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Meet The Co-Creator of Firefox

Posted by Hemos on Mon Jan 24, 2005 09:05 AM
from the learning-more-about-it dept.
Mozilla The Internet
Jay Langhurst writes "Learn more about the roots of Firefox and about the 19-year-old who co-created the browser in this article. 'To take an internship at Netscape during the summer of 2001, Ross moved with his mother to a rented apartment near Netscape's offices in Mountain View, Calif. She drove him to work each morning.'"
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  • Ain't that sweet... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ravenspear (756059) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:07AM (#11454850)
    At least we know he's a real geek.

  • Is it a two-floor apartment? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 24 2005, @09:07AM (#11454852)
    ' Ross moved with his mother to a rented apartment '

    Is the apartment two-floors, so he can still be in mom's basement?

      • Yeah. Here in the deep south people live on their mother's carports. For those of you who have those newfangled garage things, a carport is a large covered patio area with a garage door, a pickup truck, several broken lawnmowers, some cats, and the occasional pale mildewed dork.

  • Meet him? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 24 2005, @09:09AM (#11454866)
    I want to hug him, kiss him, have his children....
  • The article claims that the Mozilla Foundation was created _for_ FireFox.

    Gee, I wonder what codebase he used to create Firefox, then?

  • So refreshing to see he didn't live in his mothers basement....

  • Strange how often it works out that way (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Weaselmancer (533834) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:16AM (#11454925)

    Odd isn't it - how many times a flat broke intern turns our entire industry upside-down?

    On another note, I wonder how the IE team feels knowing that an intern who had to share an apartment with his mom and have her drive him to work basically outperformed their entire team.

    • Not only that. (Score:5, Funny)

      by AtariAmarok (451306) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:19AM (#11454943)
      "On another note, I wonder how the IE team feels knowing that an intern who had to share an apartment with his mom and have her drive him to work basically outperformed their entire team"

      Studies have shown that a million monkeys, banging on a million typewriters, will produce Microsoft-standards-compliant IE releases on an average of once every 6 minutes.

    • Re:Strange how often it works out that way (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 24 2005, @09:35AM (#11455066)
      I wonder how the IE team feels knowing that an intern who had to share an apartment with his mom and have her drive him to work basically outperformed their entire team.

      I wonder how the mozilla team feels knowing that an intern who had to share an apartment with his mom and have her drive him to work basically took all the credit for their entire communities work.
    • Odd isn't it - how many times a flat broke intern turns our entire industry upside-down?

      How many times is that, exactly? Not to pooh-pooh a good story, but what makes it special is exactly how rarely this really happens.

    • Re:Strange how often it works out that way (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 24 2005, @10:05AM (#11455403)
      Oh please, quit it with the hero worship. He didn't outperform the Internet Explorer team at all. He took the existing Gecko rendering engine and slapped a lightweight shell on the front.

      Firefox development is hardly without its problems or questionable decisions. They switched from a good looking, professional default theme to an ugly, unfinished one because they couldn't be bothered to check up on the licensing issue (the theme creator had no problems with relicensing it to meet the Firefox needs).

      They broke the extension API multiple times while encouraging people to give it to newbies in its pre-1.0 unstable state, even going so far as to put it on the Mozilla front page in favour of the actual Mozilla suite. Newsflash: telling newbies to uninstall extensions, delete directories, etc just to upgrade is not acceptable.

      They made important UI changes in-between the release candidate and the final 1.0 (do they even know the meaning of "release candidate"?) including such usability cock-ups as changing some keyboard shortcuts from positive actions to destructive ones (when I want to open something in a new tab, I don't expect to get my bookmarks deleted!).

      They left a really annoying bug in 1.0 - the Slashdot bug - that affects their "early adopters" that are responsible for recommending this browser to other people. That's a marketing disaster that only seems to have been mitigated by people spreading FUD that it was a bug in Slashdot's code not Firefox's.

