While I’m still grateful to Mozilla to providing an alternative in the past, I realize they’ve relegated their enterprise to the pre-mortem convalescent home. And they will be joining the 8 track, the Corvair, Studebaker and Edsel in the enterprise hereatter.

All excellent points, FF3′d Up! As I suggested in an earlier comment, Firefox has been bought out…though I thought it was Micro$oft, it turned out to be Google! My hunch is that Chrome will acquire all of Firefox’s advantages in its attempt to be king of the browser hill. See:

From Firefox to Chrome: Why I made the switch
http://tinyurl.com/5ognjw

When Google tossed its browser hat into the ring, it did so after first acquiring the soul of Firefox.

There is a definite whiff of sulfur in this Browser War!

The beauty of Opera is that it is a Norwegian product, and not an American one. I hate to use the arrogant name “America”, because it only really refers to the funky United States and not most of North “America”.

Of the last 20 years, when have the united states ever turned out a good product of any kind? We import our manufactured goods from other countries because when it comes to producing quality “we” simply DON’T KNOW HOW.

Second, it does not block small files. It appears like there is some kind of a delay. I am not sure, it appears a bit odd and non-consistent.

Another thing I have been seeing too, is that it is altering the file name and tacking on a mime-type equivalency extension. For example, a file named SomeData.txt that is tab deliminated data with a mime-type for Excel so that Excel could be used to open the data directly from the browser.

It appears like FF needs an option to bypass this lunacy to tie it back to the Windows OS settings! This is inconsistent with FF’s linux and Mac offerings (obviously!)! I mean even when MS is admitting that Vista is a flop, you now see FF trying to hooks in to it? Get real!

http://tinyurl.com/6etbp2

And dis is thu artikul itself:

Firefox millions – only 12 per cent Google free

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Mozilla faces IRS audit over search sugar daddy

By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 20th November 2008 05:44 GMT

Free Download – Security Web 2.0

In 2007, the Mozilla Foundation received 88 per cent of its revenue from a certain Mountain View sugar daddy. And thanks to its longstanding Google dependence, the organization is facing an IRS audit and questions over its tax exempt status.

Today, the non-profit behind the open-source Firefox browser released its long-delayed 2007 financial report. Revenues hit $75 million, and $66 million of that came from Larry, Sergey, and crew.

In 2006, the Foundation pulled in $67 million, and Google dollars accounted for 85 per cent ($59.5 million).

Mozilla and Google have entered some sort of agreement that involves Firefox shuttling people onto the world’s most popular search. You’ll notice that Mozilla slaps a Google search box onto the Firefox toolbar and default home page. Just before Google unveiled its very own Chrome browser, the two outfits renewed their Firefox pact for another three years. It expires at the end of November 2011.

Presumably, the pact is tied to ad revenue generated through Firefox. It dates back to at least 2005 – and most likely to 2004. Mozilla’s 2004 tax form shows $4,422,674 in search cash, or 76 per cent of its revenues.

The Foundation received tax exempt status in 2003. And it did not pay taxes on that $4,422,674 in 2004, saying that an arrangement with “a search provider…facilitates the dissemination of the Foundation’s browser, thereby increasing the accessibility of the internet.”

We’re not quite sure how a search box facilitates the dissemination of a browser. But there you have it.

Then, in 2005, the Foundation spun off a for-profit operation. And multiple search engine contracts were transferred to this brand new Mozilla Corporation.

That same year, according to today’s blog post from Mitchell Baker, chairperson of the Foundation, it set aside a “tax reserve fund” in case the Internal Revenue Service (IRS, the US national tax agency) decided to review the tax status of its 2004 and 2005 search engine funds.

And the IRS has indeed launched a review. “We are early in the process and do not yet have a good feel for how long this will take or the overall scope of what will be involved,” Baker says.

In its financial report, Mozilla argues that its 2004 and 2005 search revenues were royalties and should not be taxed. But it’s well aware that the IRS may see things differently. Its tax reserve fund totaled $14,832,000 as of the end of 2007.

The report also says there has been an “inquiry regarding its tax exemption” because Google is supplying such a large share of its revenue: “While the Foundation did not automatically qualify as a public charity with public support at 33 per cent of total support, it believes that it qualifies as a public charity under the facts and circumstances test with public support over 10 per cent.”

If it doesn’t pass the test, the Foundation says, it will become a private charity, coughing up about $100,000 in taxes.

We say all this merely to show there’s a fine line between a tax-exempt charity and a multi-million-dollar Google traffic machine. ®

I am somewhat surprised that anyone who enjoys the Internet would not have one or two backup browsers at hand. I do, including about eight of ‘em archived and ready to unzip at a moment’s notice.

Yet, I have a friend who, like you, did not have a backup browser while IE is too corrupted to run. So I put together a package of browsers, plus a lot of other good programs and games, pressed them to CD, and sent them off to Philadelphia where he resides.

Were I in your situtation, I would try the following:

- Seek out the cheap software at local thrift stores. You might get lucky.

- Politely bother people at coffeehouses w/laptops, to see if they can give you a copy of their browser. (Bring a blank CD, or a USB device that links two laptops.)

- Attend a local PC user group and ask for help.

But if all that fails, here is one last (though foolproof) option:

- Pray to the Mozilla gods.