Tag: Firefox

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Opera BrowserIn an interview at Opera Watch last week, Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner responded to the eternal question: with less than 1% of global marketshare, why should web developers make the effort to support Opera? His response demonstrates another perspective on the numbers:

I believe we have something like 10 – 15 million active desktop users. That is actually quite a lot of people.

If you try to think about it, the place that I’m come from is Iceland. I was born in Iceland, that’s three hundred thousand people – we have a lot more. The place I live is Norway – we have a lot more. Actually if you look at it, the US has about 300 million people that live here, 50 states, about 6 million in each state on average. So which states have people that you would like to ignore?

He goes on to add that Opera Mobile is installed on 40 million mobile phones, with an additional 7 million people actually using Opera Mini. And then there are devices like the Nintendo DS and Wii…

Going by 2005 numbers, only four states have 15 million people or more: California (36M), Texas (23M), New York (19M), and Florida (18M). So take the 10–15M desktop users, the 7M Opera Mini users, and even 10% of the 40M mobile install base, and you’re looking at 21–26 million—the equivalent of the population of Texas.

Put that way, it doesn’t seem so small.

If you’re already supporting Firefox, in most cases the changes to support Opera 9 are minimal. The recently-launched Opera Developer Community has has tools, articles, and other resources to help build cross-platform sites.

Unless, of course, you don’t mind writing off a potential audience the size of Texas.

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There’s a lot of misinformation out there about various web browsers. Opera can/can’t do this. Firefox can/can’t do that. There’s only so much you can do to promote one product when you only know rumors or outdated facts about another.

Opera users: If someone told you that Firefox was better than Opera because it doesn’t have ads, you wouldn’t take them seriously. You’d know the ads have been gone since last year, and you’d wonder what else they have wrong.

Firefox users: If someone told you Opera was better than Firefox because Firefox won’t let you reorder tabs, you wouldn’t take them seriously. You’d know that Firefox 1.5 did just that, and you’d wonder what else they have wrong.

And neither of you will convince an IE fan that Opera is better because of tabs and a built-in search box because they’ll tell you that IE7 has both.

When you’re trying to convince someone that X is better than Y, and they know Y very well, you’d better know Y well enough not to make statements that the other person knows are false. When you do, you’ll lose credibility, and the rest of your argument — the part you do know well — will suffer for it. (I suspect a lot of software flame wars get started this way!)

So here’s my suggestion: If you want to promote Opera, go and download Firefox 1.5. If you want to promote Firefox, go and download the Opera 9 beta. Either way, try out the IE7 beta (if your Windows version will run it) or fire up Safari (if you’re on a Mac). Mess around with them enough that you’re familiar with how they work, what you can do with them, and how they handle your favorite web pages. That way the next time you face an IE fan (to the extent that IE has fans), or a Firefox fan, or an Opera fan, or a Safari fan, you’ll be armed with accurate information.

As for the post title — I don’t think it’s necessary for the major browsers to be enemies. I think there’s plenty of room for cordial competition rather than a cutthroat struggle. But “Know Your Enemy” is a better attention-getter than “Familiarize yourself with the competition.” 😉

*This post originally appeared in two slightly different forms on my blog Confessions of a Web Developer at the My Opera community and on my Spread Firefox blog.

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It’s kind of redundant to post a “Get Firefox!” banner to someone already using Firefox, but it’s useful to show them an upgrade banner if they’re on an old version.  It’s also useful to show Firefox users a banner for Spread Firefox.

This can be done easily with PHP or other server-side scripting languages, but sometimes you have to use static HTML files.  That’s where client-side scripting becomes necessary.  Last month I posted some sample code that used document.write, which doesn’t work with XHTML.  (On top of that, the <noscript> blocks I used ended up causing validation errors because of their location!)

I’ve redone everything with DOM scripting, which will work with either HTML 4 or XHTML 1.0.

