Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer

Generally I've used either Netscape Navigator or Mozilla Firefox as my preferred browser. Both are free downloads; Navigator comes with a suite of other applications that have occasional usefulness, as, for example, Composer (HTML editor). Firefox is similar, but includes a number of interface improvements I hold in high esteem.

The Mozilla Foundation is an organization that promotes open-source software. Oddly, the non-profit organization owns the for-profit* corporation, Mozilla Corporation (since Aug '05), that actually develops the browser Firefox and the e-mail client Thunderbird. Firefox was released Nov '04 and has been downloaded 90 million times. Like Netscape's Communicator Suite, Mozilla's Suite includes an HTML editor. The source code for the editor, browser, email client, and news reader are all taken from Netscape's products, although Mozilla has substantially improved it. In fact, "Mozilla" was the original code name for Navigator, and was a contraction of "Mosaic Killer" (i.e., the original NCSA browser). The Mozilla staff are essentially the old crew of Netscape, which has been dissolved. Mozilla sourcecode is not only used in Firefox, but also Camino (for Macintosh).

Internet Explorer has stopped releasing new versions for some time; the main reason people like me have decided to abandon IE is its "Open X" component, which automatically installs programs when prompted by the webpage one happens to be visiting. Naturally, this exposes one to both obsolescence and viruses. Avant Force offers Avant, an interface layer on top of IE, which does stuff like support tabs; it is not a true browser. In addition, there are browsers based on the KDE Project's KHTML (Apple Safari) and on ODA (Opera Software Opera). Opera is designed to accommodate small screens, such as those on PDAs.

I was motivated to research these programs as a result of "Mozilla suffers growing pains" and "Firefox loses momentum" (The Register). The latter article has a totally misleading headline, IMO. It declares that Mozilla is running out of MS-IE "haters," but the text of the article explains that most of the competition is coming from Opera. The reason, in turn, that Opera is so successful is that Opera 8.0 (released April '05) was (a) targetted at the W-CDMA combatible cell phones being adopted en masse in the EU and NE Asia, this really requires the Opera browser. Moreover, beginning 20 Sep '05, Opera was availabe free without ads.

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*Actually, Mozilla Corp. is not for-profit, but taxable. This article at the American Bar Association's website is pretty helpful in explaining the distinction. Basically, the difference is that a non-profit may have certain revenue-generating activities that it will farm out to a conventional corporation. The conventional corporation, being wholly owned by the non-profit, cannot be characterized as a "for-profit" since it necessarily shares the non-profit's mission. But it is taxable.

On a Foray into HTML-3

SunSoft Java[*], and Netscape JavaScript [*] are closely related ideas. They're both programming languages that are commonly associated with the internet. The similar names are just a coincidence, however, and they refer to very different things. In this blog post and others, I'm going to refer to a program and its elements as "code." You could say programs are written with code. I also will use a term, "compiler." This is a program that reads code written in a high-level language and translates it into assembly language so the computer can do what it's supposed to do.

Java was developed about the same time as Mosaic, the first Web browser. Most computers supplied since 1990 have a "Java virtual machine" (JVM) that is a compiler for Java code. This allows Java code to be read by any browser anywhere, any time, regardless of the computer on which one is browsing the web. The VM is common to all browsers, regardless of flavor (this is not STRICTLY true!).

An application is any program that you need a computer for, such as word processing or managing a database. An application written in Java is called an applet. An applet can do pretty much anything that a conventional application can do; so, for example, this list of applets includes calculators, graphers, simulators; an MP3 player; chat rooms, email programs, and spam blockers are also written in Java.

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What about JavaScript? JavaScript was created by Netscape as a simple set of commands that all browsers would recognize. Unlike Java, which is a completely separate programming language, designed for autonomous applications, JavaScript is a set of commands recognized by browsers. JavaScript programs, or scripts, are usually embedded directly in HTML files. The script executes when the user's browser opens the HTML file.

JavaScript allows the person visiting your website to interact with the site. A simple script involves letting the visitor select the background color of the page. Another script can detect the user's operating system and browser type, then give instructions that are appropriate to the user's particular computer. A third type evaluates user input. Drop down menus and combination bars are things that you can do with JavaScript.

(To be continued.)