Scoop’s Views

Firefox 2.0.0.6 has been released, and in the release notes, it says that Firefox does not play nice with Windows Vista when it comes to honoring parental controls. Because of that issue, the release should have been held until that issue was fixed.

If Mozilla wants to be a serious contender, which it says it wants to be — yet really isn’t gaining much ground in the browser world — it really needs to focus on quality, standards, and on working properly, in full, on all platforms for which it is released. Some issues may be deemed “minor,” but when it comes to parental control issues in a browser, that is something that should be viewed as “critical,” and before a broken version of the browser is ever released, it should be fixed.

Too often people do not upgrade software, especially browsers, on a regular basis. For this very reason, among many other, Firefox 2.0.0.6 should not have been released. Mozilla Foundation dropped the ball this time in a major way.

For all the Microsoft bashing that Firefox supports do, this is one issue they ought be yelling about, as well. Instead of bashing Microsoft, however, this time it is the open-source product they wish to champion.

What’s the big issue about parental controls? Well, let’s see … who uses parental controls, and why? Parents use the so-called parental controls to keep their children, and sometimes, spouses, from viewing specific sites or content on the Internet. Keeping children, as much as possible, from being exposed to pornography, as well as racist content, is a big issue for many parents.

Yes, there are other issues in this release of Firefox, but since I just upgraded the browser on my Windows Vista Ultimate-running computer.

On the positive side, though, it is noted by Mozilla that Microsoft released a Windows Media Player (WMP) plugin since Windows Media Player doesn’t come with Windows Vista. Instead, the operating system has its own entertainment center built in. For Firefox users, though, when sites make a reference calling for WMP, Firefox will report that it is as Unknown plugin (application/x-mplayer2), as reported at Mozillazine.org.

To help Firefox 1.5+ and Seamonkey 1.0+ users, Microsoft released the Windows Media Player Firefox Plugin for Vista users wanting to run Firefox or Seamonkey.  Installing the plugin is simple: download the installer file, close Firefox or Seamonkey, run the installer file, and re-launch Firefox. Voila. Things will run as expected.

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Technorati tags: computer platforms, critical issues, minor issues, released software, Mozilla, Mozilla Foundation, Firefox, Seamonkey, browsers, browser war, Internet browsers, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, parental controls, porn, pornography, pr0n, children, spouses, Windows Media Player, WMP, unknown plugin, mplayer2, installation, installer file, installation package, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista, Windows XP, browser options, racism, racists, content, exposure, open-source, open-source product, open-source software, FOSS, free and open source software, bugs