HP to pair Mozilla with its OS (UNIX)

Post by **old Harry Waldron** » April 1st, 2003, 1:33 pm

And this AIN'T an April Fools joke either -- LOL 8)

Article: HP to pair Mozilla with its OS
http://msnbc-cnet.com.com/2100-1032-994979.html

By Paul Festa
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 1, 2003, 12:16 PM PT

After years of providing the Netscape-branded browser with its Unix operating system, Hewlett-Packard is sidestepping that product for its open-source original, Mozilla.

HP will continue to bundle the Netscape browser with HP UX, the company's version of Unix. But starting with the next version of the operating system, which is due in June, HP will also include Mozilla. The company calls its decision a vote of confidence for the open-source model.

Mozilla.org is the open-source development group that Netscape Communications, prior to its acquisition by America Online, established to develop its browser. The group, which released its code five years ago Monday, operates with both AOL-paid and volunteer developers.

willll · Post by **willll** » April 1st, 2003, 4:46 pm

um
yeah
ok
see <a href="http://mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=3016">here</a> and
see <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7875">here</a>

Post by **Alex Bishop** » April 1st, 2003, 6:30 pm

Article: Nobody Reads the Front Page Anymore

By Alex Bishop
Staff Writer, MozillaZine
April 1, 2003, 5:30 PM PT

After months of updating the popular <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/">MozillaZine</a> front page, Alex Bishop is convinced that nobody reads it any more.

The MozillaZine administrator from Derby, United Kingdom claims that there has been a sharp increase in the number of people posting links to articles to MozillaZine without realising that they have already been featured on the front page.

"I first noticed it when I would put up an article and then someone would <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/submit/">submit</a> it a few days later," says Bishop, who's been following the progress of the Mozilla project since 2000. "But more recently, it's started happening in the <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/">forums</a> as well."

Bishop points to a <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=61735#61735">post by Harry Waldron</a>, a relatively new member of the MozillaZine community, as the most recent example of this phenomenon.

"I put up this article about <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=3016">HP switching to Mozilla for their HP-UX operating system</a> last Friday. The article was contributed by a reader named Vicne and didn't seem to be reported in any major media outlets at the time. Then, on Tuesday, <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1032-994979.html">Paul Festa of CNET News.com picked up the story</a>. His article was widely syndicated on affiliated sites such as <a href="http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-994979.html">ZDNet</a> and <a href="http://msnbc-cnet.com.com/2100-1032-994979.html">MSNBC</a>. The former report was submitted to MozillaZine as an article suggestion, while the latter piece was <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=61735#61735">posted to the forums by Mr. Waldron</a>."

Bishop says that he can understand why some people may miss the front page articles. "The main section of the front page only carries the eight most recent articles. After that they go into the 'Older News' sidebar, where they remain until they get pushed off into the <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/archive.html">archives</a>. The sidebar is kind of far down, so I guess people could miss stuff there."

However, Bishop says that articles are often linked to by MozillaZine members even when they are prominently displayed on the front page. "That happened with this <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,956371,00.asp">eWeek review of Mozilla 1.3</a>," the Computer Science undergraduate explains. "Following a reader submission it was <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=2994">linked to on the MozillaZine front page</a> on Friday 21st March. On the following Tuesday, a MozillaZine forum user <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7875">posted a topic about the article</a> even though the MozillaZine write up was still in the main area of the front page."

"That's not all though. The very next day, someone else submitted the exact same article to us. It wasn't even a syndicated version or something."

Many theories have been put forward as to why well-meaning MozillaZine members do not look at the front page. James Graham, a physics student at the UK Cambridge University's <a href="http://jesus.cam.ac.uk/">Jesus College</a>, thinks that the <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=58929#58929">front page and the forums may attract different users</a>. "Actually, it's interesting that there are people who post on the front page and people who post in the forums," he notes, "but there's only a small intersection of the two sets." MozillaZine's forums have a different login and membership setup to that of the front page articles' Talkback system.

Bishop feels that it's unlikely the situation will improve. "MozillaZine is getting more and more popular, so I can't see things getting any better. Maybe people are actually reading the front page but they've been numbed by <a href="http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot</a> and don't remember articles until they've seen them several times."

Officials from <a href="http://www.mozillanews.org/">MozillaNews</a>, MozillaZine's main rival, were unavailable for comment.

Spewey · Post by **Spewey** » April 1st, 2003, 7:21 pm

Hey, cool! I never heard about Mozillanews. Oh wait, they have an animated favicon--forget it.

(nice, Alex, I appreciated the psuedo-journnalistic tone. Good writing and spelling.)

Post by **Nitin** » April 1st, 2003, 9:45 pm

What is this front page thing anyway?? sounds microsoftish... ;-)

for forums, i type "phoenix forums" in the phoenix address bar, and am directly taken to the forums. You really want everyone to type www.mozillazine.org there?

edit: .org and not .com DUH

raj_bhaskar · Post by **raj_bhaskar** » April 2nd, 2003, 1:34 am

Alex Bishop wrote:After months of updating the popular <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/">MozillaZine</a> front page, Alex Bishop is convinced that nobody reads it any more.

LOL, poor Alex :-)

. <em>I</em> still read the front page. It's my first port of call in the mornings at work (after my regular charities click-through)

grayrest · Post by **grayrest** » April 2nd, 2003, 12:25 pm

Heh, I don't really know why people don't read the front page. Maybe you should stop updating, I get comments on <a href="http://grayrest.com/moz">mine</a> even though I have explicitly stated that I'm not updating it anymore...

Post by **Alex Bishop** » April 2nd, 2003, 5:37 pm

Someone emailed a link to another retelling of the HP thing today:

http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/ar ... hp/2173651

Post by **Nitin** » April 2nd, 2003, 7:26 pm

Hey, I started reading the front page... and am I glad i did!!

Gathering all the information on the new developments using bits and pieces from the forums would have been impossible.

priior · Post by **priior** » April 3rd, 2003, 7:57 am

alex: why not put the recent headlines on the right side menu?

HP to pair Mozilla with its OS (UNIX)

HP to pair Mozilla with its OS (UNIX)

Nobody Reads The Front Page Anymore

Re: Nobody Reads The Front Page Anymore

Maybe they just have a good sense of irony...