__/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Wednesday 26 April 2006 22:00 \__
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, dapunka@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> <dapunka@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote
> on 26 Apr 2006 12:43:32 -0700
> <1146080612.171389.174410@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>>>Firefox to overtake Internet Explorer by Dec-2007
>>
>>>,----[ Quote ]
>>>| So it seems that not only has the percentage of Firefox users been
>>>| increasing for the last 2.5 year but the rate of increase in the
>>>| percentage of users has also been increasing.
>>
>> That's all good and promising, but what's really needed is for many
>> more people to _try_ Firefox.
>>
>> In my Windows using days, I used only Internet Explorer for an awfullt
>> long time, basically because it was the only browser I'd really heard
>> of. Then, one day, a colleague showed me his Opera. I thought it was
>> great, got a copy for myself, and never went IE again.
>>
>> Then, when I went to Ubuntu, Firefox was the default browser, and now I
>> can't imagine using anything else; even if I had to return to Windows,
>> I'd still use the Fox. It pisses all over IE _and_ Opera. It doesn't
>> surprise me at all that users are steadily migrating to it.
>
> Opera is available on Linux, if you really want. Works reasonably well.
Works _perfectly_ well over here.
Installation of Opera on Linux is simpler than installation of Opera on
Windows. It's a drag-and-drop job. Firefox and Thunderbird likewise. It's
similar to OS X in that respect.
> I'll agree that Firefox is one of the better browsers out there though
> it's hard for me to switch from Epiphany. :-) But Epiphany is built on
> a Gecko/Mozilla engine anyway; the main issue for me would be bookmarks.
What about extensions? I use over 20 at the moment and I can't imagine living
without most of them. I use Opera only for testing of WordPress.
> But Firefox handles SVG *very* nicely. It's one of the few browsers
> that gets it more or less right. :-)
>
>>
>> But if people don't try it, they'll never know that they want it.
>> Before my colleague introduced me to Opera, I wasn't even aware there
>> are better browsers than IE.
>
> One of the more successful Microsoft marketing campaigns, apparently,
> is to play "hide the competition".
...Which a monopoly status on the desktop (i.e. user-facing) makes easy(ier)
to sustain. Marketing remains a strength at Microsoft, which goes back to
the days of DOS (see https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/rhasan/linux/ ). Fortunately,
Google is used as a Web gateway, which makes the competition harder to hide.
That's why Microsoft are desperate to reach a state of search engine
information. The Web to many equals search-and-follow, equals information.
That said, microsoft.com bought a top banner for the search phrase 'linux'.
Disinformation in action!
>> Awareness is the key. Maybe there are parts of Linux that lack the
>> polish of Windows - but software liked Firefox demonstrates clearly the
>> difference between a real application and the toys Microsoft let its
>> "customers" play with.
>>
>
> Profitable toys, from Microsoft's standpoint. (Annoying toys, from
> web developers'.)
Exactly. It pulls innovation aback, too.
Best wishes,
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: 111111 X 111111 = 12345654321
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
7:15am up 4 days 16:26, 9 users, load average: 0.96, 0.72, 0.56
http://iuron.com - help build a non-profit search engine
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