thunderbird, sister mail client to the firefox browser, has also been released. it's also got shiny new extension/theme managers, plus major speed improvements and a much smaller download. go get that, too.
over here in the article arena, we've got a special at arstechnica.com, an interview with mozilla engineer scott collins. entertaining guy (read the section on what happens if you try to develop big programs without tinderbox) with interesting things to say about mozilla, longhorn, .net, and so forth. a few highlights:
on toppling microsoft (obligatory, you know:
There's only one thing powerful in this world enough to topple Microsoft, if toppling Microsoft is your goal, and that is Microsoft. People and empires, they fall under their own weight, because they're the only ones heavy enough to take them down.astute. the only thing that can take microsoft down is its own inability to deliver.
on do-everything software:
But I think in the new world it's not about one big program to solve everybody's needs, it's about a zillion tiny programs all stuck together. Stuck together one way for you, stuck together another way for me that do the right thing.that, ladies and gentlemen, has been my software mantra for years. preach it, mr. collins. he also discussed the possibilities of a mozilla/mono (the open source project to create a free implementation of the .net framework) collaboration: I think Mozilla and Mono have a tremendous synergy that could really lead to great things, and I'm all for that, netscape's biggest mistake: And we didn't get out a 5.0, and that cost of us everything, it was the biggest mistake ever, and I put it all on the feet of this one individual, whom I will not name, the (other) gre, xul, xpcom, and this sentence is much too long.
lockergnome is running an article on why you should dump internet explorer, written by (this is the interesting part) an msce. pertinent quotes on security
What makes other browsers better than IE at protecting vs. spyware and other attacks? Well, it’s simple really - most other browsers don’t make it so easy to install malicious software on your system without you knowing about it.and web standards
The absolute worst browser when it comes to supporting the standards is Internet Explorer.(emphasis his, not mine.) he presents firefox as a worthy alternative:
Not only does it keep your browsing sessions a lot more secure and spyware-free, but it also supports the standards religiously and has some a [sic] wide range of powerful features....I personally recommend Firefox [over opera and other alternatives] due to its excellent development team and large user base.thank you, mr. miessler.
in closing, let me just comment that it is absurd for a grammar nazi to be dating a linguistics major.