Photo by Darcy Padilla
MOZILLA has a new CEO [1,2], who is a very technical guy that cares about the values of Free software. One FOSS proponent/journalist explained "Why Mozilla's Brendan Eich Is the Right Choice for CEO" [3], but other journalists, who are not so familiar with the area (this one does not know that Android has Linux in it) try to start distracting conversations because Mr. Eich, like many Free software people, is opinionated and is exercising free speech [4] (a common vector for demonising people like Stallman, by littering their profile with irrelevant non-technical stances). The real issues we have right now are not the semi-political/idealogical views of staff like Eich but things like privacy issues in future versions of Firefox, Mono creeping into Firefox (more on that in last week's news [5,6]. Mind the fact that Unity is infected by Mono, as noted before, and it does not work properly under GNU/Linux [7]), and security issues which all browsers [8,9], especially under Windows, habitually have (Chrome is no exception but it's patched very quickly [10]). As Firefox 28 is released and Firefox 29 starts being worked on [11-16] we get to discover that Firefox can become a gaming platform with Unreal Engine, not requiring Mono at all [17]. This is the direction Mozilla should aim for. In addition, Mozilla ought to resume Thunderbird development and make encryption part of the core, especially now that NSA and GCHQ are exposed as serious, international privacy offenders. Back in the days when Mozilla tried to reason about abandoning Thunderbird development its chief said that people were heading toward what we now know to be PRISM, including corporate surveillance like Microsoft's. People should self-host and encrypt, but they could use Mozilla to make it user-friendly and quick. ⬆
Mozilla, the company behind the popular Firefox Web browser, has been searching for a new CEO since Gary Kovacs, who came on-board in 2010, decided to leave almost a year ago. Mozilla has finally picked a new leader, former CTO Brendan Eich. With him comes change. Mozilla's job number one will not be its Web browser, but its mobile operating system: Firefox OS.
Today, Mozilla officially announced that Brendan Eich will be the new CEO of the open-source organization that produces the Firefox Web browser and the FirefoxOS mobile operating system. Eich is no stranger to the world of Mozilla; he's been with Mozilla since its inception at Netscape. Eich is also famous for being the inventor of the JavaScript programming language.
Linux is very secure. Google's Linux-based Chrome OS, with its auto-updating and security sandboxing, is even more secure. But, neither is perfect. At Google's own Pwnium hacking contest and HP Zero Day Initiative's (ZDI) annual Pwn2Own hacking contest, three new sets of security problems were found in Chrome OS... and then immediately patched.
Firefox 28 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android has been released.
Mozilla today officially launched Firefox 28 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Additions include VP9 video decoding, Web notifications on OS X, and volume controls for HTML5 video and audio.
You'll soon be able to stream and play highly realistic three-dimensional video games from within the Mozilla Firefox browser. Mozilla recently announced that the most recent version of its Firefox browser can run games developed with the Unreal Engine by Epic Games, which forms the backbone of many major 3D video games.