Building Firefox Experience

Building Firefox was not a tough task, especially when followed through with the "MDC - Build Documentation". Thats what i followed for building my version of Firefox browser.

Some simple tasks that i performed to actually make it work were:

1. Downloaded and installed the Mozilla Build Package 1.1
2. Created a '.mozconfig' file in your home directory.
3. Edit the file according to your browser preferences, what i did was:

mk_add_options MOZ_CO_PROJECT=browser
mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/obj-@CONFIG_GUESS@
ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --disable-debug
ac_add_options --disable-mailnews
ac_add_options --enable-composer
ac_add_options –enable-application=browser
ac_add_options --disable-calendar

4.Checked out Mozilla source code with following commands:

cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs-mirror.mozilla.org:/cvsroot co mozilla/client.mk
cd mozilla
make -f client.mk checkout MOZ_CO_PROJECT=browser

This downloaded all the source code from the Mozilla CVS server, and compiled it to make the browser. It also compile sources in mozilla/dist.

5. Once that was done, i was ready to build the browser and then i inserted the following command into my terminal and timed my build.

time make -f client.mk build

6. Took about 1 and half hour to build it but it was finally done and now i only had to locate the object "obj-i686-pc-mingw32" and then run the Firefox located in your directory, (something like : mozilla/obj-i686-pc-linux-gnu/dist/bin).

7. Voila, your Firefox browser is built !

Thoughts on OS Revolution Article

When I started watching this documentary, I wasn’t quite sure what it was all about, I just knew it had to be done for the Open Source class but once I loaded the URL into the browser and clicked the play button, I was actually hooked into the video. It started off very nicely with giving us an idea of what Linux is all about and how it stands out from Microsoft and how the Communist revolution finally hit the software development and internet world and what impact did it had on the computer user’s lives. It is very informative for people that are getting started with Linux as in OS and want to learn more about Open Source development.

It was a very well constructed documentary and the bit about Eric Raymond telling one of the Microsoft's Vice President about how he is the their worst nightmare was quite amusing and very true at the same time. Interesting part is that Linux has been growing ever since it hit the computer market and people’s conscious. The video reported that there exist 12 million Linux users at the time but now that number has grown up to 29 million users. That is a huge progressive leap for Linux in last couple of years. All in all, it would have been nice to see more information about different distributors of Linux and where they were heading and what happened to most of them.

Thoughts on "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" article

The article called "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" was an interesting read; it was quite unique to read the author’s thoughts on both the type of open source development styles, namely "Cathedral Model" and the "Bazaar Model". Personally, the Cathedral model is definitely a more traditional model in software development domain and it is still implemented and practiced on a very large scale whereas the bazaar model is more of a new model that is being implemented ever since the creation and existence of open source.

If you compare both the models, both have their relative weaknesses and strengths. But being a programmer myself, I think the ideology and practices behind the bazaar model tends to work a little better rather than the Cathedral model. The reason behind which is that when testing is carried out on the released software; it is done through the users or the co-contributors perspectives rather than the programmer. So you get this different viewpoint on bugs and problems discoveries. Also, a lot of times in the Cathedral model, the programmers spend tremendous amount of time in testing and yet when the software is released, it is still compiled with lots of nasty bugs that tend to discourage the set programmers and also takes away the motivation behind testing per-se. This sort of discouragement is eliminated in the Bazaar model.

Programmers are also bothered by the question of whether or not their software will work for other people! Well the answer to which most often lies with their software users. The most successful software is that which not only respond to user needs, but actively seek it out and that can be accomplished through the Bazaar model of open source development style. Not to mention that bazaar model is cheaper when it comes to development cost and when done effectively, it can save months of development and testing effort and hundreds of dollars if you are paying your programmers.

Back To School

A week has already passed by since the school started and i guess i am enjoying it so far. The open source class seems like an interesting and unique course with great opportunities to accomplish something for open source community and show your support for them. I selected three of my favorite choices for projects i want to work on. Let's see how things roll by.