Microsoft News Tracker

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 just a week ago and yesterday Mozilla fired back with the release of Firefox 2.0:

Mozilla officially released Firefox 2 on Tuesday afternoon, adding security features and a new interface.

Firefox 2 was made available for free download at 2:15 p.m. PDT. Mozilla has set up two download sites for the update, which it said it has optimized for the expected high volume of traffic, at Getfirefox.com and Mozilla.com/firefox.

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The revamped Firefox includes a new interface theme and more security protection such as built-in phishing protection. It also has session memory, which, when the browser is re-opened, brings back the set of Web pages that were in use when it was last closed. Changes have also been made in the technology to import RSS feeds, which now offers a feed list view with title and first lines. (Click here for the CNET Review.)

The camp in favor of having a “close” button on each tab has won over the majority who argued against them, Beltzner said. Previously, there was one “close” button at the right of the bar. Clicking on this closed only the one last viewed–but it could be difficult to work out which one this was.

“Google did usability studies with eye-tracking tools and determined that people actually look to the tab first, and it would take longer to determine if they had the right tab and were ready to close it,” Beltzner said. “NASA Ames recently did cognitive modeling for us on tabs. Not only was the ‘close’ button on a tab quicker, but people would be more accurate. They also gave us good data on how wide tabs had to be before people clicked on the wrong one.”

I guess it helps to have friends in high places. The CNET review linked in the quote concludes that Firefox 2 beats IE7 as does the PC World review, while Paul Thurrott dyspeptically calls Firefox 2.0 a “dud.”

Practically, Internet Explorer got back in the browser game with a radically updated IE7 while the changes in Firefox 2.0 were more modest, but neither is going to knock the other out and webmasters will get to deal with users of each for the foreseeable future. Here at hunterstrat.com, I’m already getting 12% Firefox 2 users and 26% IE7 users.

Joe Wilcox discusses Windows Vista’s Speed Bumps:

About 18 months ago, I suggested that Microsoft’s security challenge with Windows Vista would be “trying to make the operating system more secure without taking too much away from partners and customers.”
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Unfortunately, after many months of using Windows Vista, I conclude that Microsoft has placed a thick security facade around the operating system that impedes usability compared to Windows XP. The comparison to XP is important. Microsoft must emphasize user benefits to show potential customers that the current operating system isn’t good enough compared to Windows Vista. If the experience isn’t better–as in much better–customers will be less likely to rush out and buy off-the-shelf upgrades or new Windows Vista PCs. Neither situation would be good for Microsoft partners.
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For example, I am rather stunned by the enormous number of security popups introduced in Windows Vista, either by the operating system’s “User Accounts Control” or Internet Explorer 7. Because Windows Vista has been in beta and the number of popups has reduced with each new test version, I decided to stay quiet and watch–to cut Microsoft some slack because of the amount of undeserved crap the company gets. But, if news reports are to be believed, with Release Candidate 1 imminent and the number of popups still numerous, I decided to voice my concerns now. Microsoft partners should carefully what Microsoft’s approach to Windows Vista security might mean for them.

Much more by following the link. I never thought that upgrades of existing XP systems were going to be that numerous and I still expect the overwhelming majority of new PCs to ship with Vista, but this rather makes you wonder whether Microsoft is in for some really bad PR.

Still, hopes for RC1 are high and Paul Thurrott says it is planned for early September despite some problems:

… behind the scenes, the company has had to come up with a new plan for the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) version of the product after plans to use build 5520 for RC1 fell through.

There’s been lots of press buzz over Microsoft offering to help the Firefox developers ensure that it runs on Vista, but my experience in recent years as the representative of a major ISV has been that for any new Windows OS, or even a major service pack, Microsoft is all over developers of popular 3rd party applications to ensure there are no compatibility glitches. Firefox certainly qualifies for that kind of support. In fact, Microsoft proactively tests a number of 3rd party applications themselves and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had tested Firefox. Some of the information and tools that Microsoft makes available for ISVs are listed here.

How Vista screws dual-booting nirvana. Vista continues the Windows tradition of overwriting the Master Boot Record. (Via Neowin)

Nate Mook at BetaNews:

Mozilla’s Firefox browser continues to post gains in market share, according to Web analytics firm OneStat.com, while usage of Internet Explorer has fallen more than 2 percent since May. Opera, meanwhile, has surpassed 1 percent market share worldwide.

Worldwide, Firefox now holds 12.93 percent of the market, up from 11.79 percent in May. The open source browser commands a 15.82 percent usage share in the United States, and a whopping 39.02 percent in Germany.

More details by following the link and directly from OneStat.

From the AFP:

Supporters of open sourcing for computers have been given a shot in the arm by news the French police are abandoning Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for the Mozilla Foundations browser Firefox.

The gendarmerie’s 70,000 desktops were being converted to Firefox and its email client Thunderbird because of the navigator’s “reliability, security and inter-operability with other state services,” said General Christian Brachet, IT director of the police force.

The move should be complete by the end of the year, he said, as enthusiasts of open sourcing wrapped up an annual meeting in Paris at the Solution Linux 2006 exhibition.

Firefox had been chosen because it was based on the W3C standard, an international norm for the Internet, and because it works equally well under Microsoft, Mac or Linux.

Last year they had switched all their desktops from Office to OpenOffice which is estimated saves them $2.4M a year. If you detect a pattern here, you’re right:

No decision has yet been taken to move from Windows to Linux, said Geraud, “but we’re considering the option.”

More by following the link including that many more parts of the French government are moving in the same direction.

Darryl K. Taft at eWeek:

IBM and a group of industry leaders on Feb. 1 announced an open-source initiative to promote the adoption of AJAX technology.

The new initiative, known as Open AJAX, includes such prominent supporters as BEA Systems, Borland, the Dojo Foundation, the Eclipse Foundation, Google, IBM, Laszlo Systems, Mozilla, Novell, Openwave Systems, Oracle, Red Hat, Yahoo, Zend and Zimbra. The group plans to promote the use of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML and its use on various devices, applications, desktops or operating systems.

AJAX is a (web) client technology that enriches the user experience for shopping, working, planning, corresponding and navigating online. AJAX makes updated information available automatically without refreshing the browser, among other benefits.

Notice the presence of Google and Yahoo on the list and not surprisingly, given the open source basis, the absence of Microsoft. SYS-CON Belgium has much more including an interview with IBM’s CTO for Emerging Internet Technologies, David Boloker.

Microsoft announced it own AJAX tooling, codenamed Atlas, at PDC05 and will be featuring it at the March Mix06 conference.