Switching to Firefox, switching to Schwartz (and falling pieces)

In today's IT Blogwatch, we look at being paid to swap browsers and the new Sun CEO. Not to mention time flies, tetris style ...

Would you rather fight or switch? What if you're paid to switch? Computerworld's Jerri Ledford asks, "did you know that Google will pay people who use its Google Toolbar to refer other people to Firefox. They do. $1 per referral ... according to this CW article ... someone has taken the offer (and the browser war) to the next level ... How effective will this drive ... be? ... Rumor has it that word-of-mouth marketing ... is one of the most powerful marketing techniques ... I'm curious about how effective this whole push to use Firefox will be ... I only finally switched because I was working on a project that required it. Then I never switched back."

» Jordan's take on this: "First off, has Mozilla really gotten so desperate that they have to pay people to promote their browser?! If Firefox was really so much better than IE, wouldn't even more people ... be using it? Now, Firefox is FAR superior to IE6. IE6 is a basic-computer-user's worst nightmare. It is filled with holes and is extremly insecure. However, the new IE7 one-ups Firefox. I've been using the beta program for a few months now and I am not going back to Firefox."

» Sean at Tech in a Can: "Everyone knows that ever since Firefox came out there has been a movement for everyone to ditch Firefox ... no one took it as seriously as these guys ... three different levels at which you can combat Internet explorer ... Gentle Encouragement ... Semi-Serious ... Dead Serious ... Through this site I also saw this great Internet Explorer parody site called Kill Bill's Browser which has some of the funniest reasons to switch to Firefox on the net ... You now have the power of these sites and so many more so now it's up to you to finally take down that unsecure and outdated beast of a browser."

Earlier this week we looked at Sun's former CEO; now we look at the new guy. Starting with Blackfriars report: "Today's New York Times profiles Jonathan Schwartz, who took over the reins of Sun Microsystems as CEO from Scott McNealy this week ... I think that the article misses out on another marketing story: Jonathan is reshaping Sun's executive brand ... known for headline-grabbing sound bites, serious hockey playing, and fierce competitiveness ... he can: Communicate. Jonathan's blog has a personal voice and a strong point of view ... Unlike McNealy, Schwartz wasn't there at the big bang that created Sun ... if he finds strategies or behaviors that don't work for him, he can ditch them without any loss of credibility ... A few years ago, Papadopoulos coordinated research on self-organizing 'Internets of things', which led to Sun focusing on RFID, sensor networks, and a host of other leading edge applications ... Sun has the only currently shipping eight-core processor, something that Intel won't have available until 2007 ... a new CEO who's not afraid to be embrace being different ... if that happens, expect to see CEO pony tails become as much of a trademark as Steve Jobs' black turtlenecks."

» Tecosystems Sogrady does a Q&A: "Q: Why do you think now is the time for him to step down? A: Well, Shankland quotes McNealy as saying, 'The only responsible thing is to let the new guy get all the triumph and glory,' implying that a turn around is just around the corner ... Q: Do you have any suggestions for Jonathan in his new role? A: Two, actually. First, patch things up with Eclipse ... second, it's already been delivered: there are some island hopping opportunties out there. Now's the time to go after them, before someone else does. If you're game, James has already picked your team."

» Stephen Walli gives a broader picture: "I've been interviewed several times in the past couple of days for my opinions on Sun's changing of the guard from McNealy to Schwartz (CNet article) ... Jonathan Schwartz has been running point on executive announcements from Sun on open source participation and initiatives for some time now, so I wouldn't expect his support for such initiatives to change as he takes the helm ... Linux has certainly caused Sun no end of grief over the past 5-6 years as customers moved from Big Iron UNIX systems ... while Linux was the competition, Sun didn't think open source software was the competition ... The creation of the OpenSolaris community is the right answer as the company moves forward ... highly successful by all accounts (March newsletter, Redmonk analysis). It doesn't compete with the Linux community, and was never intended to be that sort of play ... Sun has the opportunity to reinvent itself around the new hardware line ... That's not to say there aren't big challenges ahead and some of them will no doubt be painful. But really, it's all good news."

Buffer overflow:

• Dratz: Why Oracle Works the Way it Does - Datafiles and Tablespaces
• Rebecca Herold: Laptop Security: Incidents Listing and Recommendations
• Tom Olzak: Mount a Rootkit Defense
• Paul Browne: The 2nd most useful Java-Oracle Tool for 2006
• Mike Barton: Phishers take to VOIP
• Tom Yager: Who is Sun's new CEO?
• Alan Calder: The 14 Infosec Basics
• Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: Could open source anti-malware help Windows?
• Tom Raftery: China blocks Technorati
• Techcrunch: Microsoft Spins off Wallop Project
• Jeff Boles: HP RISS? ILM and paving a way to future storage ...
• Alex Scoble: 1TB on a CD? Holographic storage coming soon
• C.J. Kelly: When the bad guy is the boss
• C.J. Kelly: Civil disobedience
• Robert L. Mitchell: Internet pay for play won't work
• Jerri Ledford: Technology is not equal to business intelligence
• Computerworld TechCast: Value Added Networks
• Martin MC Brown: Good IT works even when it is bad news
• Robert L. Mitchell: Why Cigna wants to pay your doctor for you
• Martin McKeay: We all live in glass houses
• Shark Tank: Race condition II

And finally... Time flies, tetris style ...

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk. Also contributing to today's post: Judi Dey, our very own Antipodean.