Mozilla Firebird Hottest Pick in UK 'Linux Format' Magazine

Sunday July 27th, 2003

Issue 43 of the UK Linux Format magazine (August 2003) features Mozilla Firebird in its Hot Picks section, which showcases "the best open source software on the planet". Firebird receives the Hottest Pick award, singling it out as the best piece of software of the issue. The review, which focuses on the 0.6 release, can be found on page 40 of the magazine and the 0.6 source code is included on the accompanying coverdisc. The article is not on the Linux Format website (the most recent feature in the archives is from issue 36) so we've reproduced it here for your reading pleasure. If you like what you see, UK and international subscriptions are available from £54 for 13 issues.

Full Article...

#1 oh the irony

by quarsan

Sunday July 27th, 2003 3:10 PM

you mean the linux fornat mag isn't open source ;)

i read this in the 4th paragraph: <i>Mozilla's coders never intended their app to be an end-user product — that was the job of Netscape et al. Firebird wants to bring control back to the user, </i>

control back to the user.... as long as that user isn't one of those dreaded 'end-users'. can anyone explain?

#2 Re: oh the irony

by bzbarsky

Sunday July 27th, 2003 4:13 PM

> control back to the user.... as long as that user isn't one of those dreaded > 'end-users'. can anyone explain?

Sure thing.

1) Firebird is all about end-users, or wants to be 2) Mozilla was a lot more about control for the user than Netscape (witness the noise that had to happen for Netscape to include popup blocking).

In other words, the article author is just confused.

#3 Re: Re: oh the irony

by msaunders

Monday July 28th, 2003 5:54 AM

> In other words, the article author is just confused.

Nope, no confusion whatsoever. The original guy's quote missed out part of my second sentence:

"Firebird wants to bring control back to the user, AND NOT THE WEBSITE DEVELOPER."

I'm sure we'd all agree about that. The first sentence is correct too; Mozilla explicitly stated on their site (at least the old one) that Mozilla was just technology - apps like Netscape and Beonex were meant to deliver 'end-user' products.

Or maybe I'm confused by your confusion now :)

Whatever the case, I'm advocating Firebird so let's all be happy!

Mike

#4 old hat not red hat

by Hymagumba

Monday July 28th, 2003 6:51 AM

from what I can see this was written before AOL sacked the Netscape team so it is out of date info regarding the end-user issue.