competition

In May, every major browser--Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera--gained market share against Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which dropped nearly 1 percentage point, according to data from Net Applications. No other browser, however, has taken as big a share as Mozilla's Firefox browser, which now claims 22.51 percent of the global browser market, and tops 48 percent in Europe.

The secret to Mozilla Firefox's success? Money, according to Chairman Mitchell Baker at last week's D7: All Things Digital Conference. Or, rather, the way Mozilla makes it, as the conference report suggests:

Mozilla can't be successful with a … Read more

Correction at 6:35 a.m. PDT: This article was initially written on the assumption that the study was new. It was actually published in 2005.

For those waiting for a grand cataclysmic battle between Gog (Linux) and Magog (Windows), with one supreme victor, don't hold your breath.

I was reading through a 2005 study by Harvard Business School professors Pankaj Ghemawat and Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, and was surprised by how little has changed in the past four years, despite Linux and Windows duking it out in ever-increasing intensity.

Since that study was released, Linux has continued to swipe at … Read more

OStatic reports that the latest build of Google's Chrome browser outpaces Firefox 3 beta 4, with up to 30 percent faster performance than its Chrome predecessor, but this report overlooks a speedier Firefox alternative (Firefox 3 beta 5 is zippier), but it also misses arguably the biggest advantage Firefox has over every other browser:

A massive, growing, deeply involved add-on community, one that is only going to get stronger with the release of Jetpack.

Google has talked about getting Firefox-like extensions for Chrome but it, like Microsoft's Internet Explore and Apple's Safari, woefully underdeliver on community.

Before … Read more

A group of MIT graduates has shown that life after college can be rewarding.

Ksplice, a start-up venture run by a team of MIT alumni, has taken home the $100,000 grand prize in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. The award was handed on at a ceremony held Wednesday night at MIT's campus in Cambridge, Mass.

Ksplice beat out five other technology start-ups in its category to win the competition with its own innovative product. The company's technology lets computer users install software updates while other programs are running, eliminating the need for the dreaded reboot.

"You … Read more

The Web browser market has been undergoing tectonic shifts for the past six years, with Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) dropping 10 percentage points in market share every two years while Mozilla's Firefox gains 10 percentage points every two years. These trends are called out by Mozilla's Asa Dotzler, and they suggest that as early as January 2013 we could see Firefox surpass IE in market share if the trend continues:

A larger version of the chart can be found here.

Firefox's growth raises all sorts of questions about how proprietary software vendors can and should compete … Read more

Enterprise software is coming down to four big choices: Cisco Systems or IBM or Oracle or Microsoft.

Hewlett-Packard? HP is doing very well in hardware, but it lacks the overarching software strategy that fuels these other four.

Even as the industry consolidates into these big ecosystem vendors, it's becoming ripe for a new kind of hegemonic, all-out war.

It's a fun time to be in the industry. For one thing, it's fascinating to watch (and, in some cases, assist) each of the Big Four to use open source as a strategic club with which to pummel their … Read more

Microsoft must really love open source and want to see it succeed. Recently, Microsoft's open-source team lead, Sam Ramji, urged open-source vendors not to compete with Microsoft on price, but instead focus on "value."

While I'm sure Ramji meant well, I'm equally certain that Microsoft would like nothing more than to not be reminded of how expensive its products can be compared with open-source solutions. After all, Microsoft was the company that turned the software industry on its head by introducing lower-cost solutions years ago to undermine the Unix businesses of IBM and Hewlett-Packard, and … Read more

This week, more than 500 robots and 10,000 students from around the country who have participated in regional competitions will head to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta for the FIRST National Robotics Championship.

Below is a panoramic photo from the auditorium where the FIRST Robotics Sacramento Regional competition was held. On the left, you can see student teams preparing to play this year's game, called Lunacy, as they make modifications and repairs to their designs in the mechanics' pit. Across the gymnasium and to the right sits the game floor, where their robots will attempt to score points … Read more

Mozilla's Firefox 3 is now Europe's dominant Web browser with 35.05 percent market share, beating out Internet Explorer 7's 34.54 percent share, according to data released by StatCounter and reported by Reuters.

Is this a sign of good things to come for open source? Or is it an indication that we're rapidly nearing an industry-wide duopoly: Microsoft and open source, with everything and everyone else an afterthought?

We still have a ways to go before open-source competitors in ERP, CRM, ECM, middleware, databases, operating systems, and other product segments attain Firefox's dominant share, … Read more