      I like Firefox. I use it as my primary browser. But all along, I have been shocked at how many boneheaded, unprofessional decisions have been made by the lead developers. I haven't observed this incompetence in other browser developers (except for Internet Explorer, of course), and it is not a good sign for the future quality of the Firefox browser. The Mozilla suite developers might not have had their priorities in tune with everybody else, but they didn't screw up anywhere near as often as the Firefox decision makers.

    • standing on ye shoulders of giants (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sjf (3790) on Monday January 24 2005, @10:25AM (#11455601)
      "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants." --Newton to Hooke, 5 Feb. 1676;

      'Nuff said really.

  • And not making a brass ra zoo (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ThinkPad760 (794676) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:17AM (#11454930)
    Just think, If every 19 year old did and internship and produced something of this quality by the time they were 19 and still being driven to work by mum and not colecting royalties. Someday, bloody someday.

  • Real or figment of media's imagination? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sanity (1431) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:20AM (#11454956) Homepage Journal
    I often wonder whether Blake Ross' involvement with FireFox is accurate and fair to other people involved, or whether it is a creation of the media in love with the notion that a 19 year old could go up against Microsoft and win.

    Does anyone have a good understanding of the actual role Ross played here and whether the media reports are being fair to other contributors by focussing on him?

    • Re:Real or figment of media's imagination? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ToLu the Happy Furby (63586) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:50AM (#11455214)
      Blake's involvement is definitely being overhyped for the "college kid takes on Bill Gates" aspect, as both he and everyone else at the Mozilla Foundation will be quick to acknowledge. He did play a central role in getting the Firefox project started--but along with Dave Hyatt, who is now a developer for Apple's Safari browser. (Surprised we don't hear as much about Hyatt's role in the story?)

      I think if there's one person who really deserves credit as "the guy behind Firefox," it's Ben Goodger, UI nazi and lead developer from 0.7 onwards. After all, as Firefox is mostly just a UI gloss on the underlying Mozilla code, it's Ben's rigorous adherence to principles of good, clean, simple UI that has made Firefox the breakaway success that the Suite never was.

      But really that just emphasizes how much Firefox depends on the entire Mozilla project, with its thousands of sometime developers and probably a few dozens of real core superstars. That's the real story here, but so far the media has chosen not to cover it.

  • Co-creator? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by northcat (827059) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:25AM (#11454996) Journal
    Co-creator? FireFox is derived from the Mozilla code base, with a few changes. The creators of Mozilla are the real creators of FireFox. It's wrong to give any amount of credit for the creation of FireFox to someone who just added some little features and optimized it a bit. The media just likes to make the "story" more interesting by saying a 19 year old "kid" created something used by millions. I can see a new media sweet-heart in the making. Like Linus Torvalds. Yes, he started a good kernel and gave a major kick to Free Software development, but it seems like the media just loves project as if he created every program we use on a Linux distro today and tends to forget the fact there people/groups of people who have done as much as or even more than him.

  • You know... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by keiferb (267153) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:28AM (#11455015) Homepage
    ...this isn't helping the lives-with-his-mother geek stereotype much.
  • Is this the same kid that they interviewed in that documentary called Code Rush that was on PBS a few years ago?
    • I believe so, I have that tape [amazon.com], created in 2000, which documents the launching of Netscape's browser to the open source world, and they document a 14-yr old kid (from Atlanta I believe) who moves to Silicon Valley to work for Netscape, and his mom drives him to work. I'll have to watch that tape again, but I believe it is him.
  • Wired Magazine prominently features Blake Ross on the cover of their Feb '05 issue for their lead story, "The Firefox Explosion."

    Wired Mag doesn't have the cover online yet [wired.com], meaning I probably got it from a newstand that put it out early (the 34th St PATH Station newstand in NYC, for those interested).

    The issue also features an "interesting" piece: a fake memo from the future...written to one Bill Gates from newly-hired employee Linus Torvalds - concerning Winux, Microsoft's next-generation OS.

