Posts Tagged ‘Open Source’

Last October we reported that Mozilla was working on a mobile version of the Firefox browser.

Mozilla has recently announced that they expect to release mobile Firefox versions for embedded Linux and Windows Mobile by the end of the year. We think that’s great.

Now if only we can get Candy to stop pouting in the corner because they won’t have a version for Morris (i.e. Palm OS) this year…

Google recently released a new, “Team Edition” of its software package. It is, apparently, designed to make collaboration between team members over the web easier. I haven’t had time to check it out yet, but trust me, I will.

Find the news article I read here: “Google Releases New Online Software for Businesses“

Find the goods here: Google Apps Team Edition

Back in August–yes, I am waay behind the times–Mashable put together a list of some of the best and brightest plug-ins and toolbars available to Firefox. You can check out the list here.

Like all things Web-related, though, since it is a whopping six months old it may now be woefully out of date. Or, at the very least, if you are one of those lucky enough to be beta-testing the latest Firefox you can count on a lot of them not being available or fully functional for your version of the browser.

Tips include links and info to:

23 Social Networking Toolbars & Plug-Ins
40+ Blogging Add-Ons
50+ Plug-Ins to Enhance Security and Privacy
Over 30 Goodies for Downloading Videos, Photos, and Files
30+ Search and Bookmarking Plug-Ins

Plus translation tools, time-wasters, more.

Microsoft, being the software mega-giant that it is, has such a large target over it, metaphorically speaking, that no one can resist trying to hit the bullseye. Google has been quietly chipping away at Microsoft’s appplications for a while now, most notably with the Google docs group of features.

Now someone else has their eye on Microsoft Live, the software company’s online tool suite. Ulteo, a company whose motto is “My Digital Life Made Simple”, went into beta-testing last month with a portable, web-based version of Open Office, including Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math. The actual applications, NOT watered down portable versions.

For more info straight from the source, check out Ulteo’s blog .

There’s a spiffy article about the new Firefox beta at computerworld.com.

Before I get into it, I will say, after a recent experience working in an environment where all Web work was done using IE 6 with most of it being research, Firefox could go back a version or two and it would STILL rock!

I noticed the article’s author seemed concerned that FF would become top-heavy with new features that are currently available as add-ons. Well, as an enthusiastic but not overly technical FF user, I have to say I’m not worried. It may make me a traitor to the Mozilla movement, but I hate FF add-ons. I hate that little pop-up bar asking if I want to update every third time I open the application, and I am hesitant to use them because the ones I had for Thunderbird worked out SO well (that plinking noise? that was the sarcasm dripping…).

More details, in a little easier to understand format, can be found in the InternetNews.com article about the original beta release from November.

Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.

I heard about Denny Carlton and his site in the context of another project I was on back in November, checked it out, laughed at the presumptive insanity of some people, and moved on.

His website, “whyfirefoxisblocked.com” outlines his philosophy that AdBlocker Plus, a FF add-on that is remarkably effective in blocking unwanted ads, is a violation of his rights as a webmaster. Because he cannot block the ABP and force FF users to view the ads on his site, he has blocked the whole browser. Seriously, I admit it, I tried to visit in FF just to see what would happen and it gave me a splash screen to come back with a different browser.

Apparently this is a hot-button issue for a lot of people. I don’t see why. As one commenter on Information Week’s (2nd) article on Carlton stated, “This guy fails to think about the fact that the people who are choosing to block ads are just the kind of person who aren’t going to click on them anyway.”

True enough in my case. Although I will admit, his protest has had one unintended side-effect I read about over and over. People like me who were unfamiliar with AdBlocker Plus have now downloaded it and added it to their arsenal of web tools.

Just to be mean, I’m going to thumb my nose at Denny Carlton and say you can too, by downloading ABP here.

… of Google and Open Source…

The Google Pack. I still haven’t been to check it out, though I will admit to having a custom Google home page…

Apparently, in addition to the Google Docs we’ve all known about for a while, Google slid a full-on MS Office competitor into their Google Pack back in August, Star Office 8. Star Office is a Sun Microsystems product loosely based around Open Office but with a few more perks that Sun sells.

This is the first time Star Office has been made available for free. Check out the article, then check out the Google Pack.

Seems we’re all about the G-word right now.

Word on the street is the Google is diving into the mobile browser market–with an Open Source platform.

I’m not geekalicious to competently pass all the scoop on, so check out this article on Financial Times’ website for all the skinny.

Not surprisingly, the huge success of the iPhone and its advanced mobile web functionality is making a lot of developers take another look at this growing market segment.

Mozilla, developers of the Firefox browsers, announced last week that they are working on a mobile browser with a planned release in 2008. For more information, check out this article at CIO.com. Even more details can be found on Mozilla Engineering VP Mike Schroepfer’s blog, here.

No, not “ooh”. OpenOffice.

Par for the course, I am a little behind the curve…

The folks at OpenOffice are working on a Mac*-friendly version. The announcement of a developer preview version was in June.

For more info, or to try to get your hands on a copy of the developer preview, click here.

*Does anyone say Macintosh anymore? Did Apple re-brand with the shorter name and no one told me?