World Firefox Day

kbrosnan writes "Are you a fan of Firefox? Want to spread the word to a friend who hasn't heard of it yet? If you can convince just one person to switch to Firefox before September 15th, you'll both be immortalized in Firefox 2.0's source code."

Alternative to the promotion

If you want to be known for all eternity as someone who did not spam your friends and family, post here and be immortalized on Slashdot and the will-someday-be-omniscient Google Cache.

Re:Alternative to the promotion

My question is, what if you've already got 10-20 people to switch?

Jaysyn

Re:Alternative to the promotion

I just wonder what would happen if my name was

*/ do_virus();

Alternative Method

How about fixing some bugs, or shrinking that memory footprint. Then you can be immortalized in the code *and* you don't have to be a nuisance to your friends.

Re:Alternative Method

> Hell yea. My idea of celebrating worldfirefox day is getting the HUGE memory leak squashed.

It's not a leak it it's intentional - it's simply huge memory usage.

now this...

...is a good idea, it gets people like us who like firefox, and would secretly like to have their names in the code, to go out and really try to get other prople to use Firefox in a way that costs nothing for them (well, almost nothing). So everyone wins... I'm going to do it now.

not a person, but a company.

Add Microsoft. They make people switch to firefox.

self-fulfilling prophesy?

So, we all know that as the user-base increases in size and diversifies, the code tends towards bloat, but really, do you have to make it a 1:1 ratio??

Re:self-fulfilling prophesy?

I assume that all the names would be inserted into the code as comments, meaning the names won't be compiled into the binary. I'm not a cvs master or anything but I assume you can exclude the directory that contains the names when you update your source locally.

Wow, an explanation I've been waiting for so long.

you'll both be immortalized in Firefox 2.0's source code

This finally explains the recent bloat in Firefox. :-)

Re:Wow, an explanation I've been waiting for so lo

How is that insightful?

Funny perhaps, but not insightful.

The names will be commented out, therefore will not be complied in any binary that sees the light of day.

And what a fitting tribute

Because we know how many people will read through that to find your name... one... you! Anyhow, I think I'll refer tons of people just to get a really large font mention in the source, maybe I can get every other line even. Of course, I'd prefer to have all the variables named after me, carmen electra, and awesome. Awesome = me * carmen electra. That would be sweet!

Kids

Amongst some of the names allready registered,

1) Harry Sachs
2) Hugh G Rection
3) Ivana Tinkle

What's the point?

What's the point? I'll probably just be commented out.

Re:What's the point?

From the FAQ: How will our names be included in Firefox 2? If both you and your friend opt-in to have your names included, we'll add your names to an interactive Firefox friends display that will be accessible from within Firefox 2.

Re:What's the point?

I'm starting to be afraid that PR is crushing what dare I say, used to be, a geek browser.

Firefox 2.0 gives us, what:

- Builtin spellchecking. Woohoo! I don't want that in Firefox. There is already an extension to do just exactly what this feature does. If someone wants spellchecking, go install the extension. - Firefox friends. I don't want this much evangelisation. I will most likely never look at the thousands of names listed. Why would I? I want a technological masterpiece not a PR one.

This PR push makes my approval towards FF dwindle, what do you think an average people would say? "Geez, it's just a friggin browser...". Separate PR from the browser. That is why spreadfirefox.com, NY time ads and stuff like that aren't totally useless, but as soon as you touch the maximalist geek perfection idea of mine how a browser should be like, you lose the rubber stamp of geek approval.

I want a secure, fast, technically elegant, standards supporting browser with a flexible extension system. That's it. Stop the bloat. Stop the PR. I don't even need extra special tabbing, just some basic one, if it doesn't suck ram like a madman.

I know feature creep is tempting. It gives you a nice feeling that you've implemented something, etc. BUT IT LEADS TO BLOAT. I think inevitably the Netscape -> Mozilla -> Firefox cycle will start again soon. "Hey, let's create a new fast , slim browser and let's call it firebird!" What an innovative idea...

