For example, with the sample http-inspect interactor I can inspect the internal state of XULRunner applications running on my coworkers’ machines. Like with all programmable tools the rest is up to your creativity.

Clearly this sentence only makes sense in the context of watching someone actually using Internet Explorer. In which case you are implicitly offering Firefox as an alternative to Internet Explorer. Try bringing Firefox up in a conversation away from a computer without either you or your conversation partner mentioning IE. I think you’ll find that it’s practically impossible.

I assumed there was no need to spell the obvious. I was wrong…

It’s also dishonest. The Gimp is an alternative for Photoshop. Open Office is an alternative for MS Office. Linux is an alternative for Unix (and later Windows and Mac OS). They were conceived as free/better (yes, I know free is better but I meant “with more features/stability”) alternatives to the established product and to pretend otherwise is to ignore the reason they were created.

Gimp is also built on GTK. Linux was also initially meant for x86 architecture only. We don’t mention those facts when advocating either. There are many facts we ignore when advocating a product because they’re irrelevant to the communication. To most users, why Firefox was created is as relevant as what language XPCOM components are written in.

The picture you provide is an accurate picture of the state of things. You shouldn’t be trying to sell Firefox on the basis of “Everybody else is using it” because that is not true.

I’m not. Instead, I’m moving what other people think and do out the picture.

Rather, you should say “Firefox is better and you should use it even if no one else does”.

Ouch. That brings other people back into the picture and suddenly your listener no longer trusts his own perceptions about the product. I suggest a review of some basic principles.

For non-service components, to me, it worked only under placing the Component.prototype={…} into the definition of Factory!

glad you found it helpful. By compiling the IDL and placing the xpt under components/, you make the component’s interface available, but you still need the component’s implementation. That’s what MyComponent.js provides; place that along with MyComponent.xpt under components/.

You can also do this through D-Bus if you’re using Pidgin (or gaim): http://technomancy.us/83/

#xmlElement{name = greeting,
            expanded_name = greeting,
            nsinfo = [],
            namespace = #xmlNamespace{default = [],nodes = []},
            parents = [],
            pos = 1,
            attributes = [],
            content = [#xmlText{parents = [{greeting,1}],
                                pos = 1,
                                language = [],
                                value = "Hello!",
                                type = text}],
            language = [],
            xmlbase = "/tmp",
            elementdef = undeclared}