Firefox Search In Ubuntu 10.04 Changed To Google 224
kai_hiwatari writes "Sometime back Canonical decided to change the default search in Firefox that comes Ubuntu 10.04 to Yahoo! from Google. In a surprising turn-around, Canonical have decided to a ditch Yahoo! for Google. Rick Spencer from Canonical announced that Google will now be the default Firefox search in Ubuntu 10.04, not Yahoo! as was previously decided."
Re:Good for them (Score:1, Informative)
Click on the first link in TFA, read approximately 1.5 lines of text and you have your answer.
Re:Unfortunately (Score:5, Informative)
Fortunately one Canonical employee is prepared to share what they know with us: from TFA:
Rick Spencer, who announced the change back to Google, said that Canonical have decided to change back to Google after deciding that Google Search will be more familiar to a lot of users upgrading to Ubuntu 10.04...
Of course, you may choose not to believe that. But Canonical are providing an explanation.
Re:Good for them (Score:4, Informative)
It doesn't cost you anything to elaborate:
"Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, revealed today that it has established a revenue sharing agreement with Yahoo. As part of the deal, the Firefox Web browser that is shipped in Ubuntu will be configured to use Yahoo as the default search engine . . . "
Re:Unfortunately (Score:3, Informative)
The window buttons on the top left is nothing new...
AmigaOS had the close button on the top left, as has MacOS (and still does)..
Windows 3.1 also had the the menu (providing the close option) in the top left...
Unix window managers like SGI 4DWm were similar... I have a feeling CDE did the same too.
Ubuntu also offer an easy way to change back to the old behavior, something microsoft never offered when they changed the interface radically for windows 95..
Re:Unfortunately (Score:3, Informative)
I have a theory I posted in that legendary bug report, I'll just paste it down here:
I think Mark first rationale for the change was actually right and
overriding. He needs to clear the right corner to put something there
and he needs to do it 6 months in advance.
I can already sort of guess what it will be. Forget Esfera, it will be
some sort of live facebook chat/twitter feed/location broadcaster/ad
displayer, possibly.
The functionality is there, the calendar panel applet can stay open on
top of the windows already. And it really wouldn't work any other way,
the bottom corners are used by applications with either controls or the
status bar, and the top left side has the menus and the most used
toolbar buttons as well as the gnome menu bar.
So the best option if you want to put an always on top applet is to move
everything to the left, buttons AND title, to make room for it. It is in
fact such an obvious move that it makes sense to piss off almost
everybody to pull it off.
BUT
If I'm right, this is bad news already. Good functionality doesn't need
a preemptive strike 6 months ahead of time just to "soften" the targets,
bad functionality does.
It could be something so bad that people* will complain about it by
itself, let alone the title bar scramble, so Mark is attempting to
separate the criticisms, reordering the title bar now so that the future
complains would be limited to the new gimmick alone.
And of course there is the psychological trick of asking for a lot of
money before asking for less money as to make the second request seem
more reasonable.
So Mark was sincere the first time all along, he needs to make room for
functionality that's so compelling, it has to be introduced gradually.
* When I say people I mean the bleeding-edge, open to change,
ubuntu-loyal beta testing community that didn't like this change.
Re:It probably doesn't matter (Score:4, Informative)
https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/2109 [mozilla.org]
FEBE makes this a quick backup and restore process. It will back up just about everything for you.
Useful for portable versions of firefox as well.
Re:Give us a choice! Let us pick! (Score:5, Informative)
Why? No, seriously, why?
Canonical is a for-profit business that builds a seriously kick-ass distro of Linux, and they put a lot of work into doing so, and they give it to you for free. They even let other smart people use their hard work to build derivatives like Mint.
If they can make a few sheckles from setting the default search engine in their distro, when anyone with opposable thumbs and an IQ over 50 can click on the search engine logo and choose another one, why should they be going to the trouble of programming a random-order list?
If they took away the choice list, or blocked all search engines but their "preferred" one, OK, I could see an objection. If choosing a new search engine was as hard as downloading and installing a browser, I could see an objection. But this is literally a two-mouseclick choice. Other than the "in random order" part, Ubuntu already provides exactly what you propose.
Re:Unfortunately (Score:3, Informative)
The window button movement has been justified as a mouse movement reducer - when the clickable elements of the menu bar are on the left and the window buttons are on the right, you have to move the mouse further to go from one to the other. Personally, I barely ever touch my mouse so it doesn't really concern me either way, but I can respect that decision as a genuine attempt to reduce the user's wasted interface time.
Re:Good for them (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Give us a choice! Let us pick! (Score:3, Informative)
The first time Firefox is started up, it should display several popular search engines in a random order, and then let the user select the one to use as a default.
It's very much like the approach that Microsoft has been forced to use in Europe, to allow the user to select the default web browser (rather than just defaulting to IE).
Seriously Ballmer, wtf? If you go aaaaall the way up to the search bar and type on the little triangle arrow thingie next to the Google search box you get a drop down menu with several other engines. There, I have magnanimously given you what evil Mozilla corporation had wrongly denied you all this years. No, don't thank me, its a comunity service.