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View Full Version : National ISP Offers Firefox to Customers


g-smooth2k
January 27th, 2005, 01:26 AM
Source: eWeek (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1754842,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594)

The Mozilla Foundation (http://www.mozilla.org/)'s popular open-source Web browser Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox) took another step forward in mainstream acceptance with the announcement that Speakeasy (http://www.speakeasy.net/), a Seattle-based national broadband ISP, is offering a customized version of Firefox 1.0 to its customers.

The Speakeasy Edition of Firefox is currently available as a download from Speakeasy (http://www.speakeasy.net/firefox). It will also be distributed as part of Speakeasy's self-install broadband service kits to its residential customers starting this month.

Firefox's features include tabbed browsing for viewing multiple Web pages in one window and Live Bookmarks for viewing RSS feeds. The browser runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

According to Speakeasy, the browser is also attractive to its customers because it has advantages over other browsers, such as increased privacy and security and the ability to block pop-up windows.

Internet Explorer has been losing market share (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1753221,00.asp) to the upstart Web browser. In the past few weeks, Microsoft Corp.'s dominant browser lost an additional 1.5 percentage points to fall to 90.3 percent of the Web browser-using public, according to Web research company WebSideStory Inc. (http://www.websidestory.com/) Simultaneously, the Firefox browser rose 0.9 percentage points to reach 5 percent.

"We're thrilled to be the first broadband service provider to adopt Firefox, taking our customers' browsing experience to the next level," said Mike Apgar, chairman and founder of Speakeasy, in a statement. "This special edition is just the first step in making browsing the Web better for our customers. We plan to continually enhance the browser with features that will benefit Speakeasy's home, business and gaming subscribers."

"Speakeasy's customer focus is well-known, and we are excited to support their efforts to create a version of Firefox 1.0 that is tailored to their customers' progressive needs," noted Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla Foundation, in a statement.

"This is a great opportunity to promote browser choice and innovation with a new audience," continued Baker.

The Speakeasy Edition has been customized to work best with a Speakeasy broadband connection. It also comes with an installation script that quickly imports all current browser favorites, passwords and other settings.

In the future, Speakeasy will also be adding other features to its edition of Firefox. These will include VOIP (voice over IP), business utility and network performance.

This is only the first partnership that Mozilla will be forming with ISPs. "You can look for more such partnerships in the near future," a Mozilla spokesperson said.

Oryx
January 27th, 2005, 01:56 AM
its good to see that there are still some ISPs out there that really care about the customer :)

shawners
January 27th, 2005, 05:22 AM
Oh wow, what a great deal by the ISP.. Give away an already free browser=) Maybe people will be more aware of the crap IE does.

Oryx
January 27th, 2005, 05:30 AM
it doesn't matter if they giving away free shit or shit they had to pay for
what matters is that they took a step :)

infringer
January 27th, 2005, 12:31 PM
Oh wow, what a great deal by the ISP.. Give away an already free browser=) Maybe people will be more aware of the crap IE does.

No doubt give away a free browser what a sales pitch lol...

I think firefox is a nice browser but it has its bad sides as well... I liked it but ended up uninstalling the browser because it seemed to take up more resources and error out or freeze at times and the home page was having trouble for quite some time as well but I will be willing to try out the next version.

I'm all for firefox I love the browser but there is some issues that need to be ironed out in it as well I guess I still like IE a bit better which is why I uninstalled firefox... I have also tested netscape and opera as well as a couple others but, still I guess I am partial to IE...

I am however looking forward to the next firefox update more then any other browser.

-infringer-

davec8
January 27th, 2005, 01:08 PM
it doesn't matter if they giving away free shit or shit they had to pay for
what matters is that they took a step :)

Firefox definitely still has some flaws but I agree that an ISP is finally taking a step in the right direction. Hopefully others will follow.

shawners
January 27th, 2005, 01:40 PM
Firefox does not have as much flaws as IE. You have to install adware, and spybots to destroy the shit IE Gets.. I open up the browser, and before you know it.. The ad pops up before the brower, it gets hijacked like crazy. There is torrent plugins, tab browsing windows, Its cleaner, it doesnt obtain all these search bars and crap. Its a nicer interface. Some sites try to encode for IE and get more errors and its easier for people to make websites for Firefox browsing. Also configures into your email client and tells you how many messages you have. I can go back to pages without reloading each last page I saw which cuts down on waiting for website to respond. And download files easier, I just click downloads icon or control J.. and click on each torrent to open up in ABC. I can remove files without going in the directory. It saves time, and I never get a popup.. EVER! Thats worth it's weight in gold.. All browsers will have security flaws, and needs to be updated. But the fact its not gonna get hijacked to another home page and what it prevents. I have norton and firewall to handle most of the issues that can happen.

nms04
January 27th, 2005, 01:45 PM
nice article and good news for the internet and the mozilla foundation! this will bring firefox to the top!!

rainbowdemon
January 27th, 2005, 03:51 PM
nice article and good news for the internet and the mozilla foundation! this will bring firefox to the top!!

I like the idea. It might not bring Firefox to the top, but it will make a lot more people aware of it.

infringer
January 27th, 2005, 04:37 PM
Firefox does not have as much flaws as IE
Give it time soon firefox will be riddled with crap as well. Ever wondered why Adaware had the firefox protection built into it I'd bet it wasnt for no reason at all...

Firefox though a good program I'd agree it probably does have less known flaws then IE does for sure I still am partial to IE...

Strangely enough when I run linux on second boot drive Firefox seems to run smoother on there then it does on winbloze... Dunno what it is really but it appears to run more smooth on linux.

-infringer-

black_magiic
January 27th, 2005, 04:48 PM
I dumped IE last year, never looked back