    [Apparently, Bill's "pitch" to Linus in this post-apocalyptic future was "come on Linus...infect the Mothership ;^)" ]

    Anyway, I hate to sound like a pitchman for Wired, but it's worth the look.

  • Something new (Score:3, Interesting)

    by qray (805206) on Monday January 24 2005, @10:43AM (#11455821)
    Firefox is nice, but it's yet another browser. That's one thing that shocked me. Netscape brought the browser to the masses but they never really moved passed it.

    For quite sometime people's needs have grown beyond the browser. Java Applet, and ActiveX have been bolted on, but what is needed is a more seamless integration that provides a more traditional application feel.

    It's unfortunately that we're still stuck using a "browser" when what we need is something more dynamic and powerfull.

    Firefox is yet another browser. Definitely better than many of the current crop. But it would be nice to see something truly innovative.

    --
    I forgot my sig line

    • Re:But... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It does in Firefox nightly development builds, and it will in Firefox 1.1, which should be out in a couple of months or so.

      Of course Slashdot could get a code cleanup before then...

    • Re:But... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Malc (1751) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:12AM (#11454884)
      Haven't you been paying attention? Go and Google and you will learn that it was fixed in the mainline long ago, and you will also learn why it wasn't rolled in to FireFox 1.0.

      *sigh*

        • Re:But... (Score:5, Informative)

          by the unbeliever (201915) <chris+slashdot.atlgeek@com> on Monday January 24 2005, @09:33AM (#11455052) Homepage
          because slashdot spits out garbage HTML that doesn't fit even the most lax of validation checks.

          slashdot's html was written back in 1997ish, and hasn't been updated since.

          • Re:But... (Score:4, Interesting)

            by TehHustler (709893) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:44AM (#11455144) Homepage
            Hence it is Slashdot's problem, and not Firefox's. People always say "It's up to the coder to create valid code" - so lets see that rather than whining about a browser that sticks to the standards just fine.

          • Re:But... (Score:3, Informative)

            by CTho9305 (264265)
            It doesn't matter whether the HTML is garbage - it should render the same way every time you load it. However, there is a class of bugs in the gecko engine called "reflow" bugs, which only show up in certain situations, based on the timing of various events during page load, which sometimes cause the page to render differently.

            This *IS* a bug in Mozilla/Firefox, and it *HAS* been fixed for a long time (since before Firefox 1.0 was released) but the fix was not included in FF1.0 because it broke other thin

        • Re:But... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Jugalator (259273) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:43AM (#11455135) Journal
          My question for you is why do the Slashbot continually claim that Firefox is so superior when it won't even render their favorite site correctly?

          Because, even with this flaw, it's better than IE (the browser that's usually compared against)? I mean, Firefox isn't perfect, but IE is even less, from what I've seen.

          If Slashdot doesn't render correctly how the hell can they claim that every site will work "just fine"?

          Point me to a post where it has been said that all sites there is render just fine instead of just claiming something you think you've heard.

          If their favorite site doesn't render correctly under Firefox do you really think that they are going to believe you when you tell them that it is better?

          Depends on what they believe matters more, perfect rendering of Slashdot, or other issues like security problems. Also, Slashdot should render correctly in Firefox 1.1.

        • Re:But... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by bunratty (545641) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:53AM (#11455251)
          My question for you is why do the Slashbot continually claim that Firefox is so superior when it won't even render their favorite site correctly?
          Believe me, Internet Explorer has worse bugs than Firefox does. It's just that nearly every web developer tests their site very thoroughly in Internet Explorer, and most will go to great trouble to work around IE's many bugs. That's why sites look better in IE than in Firefox, even though Firefox is inherently superior. As bugs get fixed in Firefox and as more web developers test their sites in Firefox, this situation will improve.

