[guispeak] Re: Firefox 1.0
- From: "Laura Eaves" <leaves1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 13:28:38 -0500
Thanks David!
--le
----- Original Message -----
From: "david poehlman" <david.poehlman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <vicug-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 1:17 PM
Subject: [guispeak] Re: Firefox 1.0
> Hi Keith and all,
>
> Firefox and the rest of its family at:
> http://www.mozilla.org
> are causing quite a stir in parts of the online accessibility community.
> There is work underway to provide keyboard navigation in a substantial
> way.
> You can have a look at:
> http://www.mozilla.org/access/
> for more info. I don't know of a screen reader that fully supports it yet
> though.
>
> Johnnie Apple Seed
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bundy, Keith" <Keith.Bundy@xxxxxxx>
> To: <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <vicug-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 1:00 PM
> Subject: [guispeak] Firefox 1.0
>
>
> Below is an article that appeared a few days ago. I am wondering if
> anyone has already tried this program with a screen reader.
>
>
> Free Firefox 1.0 ready to battle MSIE
>
> By Joseph Menn
> Los Angeles Times
>
> published: 11/9/2004
>
> Early editions of browser have lured 10 million former Microsoft users
>
> Get ready for Browser Wars: The Sequel.
>
> Six years after Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer defeated Netscape
> Navigator in the signature fight of the online age, a direct descendant
> of the pioneering
> Web browser is exacting a small measure of revenge.
>
> The nonprofit Mozilla Foundation today will release Firefox 1.0, a free
> browser based on Netscape's technology but improved through the years by
> thousands
> of volunteer programmers. It's the first version intended for a wide
> audience.
>
> Earlier editions of Firefox attracted millions of users fed up with the
> viruses and spyware that increasingly exploit Internet Explorer's flaws
> to infect
> computers.
>
> After a series of security warnings this year, Explorer's share of the
> U.S. browser market slid from more than 95 percent in June to less than
> 93 percent
> last month, according to Internet consultant WebSideStory. Most of those
> computer users went to Firefox.
>
> A drop of a couple of percentage points may not sound like much, but
> globally, it represents more than 10 million people who have dumped the
> world's largest
> software maker in favor of an outfit with 10 full-time employees.
>
> It's part of a broader move toward so-called open-source software, which
> has Microsoft on the defensive. In the most visible part of that trend,
> many big
> corporations and everyday users alike are powering their computers with
> the free operating system Linux, encroaching on Microsoft's lucrative
> Windows franchise.
>
> Browsers have been free for a long time. But analysts say Firefox has
> special significance because it could open many more eyes to the
> possibilities of
> open-source software.
>
> Users like Firefox because it works about as fast as Explorer, adds
> features such as multiple-window browsing and presents a less tempting
> target for hackers.
> Users also can change the way it works, for example, by barring all
> images so that the text on Web pages appears more quickly. Most but not
> all sites can
> be visited with Firefox.
>
> "It's actually quite intuitive, and it's very fast," said Shekhar
> Venkataraman, an intensive-care doctor in Pittsburgh who has been using
> the Mozilla browser
> for more than a year.
>
> Milton Blackstone, a retired TV writer and producer, said he turned to
> Firefox after he became fed up with Explorer's frequent unexplained
> crashes. Although
> he complained he has had trouble following Web links in e-mails,
> Blackstone said he was glad he made the switch.
>
> "I think it's thought-out," said Blackstone, a resident of the San Diego
> community of La Jolla. "I have a lot of respect for Mozilla."
>
> As with Linux, the complicated computer code powering Firefox is freely
> available for any programmer to examine, improve and pass along. Fans of
> open-source
> software say that sort of continuous review makes the programs stronger
> and more reliable.
>
> Because anyone can read the Firefox code, hackers could create malicious
> programs the way they do with Explorer - and some have. But because
> thousands of
> volunteer programmers also can see any potential problems, they can
> respond quickly to plug security holes.
>
> "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow," says Eric Raymond,
> president of the nonprofit Open Source Initiative, which promotes the
> development and
> distribution of open-source software.
>
> Firefox grew out of a 1998 project at Netscape Communications Corp. to
> make the browser's underlying code public. It was released in a preview
> version in
> February and has been downloaded from www.mozilla.org as frequently as
> 250,000 times a day.
>
> Keith Bundy
> Director of Student Development
> Dakota State University
> 605-256-5121
> Email: Keith.Bundy@xxxxxxx
> http://departments.dsu.edu/bundyk
>
>
>
>
>
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