Amizilla: donating, discussion, etc...

[legion]

How much do you think is a fair amount to donate?  I fully plan on using my A1 rig as my day to day computing, and mozilla would be a BIG step in that direction.   Wasn't it DaveP that was working on a port some time ago?  Also, how difficult is it going to be to port the java functionality over to OS4?   :hammer:  Also, I think it would be easier and more realistic to port just the Firebird browser codebase over instead of the whole thing, not?

Also, does it need to be called Amizilla  :-?  I know the naming convention is sort of tradition, but c'mon.. where is our creativity?

Here is my suggestion:  We name it "Raptor."  After all, its going to be running on a small, fast, sleek OS   :-D

[Tomas]

yes. firebird/phoenix is cool... using it right now under linux... Very quick browser..  :-D

[Pyromania]

All great ideas legion, you can donate any amount you want. To be a Amiga Top Zilla you would have to chip in more than what the three Top Zilla's have @ the time. Thanks for your interest in the project.

Best regards

Bill P.

[Rodney]

Yes, to port firebird is a good idea. But i think we should wait untill, mozilla has steped up to the plate, in terms of its next big release. Mozilla as seen by most people is just a browser. Some people think its a little more, a mail client and composer. However Mozilla is much more than allt his. Its a platform. A platform for creating platform independent web friendly applications. If/When Mozilla is ported to AmigaOS we'll be able to run many more applications taht have been written for Mozilla. Firebird is just one of them. Soon, thunder bird (a standalone mail client based on mozilla) will be avaliable. Its pre .1 atm. However, Mozilla is still young, and most peoply prolly dont have a clue how much power this platform has. There for, i think porting should wait untill the next stage of mozillas future is firmly in place. This way we can take advantage of mozillas power and not just port a browser, but port a platform independed development environment. That way apps like Thunder bird will hardly even need a recompile. Most apps wont at all once you have the fondation down.

Thats also why i dont think the money should go towards other projects like iBrowse or Voyger... The money should only be for Mozilla (because i believe it gives us more than just a browser).

[Pyromania]

What you say makes a lot of sense Rodney.

[AmiDelf]

heh.. linux.. bah

Well, they should team up with Ibrowse 2.3 developers. Thats a nice browser and for sure, its the fastest one!

Regards,
Michal

[neongod]

Voyager which has flash plugin is still buggy. Aweb and Ibrowse has no real plugin interface, so flash, java etc cannot be easliy attached.
I think the firebird would be a good choice to port, because It's much smaller than mozilla's original browser and it's developed for speed and to be cross-platform.
By the way. we need only a good browser! We have the best email client: Yam, the best IRC: amirc, so why do we need these mozilla components?

As I know there are a working java environment on AmigaOS, its only need to be attached to mozilla. And of course we need a flash plugin, and I would be very happy

It would attract more people to use AmigaOS. Of course we need other cool free applications ported (like Openoffice), but let's start with Mozilla

[Rodney]

neongod wrote:
I think the firebird would be a good choice to port, because It's much smaller than mozilla's original browser and it's developed for speed and to be cross-platform.

Damn right Anyway, MozillaFirebird will be packaged with Mozilla with releases > 1.4. That is MozillaFirebird will be Mozillas defualt browser... Thunderbird will also be packaged with  Mozilla > 1.4.

[bluefunk]

Hi,

doesn't the GUI of mozilla rely on a cross-plattform gui environment, I forgott the name.

Maybe someone should port this first, maybe as a ClassAction-wrapper...

[alx]

Do you mean XUL?

[bluefunk]

alx wrote:
Do you mean XUL?

Yes I think. could be cool to design user interfaces for coustom programs with some xul commands...

Or does the gecko engine render the gui as well?

[carls]

DaveP says he's got it "kind of working" with ReAction but that noone was willing to continue the project. How about putting that source code on the page for download? This would probably be a good start!

However, being the sceptic that I am, I don't think that a working and stable Mozilla port will ever become reality, at least not in a couple of years. I don't want to disrespect anyones efforts here, but just take a look at the AWeb Open Source project, nothing much has happened there (except that we finally have a free web browser on AmigaOS, which is good).

First of all, I think a 68k port would be useless. Mozilla is dog slow on a PII 333MHz/256MB RAM both on Windows and on Linux. A PPC port would be the way to go, which clearly narrows down the number of developers able to participate in the project. Then we have the issue of operating systems. A port for OS3.9 doesn't seem very clever with OS4 lurking around the corner. But when WILL OS4 be out? And when will there be developer documentation? Will the hardware to run OS4 be available for everyone (IE a cheap A1)?

Should it be ported to OS4/A1 or MorphOS/Pegasos? How compatible will these systems be? This will further narrow down the number of developers, probably splitting the dev team in half because of what platform they prefer (not taking a stand to which platform is "better" here, just that you have to make a choice on which version to work on).

But if I'm wrong, noone would be happier than me!

Edit: One more thing - I don't think money is an object here. At several occasions I have been asked to make web sites for friends and colleagues on my spare time. These projects would probably amount to no more than a week of work (or three weekends if you will) and I've been offered about $1000 for each project. However, I have NEVER accepted such a project just because I don't want to work on my spare time (coding on my own self-thought-up projects doesn't qualify as work). Since there's money involved here, the programmers will feel obliged (sp?) to produce something since every donor will want to see results, which would make it less of a hobby and more of a part-time job.

[Rodney]

First of all, I think a 68k port would be useless. Mozilla is dog slow on a PII 333MHz/256MB RAM both on Windows and on Linux.

Ahhh, i used phoenix .5 on a P2 233 with 64M of ram. Its quite fast. The full mozilla build was a little slower, but a lot of the UI issue relating too speed and/or responsivness has been worked out. You'd know that if you ever used the M17->M18's or before that...

Maybe thats what your thinking about? Have you used Firebird yet? Do it its fantastic! I cant wait for Thunderbird, and i wounder what OEOne (mozilla based desktop) will do with the mozilla code when we hit 1.4+

very interesting.

Thats another thing. By porting Mozilla one coudl create a very interesting workbench replacement. Now that would be damn cool .

[cycloid]

let's just get the basic tables and text layout part working first before we start embarking on a workbench replacement project shall we!?

[carls]

@Rodney
Yes, I've used Phoenix and I know it's faster. Still, I believe it's too slow for the 68k family and probably even for 603/604 CPUs. But that is beside my main point, which is that the porting of Gecko+GUI+possible extras is a MAJOR undertaking and even a working beta is probably years away.