Year 2005 review

Year 2005 has been a successful and challenging year for SillyDog701, we continue to grow. I would like to thank all our moderators, members, and users. It is my pleasure to work with and enjoy the time with you during this past year.

A quick review about Year 2005:
Netscape 8 was finally released, and SillyDog701's Netscape Browser Archive had a new easier-to-use layout. We also celebrated six years of Netscape Browser Archive. We’ve been around for quite a while, and we are still one of the best Netscape resource sites around.

SillyDog701 was cybersquatted by our good friend Mr Jay Garcia. The great news was that SillyDog701 was not only virtually unaffected by Mr Garcia's attack, but the traffic continued to grow. Later, SillyDog701 was threatened and accused by Mr Ronnie Williams II.

What else has happened?
In mid January, Mac mini and iWork'05 released.
During late April, Power Mac G5 dual 2.7GHz released, Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" released.
July 2005, 500 million songs downloaded from iTunes Music Store
iTunes Music Store Japan opened on 4th August, and sold one million songs in 4 days.
In September, iTunes 5 released with podcast support. iPod nano released. iTunes phone released (Motorola ROKR)
On 13th October, new iMac G5 with built-in iSight turns a computer into a truly home entertainment centre. iTunes 6 released with video support, TV shows available from iTunes. New iPod with video support.
on 20th October, Apple announced Aperture, a graphic tool for professionals. Power Mac G5 Quad announced.
on 25th October, iTunes Music Aussie Store opens

As for browsers?
Netscape 8 released on 19th May,
Mozilla.org announced "Transition Plan" to discontinue official development of Mozilla Application Suite in March, and "SeaMonkey" was chosen for the name for community driven Suite.
Google Toolbar available for Firefox,
In September, Firefox 1.5 Beta released, Thunderbird 1.5 Beta released, Opera 8.5 released without advertisements, Camino 1.0 Alpha 1 releasd.
In the following month, SpreadFirefox.com was hacked and Firefox reaches 100 millionth download.
Firefox 1.5 was released on 29th November 2005.

As for SillyDog701 community.
SillyDog701 celebrated six years of Netscape Browser Archive.
DJGM.co.uk Toolbar 1.0 final was released.
Don's HardwareHacks 2000 has it's own domain, and it's continue to grow.
Donzilla 0.9 released
Pu7o put up his customised Firefox - Firescape.
Beanboy89 also started his own customisation, a K-Meleon 0.9 combining with recent Gecko 1.7.12 engine.

We launched MozInfo701 last year, a Mozilla resource and information centre for rest of us. We expanded it with our very unique Switch Guide, a real step-by-step on telling users to switch to Gecko based browsers.

Netscape Browser Archive is still our main focus. However, we've increased our coverage on other Gecko based browsers such as Firefox and Mozilla. The discussions of August release of Netscape 7.2 and the upcoming Netscape Browser to be based on Firefox (Netscape Prototype) both indicated SillyDog701's role in the Netscape Community. SillyDog701 is proud to have such honour to serve all Netscape users. We will continue to work hard on this.

We don't self-claim we are the number 1 independent support site or the oldest peer supporting site around. We strive to provide the best technical support possible, and the friendliest community we can. In this year's traffic report, we have a huge increase compared to 2003. Not surprisingly, we don't need to ban 150+ IPs to achieve this. In fact, we don't ban anyone from viewing our content.

I would like to thank all SillyDog701 members for your support over the past year. You've done a good job with helping SillyDog701 improve. I would also like to thank SillyDog701 Moderators, MozInfo701 editors, and, especially, the Switch Champion Team: without your help, SillyDog701 won't have today's achievement.

SillyDog701 has come very far in the past year. Once again, I'd like to thank everyone that made this possible. SillyDog701 strives to provide all our members the best technical support and the friendliest community we can. We always listen to your opinions, if you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate on telling us know. You can also help us financially by simply buying legal music through our iTunes links, we would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great New Year.

Antony Shen.
SillyDog701