Testtify!

"I want a secure, fast, technically elegant, standards supporting browser with a flexible extension system."

Stand up, load and proud with the rest of your .0005% market segment and say:
"I'm statistically irrelevant! Listen to meeeeeeeeeeeee!"

I can't help...

...all the people that I know have already switched to Firefox. The people that refused to switch, I now pretend not to know.

Waste of bandwidth

Lets say I download firefox 2 source to compile on my linux boxen. I am also forced to download kilobytes (megabytes?) of useless information embedded in comments. What is the point in this? I would like a dollar amount for what this campaign is costing in bandwidth and man hours. Would this be funds donated to the Mozilla Foundation in order for them to improve their browser? This wastage annoys me.

Furthermore we now run the risk of "that fox-fire thing" being associated with unwanted, unsolicited email advertising.

One step forward, two steps back.

Re:Waste of bandwidth

Text can be easily compressed by 80-90% by bzip2. Suppose that there are 100.000 names in the code, and the average length of a name is 15 characters. Counting newlines and comment prefixes (in the form of " * [name here]"), the space taken will be 100000 * (15 + 4) = 1900000 bytes, or 1855 KB. If the file is compressed by 85% then it'll become 278 KB. In comparison, the current Firefox 2.0b1 source tar.bz2 is 32 MB. 278 KB is about 0.8% of that. Hardly significant comparing that you as a Slashdotter probably has a broadband connection.

There are many things to worry about but worrying about wasting bandwidth on names is just rediculous.

Besides, marketing is important! You as a geek may not realize it, but crappy products can be more popular than your oh-so-mighty technically correct ones if the former is marketed better than the latter. While you're screaming on forums about the technical superiority of product B, everybody else is using the 'inferior' product A and couldn't care less what you moan about.

Ok so...

This is just bragging rights... right? I guess at the very least you convince someone to switch to Firefox. I mean... so they put umptybillion names into Firefox Code, that would be accessible from Firefox 2 [worldfirefoxday.com]? Isn't that unecessary (and frivolous) bloat? Unless they plan on having you access it online - which means I guess you won't be able to view it offline... hmm...

And how do they verify that my "friend" has Firefox? I can just send off an invitation to some fake email I create and then accept it. Or send it someone that I know already uses firefox and wants their name on the list too... Seems like there's no real way to verify it.

Then what happens when Firefox 3.0 comes along? Hmm? Do the names get carried over?

I'll go try it anyways...

Do we need to encourage evangelism?

Firefox has reached sufficient popularity and code maturity that it doesn't need to encourage evangelism. Sure, I use Firefox and I'd recommend it to most Explorer users, and I've already converted those close to me. However, I'm not going to go on a Firefox Crusade as that would stink of zealotry and probably hurt the cause. As other posters have said, Mozilla should put their efforts into bug fixes and usability issues. Yes, I know this isn't a zero-sum game, but we'd all be more likely to recommend Firefox if they could clear up the excessive memory usage 'feature' and the odd keyboard scrolling problem [blogspot.com] that took me ages to figure out.

One thing that makes me uncomfortable...

One thing that makes me uncomfortable is being asked to proselytize. If someone wants FF, great. but it is not my job to convince them. I learned a meditation technique and was turned off when the class teachers asked to get my friends to do it. World FF day makes me feel the same way. People can make their own decisions.

NO Mention of source code

There's no mention at all on the world Firefox day website that the names will be listed in the source. From what I can see this'll just be a link to a site that lists the names (probably accessible from the 'about' box). So there'll be no bloat to the source, not even as a comment.

Firefox does a good job marketing...

I gotta hand it to the Firefox team though... They do a good job marketing Firefox. In this day and age, it no longer is enough to have a superior product or have a better mousetrap especially if the competion has the desktop monopolized... every opportunity to spread the word helps.