But not, apparently, Netscape.
by AC - permalink
Today CNET posted and article called The Power of 10, their top ten products of the past ten years (thanks to Asa for the link). They put Firefox at No. 5, ahead of the PalmPilot, the iMac, and The Sims, among others. That's pretty damn high praise. I'll go ahead and spoil the surprise by saying that the iPod, TiVo, Google, and Napster were the four products deemed more significant than Firefox since Sept. 1995.
At first blush, there's just one product I see that was badly overlooked. Netscape 2.0, released in 1996, was a turning point for the world wide web. The turning point, you could say. It was the first bit of software that could let virtually anyone find whatever they wanted to on the web. Netscape 1 was better than Mosaic and LYNX, but had virtually no distribution outside of academia. I can't recall ever even encountering IE 1. But Netscape 2 was user-friendly, and it was everywhere. It supported frames for god's sake! Frames!
Anyway. I went ahead and installed Firefox 1.5 beta 1. I know I said I wouldn't, but I was bored, so I did. It took the better part of an hour finding out which of my extensions had been updated to 1.5b and where to find the updated versions. Still no Adblock, but otherwise the transition has been smooth and easy. No crashes yet, and I haven't run into any incompatible sites. Once 1.5 goes final and the extension authors catch up, this is going to be a formidable browser.
Just finished re-reading Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and its sequel, The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, which has the greatest title of any book ever, lifted from one of Adams's later Hitchhikers' Guide novels. I'm not sure what's next. I was thinking about re-reading The Living Planet by David Attenborough for the first time in years and years, because I know there's an old copy somewhere in this house.
by AC - permalink
Today CNET posted and article called The Power of 10, their top ten products of the past ten years (thanks to Asa for the link). They put Firefox at No. 5, ahead of the PalmPilot, the iMac, and The Sims, among others. That's pretty damn high praise. I'll go ahead and spoil the surprise by saying that the iPod, TiVo, Google, and Napster were the four products deemed more significant than Firefox since Sept. 1995.
At first blush, there's just one product I see that was badly overlooked. Netscape 2.0, released in 1996, was a turning point for the world wide web. The turning point, you could say. It was the first bit of software that could let virtually anyone find whatever they wanted to on the web. Netscape 1 was better than Mosaic and LYNX, but had virtually no distribution outside of academia. I can't recall ever even encountering IE 1. But Netscape 2 was user-friendly, and it was everywhere. It supported frames for god's sake! Frames!
Anyway. I went ahead and installed Firefox 1.5 beta 1. I know I said I wouldn't, but I was bored, so I did. It took the better part of an hour finding out which of my extensions had been updated to 1.5b and where to find the updated versions. Still no Adblock, but otherwise the transition has been smooth and easy. No crashes yet, and I haven't run into any incompatible sites. Once 1.5 goes final and the extension authors catch up, this is going to be a formidable browser.
Just finished re-reading Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and its sequel, The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, which has the greatest title of any book ever, lifted from one of Adams's later Hitchhikers' Guide novels. I'm not sure what's next. I was thinking about re-reading The Living Planet by David Attenborough for the first time in years and years, because I know there's an old copy somewhere in this house.
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