.

Firefox

• The Mozilla Store relaunched a couple weeks ago and now features many more goods, just in time for the back-to-school season.
• Asa Dotzler explains the difference between the old Firefox logo and the new.
• Simon Willison links to an “idiotic campaign” called Why FireFox is Blocked (that was eventually hacked).
• According to Guardian Unlimited, 75% of the people who download Firefox don’t become active users.
• Mozilla Links gives us a look at Firefox 3’s new download manager.
• Ars Technica wrote about becoming a part of the Firefox quality assurance process.
• Kubuntu 101 explains how to install Firefox 2.0.0.6 on Kubuntu 7.04.

Internet Explorer

• TechRepublic.com shares 10 keyboard shortcuts for tabbing around in Internet Explorer 7.
• The cookies-per-domain limit has been increased from 20 to 50 in IE7.

Maxthon

• You can get a Leopard Safari skin for Maxthon 2.x.
• Maxthon was discussed at the Mozilla China open house party on Saturday.

Opera

• Already, Opera 9.5 (aka Kestrel) is getting high marks in the area of performance.
• Opera is currently building up its developer relations team.

Safari

• Dave Hyatt has posted five detailed articles on WebCore rendering.

Others

• Sunrise is “a web browser for web developers.”
• 32bit Web Browser apparently “makes browsing the web fun and profitable.”
• In the Playstation Forum you can learn how to keep your son from getting into trouble with his PSP web browser.

Tags: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Links, Maxthon, Minor Players, Mozilla, Opera, Safari

This is the first in a series of posts that will provide a laundry list of links to articles and posts around the browsersphere that you’ll hopefully find interesting and/or useful.

• How to keep up to date with the Mozilla development - Henrik Gemal tells us how he stays up-to-date with the latest happenings in Mozilla development.
• Better animations in Firefox 3 - The Mozilla Labs Blog covers some of the advantages of the Animated PNG format over traditional animated GIFs. The format is already supported in Gran Paradiso, the development version of Firefox 3, in case you’re interested in checking it out.
• Dave Winer’s take on feed reading in Firefox - Myk Melez talks about some takeaways from Dave Winer’s visit to Mozilla Headquarters (of which not everyone was impressed) in terms of future support of RSS in Firefox.
• Opera has bigger market share than Firefox in Russia - Opera Watch reports that Opera has surpassed Firefox’s market share in Russia to become the 2nd most popular browser behind Internet Explorer.
• Opera and CSS3 support compared to the other browsers - Opera Watch discusses how implementation of CSS3 support in Opera compares to the implementation in other browsers.
• I don’t think that you understand! - Firefox3 Vulnerable by Design - Planet-Websecurity argues that Mozilla’s attempts to put an end to XSS attacks in Firefox 3 are fruitless and will only “open a can of worms.”

If you spot any other useful or interesting browser-related links around the web, please feel free to send me a link at browsersphere [at] gmail.com.

Tags: Development, Elsewhere, Firefox, Links, Mozilla, Opera, RSS, Security

I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not for my first “official” post here at Browsersphere to focus on an email client instead of a web browser, but I think those of us who know the browser space well know that Mozilla Thunderbird has long been synonymous with Mozilla Firefox.

There are some interesting goings-on at the moment in terms of the future of Thunderbird and the organization that manages it.

Whereas web browsers and email clients used to be considered complementary (think Internet Explorer and Outlook Express), nowadays their apparent synergy has faded, especially with the takeover of web-based email services like Hotmail and Gmail.

Scott MacGregor, who has been at the forefront of Thunderbird development for many years, talks about the current crossroads over at his blog.

While certain devoted fans of the email application (such as Henrik Gemal in the comments on that entry) may see this as a death knell of sorts, I’m going to sit back for a bit and see what happens. Scott’s a smart guy and Thunderbird is an impressive application that I still depend on on a daily basis.

I wish Scott and his team the best of luck, whatever path they decide to take.

Tags: Email, Firefox, Mozilla, Related, Thunderbird