Browser Updates
Mozilla 1.3 went gold last week Thursday. Got get it at mozilla.org.
Opera 7.03 slipped out the door to fix a security hole (get it here). I don't know if the pace of security problems is increasing because of a loss of focus by Opera or because more people are taking a serious look at it and finding things that have always been there. It may be both, but I think it's more the former than the later.
Ever since 7.x first came out, I've been wondering if Opera is experiencing financial problems. No, I don't have any insider information nor am I claiming any kind of expertise. But it seemed to me that Opera shipped a product that was not ready and was obviously so. If this is true, then the question becomes why would you do that and the answer is economics. If you don't ship, you don't get money. If you don't get money, you don't exist. Obvious. What is not so obvious is that shipping product before it is good enough will, over time, decrease sales.
The Internet operates by word of mouth and good will. Ship a product before its time and the word of mouth will be bad and the good will evaporates. Now, in a monopoly, this doesn't matter. But in a world in which other browsers are available for the price of a download, you can not afford to operate with impunity.
Aloha!
Comments
More people are using Opera without switching off scripting and such.
It used to be that people chose Opera because all the crap could be switched off. Those people were security-conscious. Now lost of clueless people take up Opera.
The armour is still good but if you don't close the starps it still falls apart.
Another aspect is that there is some pride in the hacker comunity. Breaking into MSIE doesn't make others take notice. Breaking in into something more dificult brings more peer-respect. So hacking at Opera is getting more intense.
Posted by: sjon | March 18, 2003 10:33 PM