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Interview with Firefox Founder and Creator Blake Ross

operawatch.com — * Firefox stole features from Opera. * Opera stole features from Firefox. * Opera is a better embedded browser (congratulations on Wii). * Both are fantastic browsers. * Asa is a troll

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  • danielg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24There's so much more to the interview than what was quoted in the text of the Digg article; I don't know why the "stealing" and "trolling" were mentioned.
    • kelson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Probably leading with controversy as a hook.
    • FaT32, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15I was little drunk when posting this. :)
      BTW, I still think that this cite pretty good and humorous.
    • gcnaddict, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12"Asa is a troll."

      Thank God I'm not the only one who thought that was the case.



      Besides that, I have to agree with one thing. Firefox exists because the IE team is failing miserably. If the Microsoft IE team did a much better job, Firefox wouldn't be around right now. However, I betatested IE7 since July of 2005. They have been against implementing CSS2 from the start, even though they certainly had the time. As such, I commend Blake & Co's (and Opera's) efforts.
    • WiZZLa, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9At least Blake Ross admits that Asa Dotzler, the so-called founder of Mozilla’s "Quality Assurance and Testing Program," is a blatant troll towards non-FireFox users.
    • natmaster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Blake, "We all need to do our part to end this silly religious war."

      I sing, "Why can't we be friends..."
    • bairy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I think it's great that Blake seems to be a normal guy. He accepts that some use Opera and some don't -- he even has Opera installed. It's such a refreshing change to not have PR speak - "Our product rocks the best, let's not mention any others".

      It's also nice he's given his opinion about the dumb "war". Most (all?) representatives of any business venture rarely say anything either way in case they offend someone. Good on him for not being scared to give his personal opinion.
      It's attitudes like his that make me feel better about using Firefox (in so much as I trust him to make human decisions, not robotic ones as so many software developers do)

      A big + of a non-profit software I guess.
    • FaT32, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4bairy, Mozilla Fundation _is_ profit organization. They just produce open source products.
      open source != non profit
    • venom8599, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@FaT32

      Nope, the Mozilla Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation: http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/

      The Mozilla Corporation is a different matter completely, though it is also wholly owned by the Mozilla Foundation. (Though according to the Articles of Incorporation: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/legal/articles.html the legal name of the corporation is M.F. Technologies.)
    • malavalla, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Products need core items, i don't think the Wright brothers ever sued Boeing
    • howie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1bairy, you should note that Blake does not work for Mozilla anymore, but Asa does...
  • iBrent, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3That was insanely quick....
  • mikevickrocks, on 10/12/2007, -15/+6http://www.duggmirror.com

    You know, and of course this is hosted on an OperaWatch site. Biased? IDK, but still a pretty good read.
    • edmarriner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13i don't see how it can be biased towards opera when the questions were user submitted, not by Daniel (site owner) and that all the answers are from the firefox founder.

      It's a great read, some great points made in it.
    • mikevickrocks, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I'm sorry, I meant the description was biased and kinda dumb, but that was already posted, sorry for the confusion!
  • motang, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Well lets just say Firefox has been a very good browser, it's works well and is highly customizable. I think that is part of the reason people like it so much, and not to mention when it first came out it was free (which back then Opera was a paid browser).
    • TonyCubed, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2I completely agree.

      Firefox may not be as fast as Opera, but that doesn't bother me, I've been using methods to make my web browsing faster: Special Compiled builds of Firefox, DNS Cache server in my house, and a transparent proxy which is also ran by my server, they all work out pretty good, just as fast as Opera now! :)
    • QurrUm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13You have all that JUST to run Firefox faster? Wouldn't it be easier to run some about:config hacks or....heaven forbid.....actually install Opera?
    • invsbmooseman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"...and not to mention when it first came out it was free..."

      Firefox is still free...
    • jambarama, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Whining about FF "stealing" ideas from Opera is stupid. FF wants the best of what's around, and most of the new features come from user suggestions or (more commonly) existing extensions that someone coded for free. Opera gets many of their new consumer-facing features from users too. What is the big deal??
  • G0DsB0NG, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Firefox has been nothing but awesome for me. Hope they keep up with the same good work they've been putting out!
  • Eyeooga, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3from tfa:"However, I see both browsers naturally drifting toward the middle. Firefox is growing more advanced as the mainstream becomes Web-savvier, and I see Opera scaling back its interface, since it started from the other end of the spectrum."

