LB Technology Services Blog » windows

Firedfox

lorenb — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:15:51 +0000

I started using Firefox as my web browser when it was still called Phoenix around version 0.5/0.6. Previously I was using Netscape Communicator which had become a bloated mess.

At the time Firefox was a breath of fresh air. It was just a browser without all the mail, IRC client, web page designer that came with Netscape. It was very fast. It had cool features like tabs. Linux was well supported.

Over time this has changed and I find Firefox getting slower and less relevant. The developers seem to be under the impression that Firefox users are their personal army to push web standards. I only used Firefox because it’s a tool not because of any social movement.

Things like how Firefox handles SSL, specifically self-signed certificates are a pain compared to other browsers. I hate it when my browser crashes and I lose all open tabs/windows. Things seem to get worse every new Firefox release.

In the past I didn’t have much of a choice, I had to put up with this as under Linux there wasn’t anything else available. That however has changed with Google Chrome. It’s much better than Firefox ever was and I’m now using it full time.

The GNOME developers have also dropped Firefox/Gecko and are moving to WebKit. This is the same engine Google Chrome uses as well. In the very near future, I except Firefox will no longer be the default browser in most Linux distributions.

On Windows, I also expect Firefox usage will drop. Microsoft has made Internet Explorer v8 much better and somewhere in Redmond they are working on v9, v10, etc. As people upgrade to Windows 7, willl they keep using Firefox? I suspect IE will start be “good enough” for most people.

On the Mac, most people are going to use the default and that is Safari.

When you look at the mobile scene it’s much the same. Microsoft is going to use IE in Windows Mobile devices. Google has another WebKit based browser for Android. Apple has Safari on the iPhone. Nokia will use WebKit as they now own QT.

Notice how the industry seems to be standardizing on WebKit? The odd man out there is Firefox. Who is going to use Fennec on their phone?

Another thing to consider is that the Mozilla Corporation gets most of their funding from Google. It’s not very hard to see that coming to an end too as Chrome becomes more important.

Porting from iPhone to Windows Mobile

lorenb — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:29:01 +0000

Saw a Microsoft case study on Porting the Amplitude Application from the iPhone to a Windows Mobile Device. I’ll have to read that in more detail later on.

Windows Marketplace

lorenb — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:14:45 +0000

Saw over on Engadget that Microsoft has released details about the Windows Marketplace. They want to charge a $99 USD developer fee and another $99 USD for every application you submit.

Like Apple and Google, they are doing the 70/30 split with the developer for revenue. They plan to have the marketplace open for business in Q4 2009.

I don’t have a problem with the developer fee or the 70/30 split. However the $99/app charge just feels nickle & dime. They don’t do this if you are developing for Windows desktop and/or server.

Windows users have a very bad history with piracy. I know more than a few Windows Mobile users who pirate/steal things like TomTom and other 3rd party apps. I wonder how piracy will play out in the new marketplace.

Exchange 2003

lorenb — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:47:56 +0000

Was doing some work for a client on the weekend with Microsoft Exchange 2003. I ran into this error:

How does something like that even pass QA?

Sussen 0.90

lorenb — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:19:30 +0000

Sussen 0.90 has been released. Sussen is a tool that checks for vulnerabilities and configuration issues on computer systems.

We are getting closer to v1.0. The remaining items to do are to fix the remaining bugs in bugzilla, clean up the look/feel of the web console. The editor has been disabled for now, it won’t be ready in time for 1.0, but we’ll keep working on it for the 1.1/1.2 branch.

We are also working on setting up an OVAL repository so we can provide updated definitions in a more timely manner. I’ll have more details on that later.

Changes since 0.35:

editor: Disabled editor; will continue development in 1.1/1.2 branch
oval: Added initial support for OVAL 5.3
oval: API documentation updated
misc: Change license to GPL v3
www: Various improvements to web console
xml: Updated Ubuntu definitions for USNs 425-1 to 483-1
xml: Updated Windows definitions from oval.mitre.org

Downloads: tar.gz | .rpm (Fedora Core 7) | .deb (Ubuntu 6.06) | .deb (Ubuntu 7.04) | .msi (Windows)

Sussen 0.35

lorenb — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 11:09:48 +0000

Sussen 0.35 has been released. Sussen is a tool that checks for vulnerabilities and configuration issues on computer systems. Changes since 0.34:

editor: Fixed crash if definitions were selected and list was empty
misc: Improved i18n support in agent,applet and editor
misc: Updated build to use po/LINGUAS
oval: Added support for OVAL 5.1 and 5.2
oval: Fixed error in handling of check attribute on tests
oval: Fixed regression in handling of definitions on wrong platform
xml: Updated Ubuntu definitions for USNs 413-1 to 424-1
xml: Updated Windows definitions from oval.mitre.org

Downloads: tar.gz | .rpm (Fedora Core 6) | .deb (Ubuntu) | .msi (Windows)

Sussen now OVAL compatible

lorenb — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 22:59:18 +0000

Earlier today, Sussen was certified as being OVAL compatible. Here is the message we got:

Congratulations! MMG Security’s Sussen has been granted official OVAL
Compatibility. The OVAL Community is excited to add you to the growing
list of products and services that have embraced the initiative and are
working to make IT Security better for all.

The OVAL web site should now reflect this status. We will also be
presenting you with a formal certificate, either by mail or at an
upcoming conference.

Thank you again for you support of OVAL!

Currently it’s only for the Windows version though. We had some issues with XML validation under Linux/Mono. We reported the bugs, they got fixed and are just waiting for the next Mono release. Since the Linux and Windows versions share 90%+ of their code we don’t expect any major issues getting the Linux version certified as well.