From The Microsoft Blog: In one short year, Google’s Chrome Web browser tripled its market share. In December, it overtook Apple Safari as the third-place browser as the reigning leader, Microsoft Internet Explorer, continued slipping during 2009. According to Net Applications, Chrome ended 2009 with a claim on 4.63 percent of the market, after starting out at just 1.52 percent. During the same period, Safari and Mozilla Firefox also each gained market share, chipping away at IE’s still-dominant hold on the browser market. In January 2009, Internet Explorer had a 69.72 percent share. By the end of December, its market…
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Part of the big improvements for Firefox 3.5 was it is suppose to be faster. Unless you have started using Firefox 3.5 with a clean profile, you are going to notice that the initial startup of Firefox can be a bit (or for some user painfully) slow at times. This is especially true for those on Windows. There are a couple quick fixes to improve the startup time of your Firefox. These involve cleaning up temporary files (Windows users) and vacuuming your databases. Both tips come courtesy of Percy at Mozilla Links.
In a move that has been described as “a step backward in the retail software arena” Microsoft release a statement saying they will NOT bundle Internet Explorer (or any other browsers) with Windows 7 when it it is release in the European Market. Since the computer will not have a web browser installed, users will be unable to go on to the Internet to download a web browser. Microsoft’s “solution” to this is to offer Internet Explorer at no charge on a CD-ROM. Full details are on the Microsoft Blog plus response from the European Union (EU). Yep, this is…
Back on May 1st, The Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog turned 3. Taking a looking back around May 1st for the past 3-years, here were some of the big news items: 2006 Mike Schroepfer announced developers were yanking Places from the then upcoming Firefox 2 release. Bon Echo/Firefox 2 Alpha 2 release. 2007 Support for both Firefox and Thunderbird 1.5 would be ending soon. Dell was going to offer (on some systems) Ubuntu & OpenOffice.org instead of Windows Vista and Office 2007 The Guru begins to experiment with Ubuntu. 2008 The failed takeover/merger of Yahoo! by Microsoft. Still not sure if…
As Firefox users it is easy for us to forget, overlook or even not notice the large (choke) hold Microsoft has on the browser market. For all intents and purposes, Microsoft has a monopoly on the browser market with Internet Explorer. Over the past couple years Firefox’s market share has grown tremendously in Europe. In January 2009 the European Commission (EC) stated its preliminary conclusion that “Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice.” Over the past couple months Mitchell has discussed on her blog…
I’ve done a quick update on the How To Remove Microsoft .NET Spyware Extension post with the addition of links to information concerning the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.0 add-on as well as about the KB951847 update.
Back around the end of January there was a Microsoft Windows Update (KB951847) that installed the SpyWare (done without user consent/knowledge and can not be removed easily) Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.0 extension into Firefox. Note: If you have not install Windows Update KB951847 OR not using Windows Update this extension will not be installed. Notice how the ‘Uninstall’ button is greyed out? I learned about this from a post )Microsoft Infiltrates Firefox) at GoFirefox! However, because I am using Shiretoko 3.1b3pre and the add-on was not compatible with this build it never fully installed. I was able to remove…
An article on the Microsoft Blog reminded me of the Get a Mac: V-Word commerical from October 2008: As the ‘Vista Capable’ lawsuit continues to drag on, more documents have been released. This time, documents dated around August 2005 from Windows Product Management Group advised Microsoft not to use ‘Vista’ generation name on “Home Basic”, instead only carry the Windows brand name. They also gave the same advice for the “Stater Edition” (not available in United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, Australia or New Zealand). A quick refresher, a PC ‘branded’ as ‘Vista Capable’ meets the minimum requirements to run the…
More emails have been released in the Vista Capable case this afternoon. Including more on the email exchanges between Microsoft’s Ballmer and Intel’s Otellini and the loosening of the ‘Vista Capable’ requirements. Microsoft senior vice president Will Poole e-mailed Ballmer: Steve, following up on the call you took from Paul today, we have changed our program so that Intel’s current integrated parts qualify for ‘Vista Capable’ branding … This change completely resolves their problem. Also released were some emails regarding Best Buy’s CEO wanting to talk to Ballmer about Vista-related issues. One Microsoft executive described Best Buy as “whining.” while…
Weighing in at hefty 400 pages is Windows Vista For SENIORS, For senior citizens who want to start using computers. Also in the series is Switching to Windows Vista For SENIORS and More Windows Vista for SENIORS. Yep, more! This next edition is slightly smaller at 352 pages. I am not too sure if Windows Vista would be such a good idea for senior citizens who want to start using computers. Windows XP would seem simpler to use and can still be found on the ultra low-cost machines until June 2010. These machine would also be more suitable alternative for…