Live data from Hacker News

New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

identity.mozilla.com

161–170 of 188 posts

Re: New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

#161

I implemented persona for ASP.Net MVC3 and it was hands down the easiest login system I've ever built in my career. From a developer standpoint it's very intuitive, the documentation is great, and I loved it so much I open sourced my implementation. https://github.com/sergiotapia/ASP.Net-MVC3-Persona-Demo Please give this a shot! I would only like them to keep more information on hand, like a first name, or an avatar…

Wow, that's a lot of code! A simple as anything go example: https://gist.github.com/minikomi/4563344

Re: New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

#162

I implemented persona for ASP.Net MVC3 and it was hands down the easiest login system I've ever built in my career. From a developer standpoint it's very intuitive, the documentation is great, and I loved it so much I open sourced my implementation. https://github.com/sergiotapia/ASP.Net-MVC3-Persona-Demo Please give this a shot! I would only like them to keep more information on hand, like a first name, or an avatar…

Wow, that's a lot of code! A simple as anything go example: https://gist.github.com/minikomi/4563344

It's pretty much the same code strewn about a single file. I wouldn't say it's much fewer lines of code.

Re: New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

#163

I have to say that I'm really loving Mozilla/Mozilla Research these days. Their heart is in the right place, and their research projects like Asm.js, Persona, Rust, and Firefox OS are very cool. They are what Google was in 2005.

Rust is perhaps the only thing that you listed with any real promise. It is bringing in some good ideas from other programming languages, and it does appear to be a language that may eventually offer some practical value.

Asm.js is, at best, a very ugly hack. Instead of going in the right direction and eliminating JavaScript in favor of a proper embedded runtime or virtual machine, it's just promoting further use of bad (even if widespread) technologies.

Firefox OS doesn't appear to be anything but a me-too catch-up effort. Nothing suggests it can truly compete with iOS or Android, never mind the numerous other mobile OSes out there that are available on far more devices and actually have at least some users.

Persona is perhaps a good-hearted effort, but it's pretty clear that it isn't catching on. There are already too many other authentication systems out there, and many of them have far more traction.

The community as a whole would likely get much better value if Mozilla focused on the software that many people actually use on a daily basis, like Firefox and Thunderbird, rather than these side projects that don't really offer much at all.

Re: New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

#164

I have to say that I'm really loving Mozilla/Mozilla Research these days. Their heart is in the right place, and their research projects like Asm.js, Persona, Rust, and Firefox OS are very cool. They are what Google was in 2005.

Rust is perhaps the only thing that you listed with any real promise. It is bringing in some good ideas from other programming languages, and it does appear to be a language that may eventually offer some practical value. Asm.js is, at best, a very ugly hack. Instead of going in the right direction and eliminating JavaScript in favor of a proper embedded runtime or virtual machine, it's just promoting further use of…

> Persona is perhaps a good-hearted effort, but it's pretty clear that it isn't catching on.

This is news to the Persona team.

Re: New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's a lot of code! A simple as anything go example: https://gist.github.com/minikomi/4563344

It's pretty much the same code strewn about a single file. I wouldn't say it's much fewer lines of code.

Fair enough! I'm ignorant as to how ASP.Net works, so it looked like a lot of scaffolding.

Re: New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

#166

I have to say that I'm really loving Mozilla/Mozilla Research these days. Their heart is in the right place, and their research projects like Asm.js, Persona, Rust, and Firefox OS are very cool. They are what Google was in 2005.

Join us! http://careers.mozilla.org/en-US/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/ http://whatcanidoformozilla.org/

Re: New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

#167
post #52
post #45

I haven't been keeping up to date with Persona, but doesn't this open a window for email account breaching? I can picture some malicious websites mocking the "Sign in with persona" process and gaining the email AND associated password for that account without much trouble. Unless I've misunderstood Persona's point and the password is different from the user's email password.

Our team has thought a lot about this. There are a bunch of angles to answer this from. Short answer (assuming native browser, native webmail provider): The malicious website would have to fake browser chrome and fake the user's webmail login flow. Long answers: Search through the mailing list and get involved! https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/mozilla.d...

What if I just want to collect emails and passwords, and with a free cert and a funky domain harvest (email, password)'s? I thought the whole point was to be password less?

Second, I wanted to play a crossword puzzle. I click login and am greeted with a popup window, I put in my email, then it asks for a password (ok whatever). So now I have to go to my email, and it says that I click the link and can go play the puzzle, but then it takes me to some persona account manager thing. I go back to my email, click the link again, this time with an error an no puzzle :(

Whats new here? That you guys plan is to just store logins for people? Do you share my email with the webapp I wanted to use? Seriously, whats new here?

Re: New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rust is perhaps the only thing that you listed with any real promise. It is bringing in some good ideas from other programming languages, and it does appear to be a language that may eventually offer some practical value. Asm.js is, at best, a very ugly hack. Instead of going in the right direction and eliminating JavaScript in favor of a proper embedded runtime or virtual machine, it's just promoting further use of…

> Persona is perhaps a good-hearted effort, but it's pretty clear that it isn't catching on. This is news to the Persona team.

That's unfortunate to hear. I would have hoped that you'd be more aware of its actual level of adoption.

Taking an objective look at the situation, as somebody who isn't tied to the project, I just don't see it being used. While so many web sites and applications allow authentication using Google, Facebook, Twitter and even some other more obscure providers, I never see Persona listed as an option.

The adopters listed in the article are minor, at best. Given that the BrowserID initiative has been public for almost two years now, it's not a very impressive list.

It's easy to write blog articles claiming that "hundreds of millions of Web users are now ready to log in with just a few clicks", but we just don't seem to be seeing that actually happening in practice.

Re: New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Persona is perhaps a good-hearted effort, but it's pretty clear that it isn't catching on. This is news to the Persona team.

That's unfortunate to hear. I would have hoped that you'd be more aware of its actual level of adoption. Taking an objective look at the situation, as somebody who isn't tied to the project, I just don't see it being used. While so many web sites and applications allow authentication using Google, Facebook, Twitter and even some other more obscure providers, I never see Persona listed as an option. The adopters liste…

I contest that GNU Mailman, the Eclipse Foundation, Firebase, the Born This Way Foundation, and Discourse are hardly "minor, at best." Not to mention extensive dogfooding within Mozilla itself.

Less flippantly, these things take time. While the initiative has been public for some time, it's only been in beta for roughly 6 months. It would be irresponsible for many organizations to jump on board this early, and taking that as a sign of failure is disingenuous.

Re: New Persona Beta: Millions of Users Ready to Log In using Any Browser

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that lead to the problem of having to have multiple identities again? ATM, I have a FB account that I can use to log in to some sites, a Twitter account, a Google account, a Yahoo account, etc. With potentially everyone being able to be an Identity Provider, what happens if a site recognizes some providers, but not others? Does Persona ensure that, regardless of Provider, I can use one login on all sites? Fur…

Persona is the protocol that the sites use to communicate with the identity provider. If they support Persona they will support Persona authentication from any email provider that chooses to support Persona and from the fallback provider that Mozilla provides.

Well, since they get the email address, they can easily check that it ends in @gmail and stop everyone else. Of course, only supporting gmail means they have to write _more code_ than supporting every provider, so lets hope lazyness wins.
Post reply on HN