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Submission + - Mozilla had no choice but to add DRM to Firefox (jimlynch.com)

JimLynch writes: Mozilla has been in the news quite a lot over the last few months. This time the organization is being hammered by open source advocates for adding Adobe DRM to Firefox. But did the folks at Mozilla really have a choice when it comes adding DRM? An open source project like Mozilla is not immune to market pressures. And with so many competing browsers such as Chrome adding DRM for Netflix, etc. how could Firefox avoid adding it? Is it realistic to think that Firefox can simply ignore such things? I don’t think so and the reason why is in Firefox’s usage numbers over the last few years.

Comment Apple's Greed Knows No Bounds (Score 2) 307

Here's my take on it. Apple's greed is amazing to behold. And you have to love the conflict of interest between being owning the platform and also competing with Amazon via iBooks. How is it one company gets to take 30% of the sales of their competitor? Apple, Greed and the Amazon Kindle App http://jimlynch.com/2011/07/25/apple-greed-and-the-amazon-kindle-app/

Comment Re:Can't wait... (Score 1) 91

Sorry, folks, but I *have* to chime in.
Anything you call "pizza" isn't pizza if it doesn't seem *and* taste like italian pizza (I'd go further and say Neapolitan Pizza). Fullstop!
Now, I also like PizzaHut and stuff, but I just consider it what it is: something made with spongy bread, sauce, some weird cheese, and a lot of other stuff on it.

Comment Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score 1) 655

The 2005 reboot is what got my wife interested in Doctor Who at first. Once we ran out of new ones between seasons, I started with "An Unearthly Child" and we've watched pretty much everything but the reconstructed episodes (and even a few of those). We just finished the Season 16 "Key to Time" series, and we'll probably watch all the way through Baker, Davison, C Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and the McGann special, then start again with "Rose" and watch the new reboot with a different context and from a different perspective.

As a side effect, she's starting to learn basic database stuff and her geek card is on its way. (grin) Love ya, honey.

Comment Re:Patches? (Score 1) 151

Microsoft IE uses an SSL library that is part of the OS. The advantage of that is that any fixes affect all applications that choose to use that library, like SSH tools and some web browsers (Safari tends to use MS libraries). The disadvantage is that any vulnerabilities in the browser can easily translate into OS-level vulnerabilities due to the deep interoperability between them.

Windows Update is a package manager, it's just limited to Microsoft product. I tend to prefer the Linux approach where you have a central repository and get updates for ALL your software in one place, which is why I run that, but Windows Update works perfectly well as a package manager. There are plenty of IE (and Excel) software updates that come down through Windows Update, so I really fail to see any point other than trollage for your entire post.

Comment Re:Development process (Score 1) 435

Ah, I see what you mean now. Sorry, I'm a bit dense today.

Yup, you're right. Clearing browsing history should have nothing whatsoever to do with opened tabs.

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/794373#answer-150774

Click on "I have this problem too!" to vote to fix it (I just did). Enough votes and they might throw it into the bugtracker.

Comment Re:Development process (Score 1) 435

I'm not completely sure what you mean by "wipe your session history on exit", I'm assuming you are referring to the "clear history when Firefox Closes" settings. So, for that...

I turned on wiping of the following on exit:
  - Download History
  - Active Logins
  - Cache

I left the following unchecked (because these are three things I like to keep around):
  - Browsing History
  - Form and Search History
  - Cookies

No matter how many "regular" tabs I have open, the only "regular" tab that comes open when I start Firefox is my home tab.

All of my "app" tabs come up, even if I tell Firefox not to open my "home" tabs on startup.

So it appears to me that they are being handled as two very separate things, but maybe I'm misunderstanding the setting you're referring to.

Comment Re:Development process (Score 1) 435

A lot of that problem was the "bit off more than they could chew" nature of FF4 development. Hopefully, as the FF team starts working on smaller iterations like everyone else, they'll start coming out with newer features at a more rapid pace and not stuck with massive amounts of regression testing because they're changing damned near everything all at once.

We'll see. FF4 development really set them back, and they may or may not catch up quickly (or ever). But at least with FF4 they are back in the race as a solid contender.

Comment Re:Development process (Score 1) 435

They should work the way pinned apps work in a Windows 7 taskbar or OS X dock, namely when you restart your session the app tabs should be there.

That's exactly how they do work for me. I have several Intranet apps that I've got "pinned" as "app tabs", and when I start Firefox 4 those tabs start right up with it. None of the other tabs auto-restore themselves; I have to open them manually (or set them up as home page(s) and have them set up to open when Firefox does).

Comment Re:Addon compatibility? (Score 1) 554

There's an add-on called "is it compatible" that shows what Firefox versions your add-ons are compatible with. I haven't installed it, but it is supposed to list compatibility right in the add-ons page so you can look for things that don't go "up to 4".

AdBlock Plus, Ghostery, and NoScript are three add-ons I won't run Firefox without, and they've all been compatible since the early days of the beta.

Comment Re:Pleased so far (Score 1) 554

In addition to the "Tabs on Top" change mentioned in the other reply to your post, you can easily move the buttons around to your liking. Right-click on any of the buttons, click "Customize", and drag buttons around to your heart's content. I have mine set up as Back/Forward, Home, Reload, Shortcuts, Stop, URL/AwesomeBar, Google Search, then the buttons for AdblockPlus and NoScript, and finally Feedback. Took me a lot less time to change them than it took me to list them in this post. ;)

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