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Microsoft raises the white flag for Firefox

Colonel

By Colonel

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Microsoft has been fighting against Mozilla Firefox for years now by pushing directing people back to Internet Explorer (which had adopted several of Firefox's features). They've also made certain webpages that don't display correctly with Firefox. Ars Technica notes, however, that new developments might be evidence that the browser wars are cooling.

Last Saturday, Ramjii posted a message in the newsgroup "mozilla.dev.planning" asking Mozilla's Mike Schroepfer and any other Firefox developers if they'd be interested in visiting the Windows Vista Readiness ISV Lab. Ramjii said that he's made a special exception for the Mozilla team since this isn't how the lab invitations normally work.

 

As part of my mission as an advocate for open source applications on Windows, I've gotten spaces set aside at the Windows Vista Readiness ISV Lab. In the past the company has only invited commercial software developers to these labs. I'm committed to evolving our thinking beyond commercial companies to include open source projects, so I went to the non-trivial effort of getting slots for non-commercial open source projects.

 

We don't know yet if Mozilla has accepted the offer, we do know that someone from Mozilla who goes by the name of Mike Schroepfer responded to the email by saying, "I believe we are already in contact with your team via email. We will follow-up there."

This sounds like a good response for Mozilla... but you never know. If this is what will get Firefox into Vista at launch, I'll be happy.

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domino

I don't know if it was a joke. I remember a year or so ago, that MS spy-ware hunter program thingy red flagged Firefox and wanted to remove it. I just thought it was pretty funny. Now, Internet 2 is the buzz, but i don't know if they will implement some kind of browser friendly format across the board.

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gwprod12

I'd just like to point out that Internet Explorer is perfectly safe, if the user knows what he/she is doing. Conversely, Firefox isnt Fort Knox in the security department either.

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dtm3dd

Imagine if Microsoft and Mozilla worked together - god the dreams that would come true - Firefox's features and expandability and IE's browser integration, and they got rid of the way some pages display incorrectly in Firefox.

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SuperJudge
I'd just like to point out that Internet Explorer is perfectly safe, if the user knows what he/she is doing. Conversely, Firefox isnt Fort Knox in the security department either.

However, Firefox, fresh from factory, is roughly as secure as the 'perfectly safe' IE that the savvy use. ;)

 

Ironically, though, somebody who knows a little of what they're doing with Firefox can make it as insecure as somebody who doesn't know how to secure IE. :dev:

 

Edit: I bet at some point during the 'visit,' should it take place, an exorbitant offer will be made.

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