Do you think there will be a second browser war?

[BWF89]

I was just reading an article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_Wars#Future) on Wikipedia and it prompted me to make this thread.

Do you think there will be a second browser war?

Will companies package an alternative browser in with their (Windows) computer?

When will it be?

Who will win?

[Rancoras]

Microsoft has rested on thier laurels a little longer than I thought they would where IE is concerned. They gave users a little taste with the popup blocker included with SP2, but I doubt it was enough.

I think users are getting tired of the constant holes uncovered in IE. Likewise with the constant barrrage of spyware and malware. I feel that there will be an exodus of sorts to mozilla and opera. Mozilla will most likely win this round. They will need to keep up the innovation if they don't want to get steamrolled again. Looking at how development on Firefox progressed, I think they can do it.

[jdodson]

I was just reading an article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_Wars#Future) on Wikipedia and it prompted me to make this thread.

Do you think there will be a second browser war?

Will companies package an alternative browser in with their (Windows) computer?

When will it be?

Who will win?

there have been many battles and firefox has been doing pretty well. but ie is still the winner. if vendors start bundling firefox with thier new computers(dell, hp, gateway, etc) this will be a huge victory. the only company i know to bundle other programs with winxp is, strangly enough, emachines. they bundled nescape, opera and mozilla(i think) with a laptop one of my friends bought.

[KiwiNZ]

I do not believe we will see a new browser out of Microsoft until Longhorn is released.
The current IE is not stopping sales of XP so why go to the expense when there will be no return on investment.

[Xian]

if vendors start bundling firefox with thier new computers(dell, hp, gateway, etc) this will be a huge victory.
That's the key. If FF can get some bundling partnerships then this would be huge.
Otherwise IE will continue to see 90+% usage rates.

Besides which, if you start tossing the idea of browser extentions and such in front of Joe User they typically run under the sheets and hug their M$ Install CD. People are really weird about that kind of thing.

[poofyhairguy]

there have been many battles and firefox has been doing pretty well. but ie is still the winner. if vendors start bundling firefox with thier new computers(dell, hp, gateway, etc) this will be a huge victory. the only company i know to bundle other programs with winxp is, strangly enough, emachines. they bundled nescape, opera and mozilla(i think) with a laptop one of my friends bought.


not surprising, emachines rocks.

My p3 600mhz emachine seems faster than my p4 on some days.

[jdodson]

not surprising, emachines rocks.

My p3 600mhz emachine seems faster than my p4 on some days.

HA! well if all the things i keep reading on p4 performance are true, then i believe you. :D

[macewan]

Browser war on the Windows platform? F*ck 'em, if they still use IE day after day after having their systems raped that's their problem.

Don't drive a car if you don't know to stay away from the bad neighborhoods.

2¢

[TravisNewman]

Emachines rocks??? Wow, every one I've ever seen running is amazingly crappy. My mom's AMD k6 450 with 49 megs of ram (custom built machine) runs faster than my fiancee's emachines with an 800 mhz pentium 3 and 64 megs of ram. Or it did anyway when they both ran Windows (my fiancee's now runs Ubuntu, and my mom's doesn't work because of a faulty surge protector let a major power surge fry it, it would seem). It may be the hard drive speed-- companies that sell cheap computers always slack off with the hard drives. Quantum fireballs are called fireballs for a reason. They burn out way too quickly. But that's not the only crappy emachines I've ever seen.

Anyway, I don't think there'll be a browser war, honestly and unfortunately. Back when IE and Netscape were head to head, people knew what a web browser was. Now people barely get the concept of the web, and they know that the "e" goes to the internet, but thats about it.

[#Greg]

I think there already is a new browser war, as for who will win, who knows. You can't underestimate MS, but at the end of the day, as long as there are great alternatives such as FF for us lot "in the know" to use (and to pass onto our family & friends) it doesn't matter too much.

Undoubtedly FF looks extremely promising for the future, they only have to reach a tipping point (which I don't believe is too far off) and then more web designers will design their sites with FF in mind, FF will be preinstalled on all Windows machines in governments, schools & businesses. FF have a great opportunity now, what with MS unwilling to improve IE for the next few years.

But that aside, can you ever see MS packing windows with anything other than IE?

[poofyhairguy]

Emachines rocks??? Wow, every one I've ever seen running is amazingly crappy. My mom's AMD k6 450 with 49 megs of ram (custom built machine) runs faster than my fiancee's emachines with an 800 mhz pentium 3 and 64 megs of ram. Or it did anyway when they both ran Windows (my fiancee's now runs Ubuntu, and my mom's doesn't work because of a faulty surge protector let a major power surge fry it, it would seem). It may be the hard drive speed-- companies that sell cheap computers always slack off with the hard drives. Quantum fireballs are called fireballs for a reason. They burn out way too quickly. But that's not the only crappy emachines I've ever seen.


The best part is they use standard parts. Sure they cheap out on a few things, but those can be easily added by me. Such as a better IDE cable (the one that come with most stock emachines is very cheap and really hurts performance). And maybe a little more ram. But its easy to add stuff. I've rebuilt whole emachines before....I'll pay to keep my p3 alive longer.

Much better than my Sorny P4, as this thing uses such parts that only a few things can be replaced. Most are custom made.

You can really rice out an emachine....

[Zundfolge]

Will there be? Hell, I'd say there already is a second browser war going on.

[BWF89]

Will there be? Hell, I'd say there already is a second browser war going on.
Not really, Firefox is fighting but Microsoft's Internet Explorer isn't going to fight back until Longhorn gets released.

[jdodson]

Emachines rocks??? Wow, every one I've ever seen running is amazingly crappy. My mom's AMD k6 450 with 49 megs of ram (custom built machine) runs faster than my fiancee's emachines with an 800 mhz pentium 3 and 64 megs of ram. Or it did anyway when they both ran Windows (my fiancee's now runs Ubuntu, and my mom's doesn't work because of a faulty surge protector let a major power surge fry it, it would seem). It may be the hard drive speed-- companies that sell cheap computers always slack off with the hard drives. Quantum fireballs are called fireballs for a reason. They burn out way too quickly. But that's not the only crappy emachines I've ever seen.

it seems there are two sides to the emachine fiasco. there is the "old" emachine and the new emachine. the old emachines were made with refurbished parts. that does really make for a stable system 90% of the time. the new emachines are sweet setups with AMD chips and ATI cards. they are now mostly made with standard parts. i still have the "old" emachine feelings but it seems to me the new ones are not that bad. it seems dells cheap crap has surpassed what emachine once was for junk computers.

but this is a thread about the second coming of the browser wars.... go FIREFOX! :-#