Geeky Baldisms

Firefox, you've come a long way!

IE had around a 95% share when Firefox 1 was released. Now it's down to about 66%. Firefox has steadily grown in popularity, netting a 25% share according to my own sites' statistics.

Firefox shows why open source is the future. All of those add-ons make it the most customizable browser experience ever. Your customized Firefox defines who you are. Mine has Alexa so I know how popular each site that I visit is, and whether it's worth pursuing a link back. I also have Down Them All, Adblock Plus, and StumbleUpon.

Articles like this one show just how much buzz has developed around Firefox 3, due any day now. I've been running the 3.0b5 beta that comes with Hardy, and it is amazingly faster than 2.0, which was no slouch.

So here's to you, Mozilla team, for helping to dethrone the Microsoft mess that computing has become. Forget Google, Ballmer the Clown. Open source is what will do your corporation in.

A non-computer-literate (that sounds less harsh than computer-illiterate ;-) friend asked me for some advice yesterday. He told me that his virus scanner was popping up and bugging him for money to stay current. I told him I'd come over and kill it off and install AVG, which wouldn't die (although I'm not 100% sure it doesn't nag you anyway).

I regretted my promise when I sat down in front of his screen and encountered Vista, it all its glory.

Oh well, I thought, surely a simple uninstall of whatever timed-death-crapware came with his system (PC-Cillin, in this case) combined with an AVG install shouldn't be too much trouble. And for good measure, I would install Firefox, with a few of my favorite add-ons. He was excited about the automatic spellcheck feature that came with the browser, too.

So I started downloading both programs. I instructed the system to save the big AVG file, and install the smaller Firefox one. My buddy has AT&T's budget DSL, so it was taking a while.

I watched the download dialog for Firefox disappear as the file completed, and waited patiently for the install to begin. It never did.

Oh well, this is Vista, the single most despised operating system in history. What did I expect? So I tried the download again, this time indicating that I wanted to save the file. I was annoyed that the download started from scratch, ignoring the cached copy that existed somewhere.

My annoyances were only beginning...

This article by Computerworld's Cyber-Cynic, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, says that MS has fubarred their desktop scenario so badly by dropping XP (despite customer pleadings to the contrary) and pushing Vista that the door is wide open for Linux and Macs to take over a significant chunk of the desktop market.

I agree to a point.

Yes, Vista is crap, for many reason, not the least of which is found here. Yes, for every Vista apologist on comment boards, I would estimate that there are at least five detractors, probably ten. Yes, it's finally the dream OS as far as the RIAA and the MPAA are concerned.

But what is going to have to happen is that PC manufacturers get fed up enough to tell MS to shove their pre-install policy where the sun's rays fail to penetrate.

Do you really think people would go out and buy Vista to run their computers if it wasn't already installed? Take a look at Vista's store shelf sales to see the answer.

Microsoft, which was nailed by the DOJ way back in 1994 for "monopolistic" practices that strongly discouraged PC manufacturers from offering any operating system but theirs, has apparently complied with the letter of the law, as far as the government is concerned.