The UI seems pretty important to me, but obviously that's a matter of taste. Not everyone likes tabbed browsing. Correct operation of websites that fail with the extant browser. Direct availability of plugins and addons. One example: scrapbook, a superb research tool. Another example Google Gears (according to a recent mail being ported, presumably because the browser is not standard). I am not familiar with the Firefox codebase, and perhaps all these things are directly available so long as the Firefox 3 engine is there, but if so, there desperately needs to be a detailed body of documentation telling how to access these capabilities. <br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:56 PM, Bobby Powers <<a href="mailto:bobbypowers@gmail.com">bobbypowers@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
2008/7/7 Carol Lerche <<a href="mailto:cafl@msbit.com">cafl@msbit.com</a>>:<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d">> Client certs can be used for authentication with no changes to a Firefox<br>
> browser or an Apache server. GTK based as well as web based software to<br>
> create certs also already exists. What sort of patch are you looking for?<br>
> I could certainly provide a page running in an apache server to validate a<br>
> request for and implant a client cert in a Firefox browser. The issue of<br>
> certificate creation needs a little more discussion, not because it is<br>
> difficult or requires a lot of new software to execute, but because it is<br>
> important to be clear about the requirements. When you describe the<br>
> overhead, do you mean the overhead of creating the certs? Examining them<br>
> when someone first logs on?<br>
><br>
> I raised this alternative because you said that a bespoke browser was a<br>
> requirement to have automatic authentication with the school server. To me,<br>
> the benefits of running a standard browser are so substantial that this<br>
> trade off should be considered.<br>
<br>
</div>Can you explain these benefits? Both Gecko and WebKit are standard<br>
browser engines. I don't see much to be gained from a UI perspective<br>
(which presumably is what you're taking about?) by switching to FF3.<br>
Performance is the only compelling reason I see.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Bobby<br>
</font><div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
> On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Martin Langhoff <<a href="mailto:martin.langhoff@gmail.com">martin.langhoff@gmail.com</a>><br>
> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Carol Lerche <<a href="mailto:cafl@msbit.com">cafl@msbit.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>> > Why does automatic authentication require a custom browser? Client<br>
>> > certificates work well for this function in ordinary web applications<br>
>> > (assuming a properly configured server).<br>
>><br>
>> I haven't delved into this deeply yet, but I suspect that, while I am<br>
>> fond of client certs, they won't work - SSL network and CPU overhead<br>
>> and sidestepping PKI madness for server certs. More on this when I get<br>
>> to implement it.<br>
>><br>
>> Now, anyone who wants to have a strong say on how I am developing this<br>
>> is free to start implementing it ahead of me, and showing me some<br>
>> fantastic patches :-)<br>
>><br>
>> cheers,<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> m<br>
>> --<br>
>> <a href="mailto:martin.langhoff@gmail.com">martin.langhoff@gmail.com</a><br>
>> <a href="mailto:martin@laptop.org">martin@laptop.org</a> -- School Server Architect<br>
>> - ask interesting questions<br>
>> - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first<br>
>> - <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff</a><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the<br>
> roof and gets stuck -- George Carlin<br>
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><br>
><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck -- George Carlin