[muglo] Re: Mozilla go bye-bye
- From: Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 21:48:20 -0500
On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 13:00:59 -0500, Garth Phillips <eurogarth@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Gee Eric, does this mean that Firefox will no longer be "taking the
> market by storm"?
Mozilla != FireFox (or, in BASIC "Mozilla"<>"FireFox").
> On 2005, Mar 12, , at 07:47, Eric Dunbar wrote:
>
> Well, "I told you so". Mozilla is defunct:
>
> <http://www.osdir.com/Article4532.phtml>
The writing was on the wall for Mozilla as a package though I didn't
see it coming this early (I did predict its "eventual" demise). The
individual components are fairly good, but, as a whole they were not a
logical, cohesive unit.
Mail is unrelated to browsing is unrelated to web page composition.
Separately these components are strong contenders in their own areas
of influence, but as a combo package they were sub-standard. This is
why FireFox succeeds where Mozilla failed.
Yes, Mozilla offered all of FireFoxes abilities, and, perhaps even
"then some". BUT, Mozilla does not offer simplicity. Creating a New
browser window/tab with a mouse/menu combo required navigating TWO
menus -- a non-trivial amount of work. FireFox does it either with one
menu OR, even easier, one click (new tab icon).
The Composer functionality in Mozilla actually offered the most unique
value of the whole suite. There are other equally capable (free)
browsers and mailers, but no (free) HTML composer of equal ability
exists. As far as I'm concerned the combined nature of the Mozilla
suite was holding back the development of a free (as in source and
cost) and functional HTML composer.
Now that the components have been spun off there seems to be a lot of
development happening in the sphere of the browser and the composer
and (I suspect) the mailer will languish (Evolution offers a much more
refined e-mailer than ThunderBird/Mozilla and Eudora is quite good for
a closed source app).
I don't really care whether or not the email app languishes, but I
think it was being propped up by the need to keep the Mozilla suite
going. If it's viable on its own, it will attract development
attention. If users and developers see Evolution as a better solution
you'll see ThunderBird abandoned BUT you'll see better Composer
(www.Nvu.com) and web browser (www.getFireFox.com) components.
In the short term there will be people left behind by having to switch
from Mozilla to ThunderBird/FireFox but in the long term Mozilla's
offspring will be a healthier family and better off after the divorce
in finalised.
Eric.
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