“I played around with it a bit, but it’s just another browser, and IE [Microsoft’s Internet Explorer] is better,” Mr Gates told me, and challenged my assertion that Firefox’s ‘market share’ is growing rapidly.
“So much software gets downloaded all the time, but do people actually use it?” he argued.
The link is mine.
CNet is running a story called Open-source divorce for Apple’s Safari.
I see they decided to go with the cute rhyming tactic this time. Given its track record, I was positive CNet was going to run a story like Apple’s Safari Accused of “Hogging” the “Lion’s Share” of Code, or KHTML Developers Have “Bear” of Time Working with Safari, or David Hyatt Accused of “Lion” About Layout Code, or KHTML Developers Feel “Cheetah’d” by Apple. Such titles are clever. You can tell because they refer to animals you might see on a safari. These animals are wrapped in quotes.
Seriously, if I see one more story like Mozilla holds “fire” in naming fight I’m going to fire their foxing headline writer. Mozilla burns to prove Firefox worthy! Bugs put heat on Firefox! Are you in hot pursuit of Firefox? IBM sure is, they’re hunting Firefox coders (and Firefox itself is on the hunt)! Is there a chill in the air for Firefox, or is Firefox heating up? Is Mozilla’s Lightning going to strike Outlook?
Sometimes I think the stories we see on CNet are…ahem…the stories we see on CNet because someone came up with a “foxy” headline that was too good to pass up, so they wrote a story around it instead. They must be itching for us to announce a merger with Apple…I mean, can you imagine the possibilities? A Firefox Joins Apple’s “Safari”! Safari “Swallows” Mozilla Firefox! Or a three-way merger with us and Microsoft: Explorer Spots Firefox on Apple’s Safari. Bonus points for “spots” because it sounds leopard-y.
Oh I’m sorry, were you looking for actual commentary on the Apple/KHTML feud? Ben has some.
The gulf between the people making software and the people using it is widening. By day, I talk product with Valley pundits enamored by podcasting and RSS feeds. By night, I speak with parents and teachers who can barely plug in their digital cameras. The Valley is hurtling forward on Internet time and leaving a huge mass of frustrated people in its wake.
Most developers probably don’t alienate people intentionally, but I think they forget that their “piece of cake” is someone else’s “$@^!ing computer.” Software demands an impossibly high level of computer literacy. When I install AOL Instant Messenger, it blithely refers to “IE” as if the abbreviation were a standard part of our vernacular. People must decipher dozens of secret handshakes like this every day to earn membership to the exclusive computer club. And it’s humiliating. And they hate it. I know, because they tell me.
As a geek, I certainly have nothing against the latest-and-greatest technologies or the people who work on them. Hey, my life began at TiVo. The umbilical cord doubled as an Ethernet connection. I like new toys.
But as a developer, that’s just not my calling. I don’t think it’s fair that those of us in the club get to ride the computer revolution while everyone else sits on the sidelines, puzzling over the arcane technology we’ve put in front of them. These people think we’re crazy. They wonder what the hell we’re all so excited about.
So even if it means we’re out of step with the Valley, Joe and I intend to show them.
