Btw, I appreciate all the comments on Mozpad and I’m hoping for more! I’ll write a followup when I get back from holiday.

Thank you.

And PS. I love AllPeers. I just need it to work in my browser again.

I may be one of those potential “dark matter” people you talk about. I don’t have software yet though, but I have a few ideas to use XULRunner as the foundation. I feel I lack of tools or knowledge to utilize XULRunner. Sure XULplanet.com exists, and developer.mozilla.org, but I still feel like the resources and tools needed are unavailable or scattered throughout the web. Is XULRunner a runtime like Flash, or is it more the core files for building software that renders web-based content like a browser or mail app (ie Firefox, Thunderbird)?

Prism seems to be great software in it’s own regard, just like Miro, Songbird, or Joost (just to name a few). But it’s all built around XULRunner, am I right? So where does this software go without advancements in XULRunner?

So, do I go ahead with the current state of XULRunner like those before me like Songbird, Joost, Miro, etc. Or sit and stay quiet and wait for Mozilla, Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Google, or the next company to release something that will suit my ideas?

Both of these use it to embed a browser, but their applications is also apparently built in the technology (or at least its pervasive in the GUI). Maybe this is where Mozilla shines: Hybrids. Incidentally, this is also sort-of what Prism is targeted at and, at least, see some sense in giving developers what they want, building the platform that way, ironing out the kinks in a way. If this kind of hybrid takes off, both the browser and other apps benefit.

If that is the reasoning, it would seem a smart strategy to me.

Prism may be a clone of AIR, a mini-XULrunner that doesn’t really run XUL in a destop UI sense, but it’s really important to have an open version of AIR available. Prism is still more web than desktop (by a long way) but it’s at least open and means XULrunner is being utilised more.

Weave confused me initially but in the end it looks like a brilliant idea if executed well. It seems like OpenID, a Bookmarks Synchronizer and much more, all hosted by an relatively non-profit, open and ethical org in MoFoCo.

The vision of the MoFoCo leadership might not extend to the cross-platform desktop application platform they could have with a better XULrunner, but they do still have vision when it comes anything web-related.

Mozilla is not short of a dollar. The lack of commitment from them is the key. Someone needs to fund a few full time positions just like someone funds them for every other open source product. It is a myth that open source works with volunteer labor only.

All the xulrunner/prism stuff means is that apps that *want* to be desktop apps on the mozilla platform, can’t be. Well they can, if they trade off download size/memory usage and the other disadvantages, like working out how the platform works and maintaining the xulrunner capabilities of it.

So maybe Mozilla is focussing on web apps instead of the platform? Perhaps they should have told Thunderbird, SeaMonkey & Sunbird that they all need to be rewritten to be web apps. Oh, SeaMonkey can’t do that.

I’m really starting to think that the Mozilla platform for desktop applications is dead (or if not, dying). For instance whilst we promote open source, the talk of not being able to have binary components means that companies can’t produce bolt-ons/applications which can’t have their source read/fiddled with. Not acceptable for some applications. If I was a company looking for a new platform for my application, I wouldn’t touch Mozilla at the moment because a) I don’t know where exactly they are going (and it seems very hard to work out even a minimum set of things that are going to occur for Moz 2, and even then they may get cut if no-one works on them), b) I’m not confident of Mozilla supporting the platform side of things without me doing all the work to do it.

Maybe then Mozpad has highlighted that there aren’t many apps built on xulrunner, and it isn’t worth carrying on if the core support isn’t really there. I was never sure Mozpad was really what was needed, I think its more a commitment from Mozilla to provide support (and dev) is really what’s needed. Otherwise users, developers and companies aren’t going to commit to using something that hasn’t got a commitment from its supplier.