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Comment by Timmy_C | Hacker News Reader

This article argues that apps are the only future for browsers and by virtue of the fact that Firefox doesn't have a dedicated "app ecosystem" it will be extinct.

I don't follow the reasoning since I don't really see why I have to use Internet Explorer to use a Microsoft web app just as I don't have to use Chrome in order to get my Gmail.

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Actually this was the only part of the article that makes sense. Both Chrome and IE have APIs that add special features not part of the general html spec. For example, Chrome apps can run in the background even when a tab is not open. Firefox can't do that. IE apps can integrate with Windows 7 and be pinned directly to the taskbar and have access to jump list commands. Firefox can't do that.

Now I don't think that's enough to hurt Mozilla in any significant way, and these types of features will probably be standardized down the line, but it is true that these other 2 browsers have some special capabilities.

The Chrome apps he's talking about get downloaded to your machine then run in the browser as if they were a webpage on the net. I'm guessing that Internet Explorer 9 has a similar feature but Firefox doesn't have anything like this on the roadmap.

I would say if it doesn't make any sense, or is making some kind of broad logic leap like this, then it is probably MS purchased FUD.

It is incredible how consistently throughout the years ZD Net has been a mouthpiece for MS FUD.

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