IBM donates 50,000 lines of code to Firefox

[XPero]

Press release

[mark]

This is going to be interesting. Nice find XPero.

DL

[Lost Soul]

definatly an interesting read, it seems firefox is going to get even better in the future

[prathapml]

Ummm.....

More lines of code = more complexity = more possible errors ????

[Zxian]

@ prathapml - Yup... it's always a good idea to stick with K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)

I guess this was meant more as a basis for new ideas to be built into Firefox. IBM always was anti-Microsoft... most of their laptop drivers don't even work properly under SP2...

[HybridShadow]

I think its excellent they are doing this

I never liked firefox and never will

But i think if they put this code to good use it will become a great browser for those with need for features like that.

But i agree i think its also to p*** MS off

I do have a though, isnt Firefox open source would that mean this will be available to everyone? Or is it diferent

Edited August 17, 2005 by matt5108

[XPero]

This is just a marketing movement IMHO. Firefox is building his own tomb with such as agreements with Google and IBM. It will become part of a big power to beat MS.

[Zxian]

I do have a though, isnt Firefox open source would that mean this will be available to everyone? Or is it diferent

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If the Mozilla group releases Firefox with the code given to them from IBM, then they would have to release the source code. That means that anyone else out there is free to use it, but they would then have to release their source code.

There's no getting around the GPL...

[SiMoNsAyS]

This is just a marketing movement IMHO.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

btw, remember that ibm donation doesn't mean that all the 50k of lines will be there on firefox 1.5

[mark]

IBM and Mozilla's work is an important step in helping to make the increasingly popular browser acceptable for adoption by governments. As an example, Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act requires that federal agencies' electronic and information technology be accessible to all employees and citizens regardless of their abilities.

If this is true, then all governmental agencies will have to switch to FF to be in compliance. Then all webpages put up by governmental agencies will have to be FF friendly. How about government contractors?

"The Accessible DHTML Technology offers great advantages to disabled users and we will continue to leverage the technology to provide visually-pleasing and content-rich web browsing experiences to users," said Victor Tsaran, Accessibility project manager, Yahoo!. "Having such a powerful technology at our disposal will enable Yahoo! to make more of its services accessible to people with disabilities worldwide."

Same again, but for the private sector.

If this technology is good, then what will people do with it beyond the accessability part? How will they manipulate it to do other things?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one quarter of the U.S. population will reach 55 by 2008, and about two-thirds will experience a disability after age 65. (In other developed countries, including Italy, Spain and Japan, 45 percent of the population will be over the age of 60 by the year 2040.) With American workers staying on the job far beyond the traditional retirement age of 65, more employees can make use of accessible information technology, including the Firefox browser

.

So a portion of the population is going to be inclined to use FF to suit their own needs. How many people around them will use FF to stay standard within their own group?

DL