Comments on lainspotting: Aiming for Second

I think another factor that contributes to the "be...

2005-09-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

I think another factor that contributes to the "best viewed in Firefox" phenomenon is the Netscape legacy. In many ways, Firefox is the heir of the original Netscape, returning for a second round. Yes, there's still this odd chimera-like thing (pun not intended) that uses the Netscape name, but many of the people, and certainly the sense of identity, from Netscape-that-was are at Mozilla now.

So in addition to the us-vs-Microsoft philosophy you described, we're also fighting Browser Wars II with roughly the same players (so far), and old tactics tend to pop up -- even if it's new people suggesting them.

By contrast, AFAIK there never was an "Optimized for Opera" campaign. The attitude was always that Opera was optimized for the web, not vice versa.

Personally I've pushed the Viewable With Any Browser campaign for years, so I agree with you there. And last month I started a similar one aimed at bridging the Firefox and Opera camps, the Alternative Browser Alliance. (I hope you don't mind me mentioning it here.)

Good question. It matters only because our choices...

2005-09-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Good question. It matters only because our choices regarding technologies--how and why they are created, how they do what they do, and how they are used--have real social consequences. This is true for any technology. I am personally interested in web browsers because they are an everyday technology that people feel very strongly about (as opposed to toasters which people use every day but don't feel very strongly about), and it's interesting to watch the cultural evolution of the web (which is still changing, unlike toasters), and maybe we can even change it for the better.

Why does this matter, in the grand scheme of thing...

2005-09-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

Why does this matter, in the grand scheme of things?