Live data from Hacker News

Mozilla Chromeless 0.2

mozillalabs.com

11–20 of 72 posts

Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2

#11
post #4

Am I the only one who thought this was some attack on Chrome? Whenever I hear talk about browser chrome I always think that Google's name choice was a little confusing. Probably best in the end, though, since it's a catchy name.

Google seems to be making a habit of that... Closure and Noop are two other examples that come to mind.

Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2

#12

How is this different from xulrunner? In reading the description it sounds like a way to make a webapp behave like a desktop app but it's a little unclear.

Chromeless 'apps' or whatever are written in 'HTML5', which developers can be assumed to already know, rather than XUL/XBL which they can't.

Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2

#14
post #4

Am I the only one who thought this was some attack on Chrome? Whenever I hear talk about browser chrome I always think that Google's name choice was a little confusing. Probably best in the end, though, since it's a catchy name.

I remember rummaging through Mozilla projects source code and seen this name there quite a long time ago.

Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2

#15
post #13
post #7

Looks like the decision to stop development of Mozilla Prism was not a bad one. "appify" looks very interesting.

Why was Prism stopped? Does anyone know?

You can read the announcement here: https://mozillalabs.com/blog/2011/02/prism-is-now-chromeless...

Basically: Both can solve the same problem, but Chromeless is more powerful.

Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2

#16
post #4

Am I the only one who thought this was some attack on Chrome? Whenever I hear talk about browser chrome I always think that Google's name choice was a little confusing. Probably best in the end, though, since it's a catchy name.

Google seems to be making a habit of that... Closure and Noop are two other examples that come to mind.

Dont' forget "Go"

Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2

#17

I can't tell if this is an alternative to something like QtWebKit. There doesn't seem to be any emphases on native code integration.

> There doesn't seem to be any emphases on native code integration.

Mozilla's actively opposed to any form of JS/native code integration, undoubtedly because that would dilute the effective proprietary control over the Web platform that it shares with a small group of fellow browser vendors. (And maybe because it would wound the personal vanity of its senior developers.) It's already briefing friendly journalists against Google NaCl http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/25/mozilla_on_jaegermon... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/18/google_releases_firs... , using comically disingenuous arguments: oh, it's just too bad that NaCl hasn't been blessed by the web standards process that we ourselves control! Opera is behaving similarly: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/01/opera_on_google_nati... .

Of course, it's another thing to extend this attitude to the desktop, where developers have plenty of alternatives to drinking the JS kool-aid. But presumably Mozilla is hoping that the accelerated-Javascript/"contemporary HTML" juggernaut will be powerful enough to sweep a good number of desktop developers along anyhow. Next Big Language and all that, after all.

Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2

#18
post #4

Am I the only one who thought this was some attack on Chrome? Whenever I hear talk about browser chrome I always think that Google's name choice was a little confusing. Probably best in the end, though, since it's a catchy name.

Google seems to be making a habit of that... Closure and Noop are two other examples that come to mind.

I don't think Google is intentionally taking already-used names. There are only so many good project names.

Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2

#19
post #6
post #3

So is this like PhoneGap for desktops? it was about time

Actually, check out Adobe Air (for ajax developers). Basically it's webkit as a desktop app and pretty mature. I've used it in the past, but I think Mozilla has a big opportunity here as Adobe has pretty much abandoned the web desktop aspect of AIR to focus on flash/flex for mobile. Also, Adobe removes some of the best parts of webkit like web workers and I recently found a giant performance bug in their javascript e…

Appcelerator Titanium is another option in this category, and is focused on building applications using JS/web standards.

Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2

#20
post #4

Am I the only one who thought this was some attack on Chrome? Whenever I hear talk about browser chrome I always think that Google's name choice was a little confusing. Probably best in the end, though, since it's a catchy name.

Yeah, I was annoyed with Google when they announced Chrome because I thought it would cause some confusing collisions for the technical crowd down the road. I really would have liked to see them choose a different name for their browser. The interface and trappings of the browser has long been called "chrome" by Mozilla, so if you see chrome given in a non-proper-noun context then it probably refers to that, not Google's competing browser.
Post reply on HN