Cross Platform (Mac and PC) Versions of Firefox and Thunderbird

Cross Platform Thunderbird

Cross Platform Firefox

In the read me file its important to note that due to a problem in the Mac OS X portable Thunderbird or Firefox script, you might need to launch START OS X Thunderbird or Firefox twice the very first time you download Portable Thunderbird or Firefox. I haven't tried this yet but it is due to a flaw in the script used to make user profile files compatible. The basic app is still John Haller's work which is distributed as a PC version at Portable Apps.

Firefox has Greater Than 10% Markey Share

Spread Firefox the community advertising site announced the 10% market share accomplishment today. The site includes an ad contest and Firefox flicks, which are customer testimonials.

They Aren't Hacks So Much As Good Ways To Use Existing Features

O'Reilly Hacks

One "hack" that I found interesting was a way to build your own Firefox search plugin. This can be done by using notepad (the text editor) and writing a short script saved with a .src extension to the "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\search plugins" folder. The instructions on how to write the script as well as how to save the 16 by 16 pixel search icon can be found on the O'Rielly XP Hacks website.

Anonym.OS

This Saturday the Anonym.OS Live CD was released at the ShmooCon Hacker Conference. The CD runs Open BSD 3.8 with its network applications preconfigured to work in a secure way. Tor is a key part of the privacy promoting ability of this OS. The OS was designed for users who don't normally use high privacy configurations. The set up of these settings is therefore carried out at start up through a series of wizards. This approach to security was given a mixed review from the attendees of ShmooCon. Anonym.OS is available for download at Sourceforge and LinuxTracKer.



Another privacy solution that I recently learned about is TorPark. TorPark is a preconfigured setup of Tor and Firefox (the DearPark Alpha release)and the Portable Firefox Loader. The advantage of this is that it is easier to use on a public computer. TorPask runs off of a flash drive and unlike a Live CD the computer doesn't have to be rebooted into a new operating system. There a several mirror sites: for the CORAL English download go here.

Internet Explorer
Microsoft will cancel support of IE for Mac December 31, 2005.  This is really no surprise considering that Mac users have been using IE5 for three years.  Also, the impact will be pretty small considering most Mac users use Safari, Firefox, or Opera.  One small catch that CNet reports is that there are a few sites that are designed to be used with only IE (Microsoft Drops Mac IE, CNet). 

In the news for IE development on Windows is the Microsoft decision to use the Firefox RSS (Real Simple Syndication) Feed icon (Firefox Victory, Forbes).  The new Outlook coming out in 2006 will also use this icon.  Not only will using a standard icon make things easier for users, but this is also a nice instance of Microsoft following the lead of the open source development community. 

Microsoft's Shared Source Isn't Open But it is Improving

As mentioned on Larry Lessig's blog Microsoft has recently committed its shared source licensing program to a focus on 3 licenses.  Microsoft's new core licenses for code sharing will now be the MS Community License, MS Permisuve License, and MS Reference License.  This simplification should allow better access to Microsoft code that is made available. 


Misc. Firefox tip: to open a link in a new tab click the middle button (scroll wheel) or hold down control while clicking

I read about Opsound in Pc Magazine and I've had a little time to explore it today.  The website is a flexible database of free music.  The selection is heavily tilted toward electronic genre but some of the music I sampled was quite good.  Opsound is worth exploring because of its interesting tagging system as well the music's release under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike license.