            • Re:But... (Score:3, Informative)

              by kaladorn (514293)
              Depends what you mean by winning. If the new generation of gecko browsers drive MS into upgrading their security, adding tabbed browsing, and a host of other things that the 'others' now do, then really, the war will be won. Some people think the point is to get rid of M$. The truth is, the point is to get better software out there for everyone. And in that sense, Firefox and the others can make this a reality.

    • Re:But... (Score:5, Informative)

      by almostmanda (774265) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:12AM (#11454890)
      This might be band-aiding the situation, but I haven't had to deal with the /. rendering probs since I downloaded the Slashfix [hardgrok.org] extension.
    • Luckily, other people whore my fix for me these days, but see my sig for a link to Slashfix. And when 1.1 comes out in a few months, this won't be necessary any more as the underlying issue has been patched ages ago.
    • I've had less trouble viewing pages in Firefox than in any other browser I've ever used. Netscape 4.x was a nightmare, Netscape 6 was only slightly better. IE 5 and 6 had their good points, but still had proprietary functions/attributes that made it not universal (and don't even get me started on the security vulnerabilities). Firefox has been, far and wide, the most compatible browser for me, as a programmer and as a web designer.

      At this point, I only test my work in IE because I know some of my users sti
    • am i the only one who has absolutely no fucking clue what you people are bitching about, even though i use firefox every day to read slashdot?

    • Re:But... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Matt Perry (793115) on Monday January 24 2005, @10:04AM (#11455397)
      Slashdot still doesn't render correctly in FF...
      That's because slashdot's HTML still doesn't validate. Even though people have fixed the markup [alistapart.com] it hasn't been incorporated into slashcode, either because no one has submitted patches or no one in charge cares. I'm surprised that the slashdot people haven't gone ahead and incorporated the changes themselves since it seems it would 1) help their street cred to have a site so focused on standards and computing to actually follow standards and 2) help them save bandwidth to use stylesheets more and get rid of the junk markup like font tags.

    • Re:Uhh...wow? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MindStalker (22827) <jlarsen@@@fsu...edu> on Monday January 24 2005, @09:22AM (#11454970) Journal
      And completly rewrite the XUL that makes the frontend experience.
      • Last I checked there is more than just him working on FF. He may have created the fork (and kudos to him) but that's a far cry from the co-author of the entire suite.

        First off, it's LARGELY based off the gecko engine [e.g. Mozilla]. Second, there are other FF active developers.

        This would be like me forking GCC then when 100 developers get a cool release out of my fork I take credit for it.

        Tom
        • This would be like me forking GCC then when 100 developers get a cool release out of my fork I take credit for it.

          No, it would be like you forking GCC then, when 100 developers get a cool release out of your fork, the media writes simplistic articles giving you credit for it. :P

          Blake Ross readily admits that he gets too much credit from the media. Read his comments on this blog post [mozillazine.org] if you want to see his take.

    • Re:Uhh...wow? (Score:5, Funny)

      by dapyx (665882) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:37AM (#11455088) Homepage
      No, no. That should be: 1) Download Mozilla code and modify it a bit
      2) Change the name
      3) Change the name
      4) Change the name
      5) ???
      6) Profit!!!

    • Re:Uhh...wow? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by finkployd (12902) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:39AM (#11455100) Homepage
      How much of a geek genius does it take to do this

      Slightly more than it takes to whine about it.

      Finkployd
    • From your sig:

      You may disagree with me, but you have to acknowledge the existance of my highly educated opinion

      Hard to acknowledge your highly educated opinion when you spell "existence" wrong...

    • Exact quote: (Score:4, Funny)

      by AtariAmarok (451306) on Monday January 24 2005, @09:25AM (#11454990)
      "I'll bet Al Gore will claim it's his sun!"

      Here is what he did say: "During my years on the stellar construction advisory board, I was involved in a lot of initiatives. Not only did I create the sun, I created the moon and planets and a pair of really swell comets."

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