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. <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: <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>>: <div class="Ih2E3d">> Client certs can be used for authentication with no changes to a Firefox > browser or an Apache server.  GTK based as well as web based software to > create certs also already exists.   What sort of patch are you looking for? > I could certainly provide a page running in an apache server to validate a > request for and implant a client cert in a Firefox browser.   The issue of > certificate creation needs a little more discussion, not because it is > difficult or requires a lot of new software to execute, but because it is > important to be clear about the requirements.  When you describe the > overhead, do you mean the overhead of creating the certs?  Examining them > when someone first logs on? > > I raised this alternative because you said that a bespoke browser was a > requirement to have automatic authentication with the school server.  To me, > the benefits of running a standard browser are so substantial that this > trade off should be considered. </div>Can you explain these benefits?  Both Gecko and WebKit are standard browser engines.  I don't see much to be gained from a UI perspective (which presumably is what you're taking about?) by switching to FF3. Performance is the only compelling reason I see. Bobby <div class="Ih2E3d"> > On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Martin Langhoff <<a href="mailto:martin.langhoff@gmail.com">martin.langhoff@gmail.com</a>> > wrote: >> >> On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Carol Lerche <<a href="mailto:cafl@msbit.com">cafl@msbit.com</a>> wrote: >> > Why does automatic authentication require a custom browser?  Client >> > certificates work well for this function in ordinary web applications >> > (assuming a properly configured server). >> >> I haven't delved into this deeply yet, but I suspect that, while I am >> fond of client certs, they won't work - SSL network and CPU overhead >> and sidestepping PKI madness for server certs. More on this when I get >> to implement it. >> >> Now, anyone who wants to have a strong say on how I am developing this >> is free to start implementing it ahead of me, and showing me some >> fantastic patches :-) >> >> cheers, >> >> >> >> m >> -- >>  <a href="mailto:martin.langhoff@gmail.com">martin.langhoff@gmail.com</a> >>  <a href="mailto:martin@laptop.org">martin@laptop.org</a> -- School Server Architect >>  - ask interesting questions >>  - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first >>  - <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff</a> > > > > -- > Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the > roof and gets stuck -- George Carlin </div><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">> _______________________________________________ > Devel mailing list > <a href="mailto:Devel@lists.laptop.org">Devel@lists.laptop.org</a> > <a href="http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel" target="_blank">http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel</a> > > </div></div></blockquote></div> -- Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck -- George Carlin