Is this good for the company?

There have been some recent concerns about blogs being removed from, due to a lack of Mozilla-related content. Top men are working the issue, and I’m sure they’ll come up with a plan that’s fair, while keeping things more or less relevant.

In other news, here’s a video of a dog. In a Hawaiian shirt. (At Mozilla.)


Password Manager changes

Last week there were quite a few meetings being held to refine the Firefox 3 product requirements. One area of particular interest to me, identity and password management, is firming up nicely. There are a lot of interesting features people have been asking for, and the Password Manager will need some significant changes to support them.

I’ve already been working on the first phase of updating Password Manager. The code is being reworked to be more modular and cleaner — as well as being converted from C++ to Javascript. Although this creates a framework for new features, the end goal for this first phase is simply parity with the existing implementation.

Once that’s done, it should be easy to bolt on some new backends for password storage. For example, integration with the OS X Keychain, and moving Mozilla’s own storage from a text file (signons.txt) to MozStorage. Also, extension developers would now be able to deliver their own backends without hacking on Password Manager.

As for other new features, it depends on how the product requirements shape up to see how things are prioritized. A quick summary of items currently under consideration:

* UI improvements to password management, entry, and use.
* Investigate what the browser’s role might be in an OpenID or CardSpace system.
* Improving the security of password-based authentication

And, of course, fixing some of the existing password manager bugs!