    Nothing like some good passive-aggressive trolling to troll without the appearance of being a troll. (Kind of like what I'm doing right now)
  • quickslvr1287, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6Good read. Firefox is a great browser. Keep up the good work
  • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Wow, excellent interview. I love both Opera and Firefox, and each has its uses. Right now Firefox is my primary browser because of its compatibility with various websites and extensibility but I do wish that Firefox could catch up with Opera in terms of speed. That's about all I miss with Firefox. There's no question that Opera is faster (even without any extensions on Firefox).
  • WiZZLa, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19Hopefully this will stop the flaming from both FireFox and Opera fanboys:

    How Blake Ross describes Opera in 3 words: Our best ally.
    • smartsingh24, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Not gonna happen. I'm a huge opera fan, but my firefox friend refuses to acknowledge that nice features opera has, only continually bashing it. Too bad, he's missing out on a great thing.

      ----------------------------------------
      Opera 9 on an Intel Mac :D
  • fractured, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19oh crap.. digg me down
  • HideoKojima, on 10/12/2007, -19/+1Blake Ross is a thief.
    • GonadHunter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11So are you, I highly doubt you are Hideo Kojima and if you happen to be, get back to making MGS4
    • Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3you are a troll
  • twistee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"Truthfully, I’m not that intrigued by Opera Widgets, if only because every company seems to have a widget platform these days. I’ve never quite understood the appeal of floating clocks (my apartment has a clock) or weather (my apartment has a window) on my desktop."

    I am a big Opera fan, but I have to agree with him on the Opera Widgets. Are there any widgets that are actually worth getting and that actually speed up productivity or are useful?
    • FaT32, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Actually I have a new idea for Opera widgets to make them somehow more useful... Imagine this in address field: opera:widgets:videosearch car racing
      See more about this in my comment to this post: http://my.opera.com/csant/blog/2007/01/17/unleash-the-powers
    • iMyst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Why not set up a few searches with the 'create search' in Opera? I've probably got a couple dozen sites available to me with a keyword + any string.I friggin' love that thing!
    • FaT32, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3iMyst, the idea not only about searches. The idea is about passing parameters to widgets (Web apps) through "command line".
      2nd example: opera:widgets:converter 10km mi
      Will open Unit Converter widget and show the answer: 6.21mi
    • ijustlost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2In firefox typing "10km mi" in the address bar does the conversion via google. I've set up a javascript bookmark so typing "train townx towny at 09:00" pulls up train times from a travel-planner site. In my view widgets just slow the browser down, most of what they do can be achieved through existing means
    • ISVDamocles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@FaT32: If you're at a command prompt, why not just type "units 10km mi" instead? The results will print out directly below and no extra window or widget or whatever would have to be loaded.
  • centinall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"As for picking up where you left off, Firefox 2 supports that feature natively via the Startup settings in the Main tab of the Options window."

    Just realized I've been living under a rock.

    Anyone else have some obviously and useful features?
  • metalica77, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2it's funny what website it's on.
  • an0n1m0us, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1AFAIK Blake Ross doesn't write any code for Firefox anymore.

    Why do people still feed his ego by interviewing him?
    • blindwisdom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I was going to ignore you, but I just can't help myself...

      "Justin: You haven’t been involved in developing Firefox for a while, concentrating on other projects. However, you are still involved — at least peripherally — from a PR standpoint. Do you plan on returning to work on the Firefox codebase in the future?

      Blake Ross: Yes. Joe Hewitt and I have been working on projects that indirectly benefit Firefox, such as Parakey and Firebug, but it’s my New Year’s resolution to return to the Firefox core."

      And while I'm sure you could describe this guy in many ways, ego is the last thing I would say. He seems very down to earth.
  • marc26uk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Bet most people in here have both Opera AND FF installed.

    I personally use primarily Opera, then FF if site doesn't work, then IE as a last resort.
  • stockjones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I like FF a bit more than Opera, but I do wish FF had Opera's speed. In fact the reason I use to like IE6 was because it was fast. Firefox worst culprit is speed and some of the memory/cpu utilization issues. If they can fix that with FF3 than maybe I can move to one browser full time. I think MS actually made things worse with IE7.
  • zeras, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm thinking about Getting Opera, especially the Widgets they have,
    that is the only thing that really separates Firefox and Opera. About IE7
    , I have to admitte it is starting to move better, yeah I used to Hate IE, but
    now after all the updates, it moves very smooth.
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