[olug] Firefox 3 launch party

[Luke -Jr]

On Thursday 29 May 2008, Kevin wrote:
> Firefox has said marketing. That's why I don't expect it to happen. I
> think that history will back me up on this one; see VHS/Betamax and
> Windows/Mac/Linux(or even any *NIX) for an example.

IIRC, the VHS/Betamax deal was mostly about licensing stuff, wasn't it?
Linux beat out BSD because BSD was slandered by lawsuits of some sort, despite 
being found clean in the end. Lately, similar attacks are made on Linux, so 
perhaps in time something else (HURD-based GNU?) will pop up that has a clean 
slate.

As long as Windows has the huge marketshare it does, Windows support is a key 
requirement for anything to be a viable competitor in the universal market.  
KDE has not historically had this. With KDE 4, this will be changing.
With Qt 4.4, there is likely to open up a new KDE-independant browser with 
plugin capabilities comparable to Firefox's (plugins seem to be the one main 
thing Firefox-over-Konq people point to). Once the compatibility is there, 
both can grow a community just like Firefox did, and marketting will follow 
from that.

So basically, the reason I expect to see a change in the market is because 
there is a major important change in the software relevant: Windows support.

Just in case someone notes that Firefox has the Mozilla org behind them, and 
thus more sponsored development and marketting, I'll respond that Nokia will 
probably give similar support to a Qt 4.4 browser. ;)