1. Put the following in a file called sfxlinks.js:

function replaceFirefoxLink(linkID) {
   if(linkNode=document.getElementById(linkID)) {
      var newLink=document.createElement('a');
      var newImg=document.createElement('img');
      var change=0;
      if ( 0 <= navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Firefox/0') ||
         0 <= navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Firefox/1.0') ) {
         change=1;
         newLink.setAttribute('href','YOUR_UPGRADE_LINK');
         newImg.setAttribute('alt','Upgrade to Firefox 1.5!');
         newImg.setAttribute('title','Upgrade to Firefox 1.5!');
         newImg.setAttribute('src','PATH_TO_BANNER');
      } else if (0 <= navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Firefox')) {
         change=1;
         newLink.setAttribute('href','YOUR_REFERRAL_LINK');
         newImg.setAttribute('alt','Spread Firefox!');
         newImg.setAttribute('title','Spread Firefox!');
         newImg.setAttribute('src','PATH_TO_BANNER');
      }
      if(change) {
         newLink.appendChild(newImg);
         var parentNode=linkNode.parentNode;
         parentNode.replaceChild(newLink,linkNode);
      }
   }
}

2. Use your regular Spread Firefox affiliate link and add a unique ID — let’s use id="FxLink" as an example — to the <a> tag.

3. Load the script in your document’s <head> section:
  <script type="text/javascript" src="sfxlinks.js">

4. Call the function in the body onload event using the ID you chose in step 2:
  <body onload="replaceFirefoxLink('FxLink')">

When the  page loads, the script will check the visitor’s browser to see if it’s an old version of Firefox or a current version of Firefox.  If it’s an old version, it’ll replace your standard button with your upgrade button.  If it’s a current version, it’ll replace it with a Spread Firefox button with your referral link.  Otherwise, it leaves the button alone.

This has a lot of advantages over the old version, including XHTML compatibility, no need for <noscript> blocks, easier validation, and it still degrades gracefully (if JS is unavailable or old, it leaves your normal button in place).

You can see it in action on my website, Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning.

Originally posted on my Spread Firefox blog.

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A tale of the Browser Wars on the high seas.

Harken, lads, and listen to my tale. It is the tale of the FyreFawkes, a vessel that turned the tide in the never-ending battle for the high seas.

In this day, shipping lanes criss-cross the ocean like a Web, and in years past, that web was commanded by the Fleet of the Navigators. Wherever ye wanted to go, a Navigator ship was there to take you. But the wealthy My Crows’ Loft Company controlled the ports, and knew that if they did not take command of the high seas, someone might use the Navigator Fleet to build their own harbors, outside My Crows’ Loft’s sphere of influence.

So My Crows’ Loft built their own fleet, a fleet of Explorer craft, and after a great trade war, their fleet dominated the ocean. The Navigators’ fleet shrank, nearly forgotten.

But My Crows’ Loft grew complacent in their victory, and the Explorer fleet aged. Worse, the vessels had weak spots and leaks that pirates and brigands of all sorts knew how to attack. What was once a pleasant voyage across the sea became a journey fraught with danger, with spies, phishermen, and great wyrms lying in wait for the unsuspecting voyager. Continue reading →

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It occurred to me today that if you lay out the three major players in computer operating systems and the three major players in web browsers, the results track remarkably well.

  • Windows and Internet Explorer. The dominant player. Obtained that position by being good enough, cheap enough, and promoted enough to win a protracted two-way battle. Detractors claim the victory was primarily due to marketing and business practices, not quality. Plagued by a public perception of insecurity. Currently trying to maintain that lead against an opponent unlike any they’ve faced before. Believes itself to be technically superior to the other options.
  • Linux and Firefox. Open source product with a core team and hundreds of volunteer contributors. Originally created as a replacement for a previous major player. Very extensible. Promoted as a more secure alternative, but has faced growing pains with its own security problems. Highly regarded among many computer power users, beginning to gain mainstream acceptance and challenging the dominant player. Believes itself to be technically superior to the other options.
  • Mac OS and Opera. Has been there since the beginning. Constantly innovating, pioneering ideas that get wider exposure when their competitors adopt them. Very dedicated fan base that never seems to grow enough to challenge the dominant player. Has been declared doomed time and time again, but keeps going strong. Believes itself to be technically superior to the other options.

It breaks down, of course. Traditional UNIX is missing from the OS wars, though it provides a nice analogy to Netscape for Firefox. The battle lines don’t quite track either, since the previous wars were Windows vs. Mac and IE vs. Netscape. And Safari’s missing entirely. But it’s interesting to see the same three roles in play.