Netscape out, Mozilla in!

and maybe a browser war looming in our horizon?

Netscape, which in recent years has been virtually a branded version of the Mozilla open source browser, will soon pass into the archives of history. The interesting twist is that Netscape, an AOL company, also owned Mozilla.

Up until now, that is. With the creation of the Mozilla Foundation in July 2003, Mozilla has acquired independence, well, kind of. The Mozilla Foundation is funded by a Mozilla.org partner with support from other technology development firms and a little leg-up from AOL in the form of a small pledge of USD 2million over the next two years. Long live Mozilla!

The handwriting on the wall says that a new browser war is about to be declared. Wired magazine reports,

" . . . the move signals an effort by the developer of the open-source Mozilla Web browser to compete more directly with Microsoft's IE -- which currently controls nearly 96 percent of the market, according to Web analytics firm OneStat.com.

"People say there's no innovation in the browser space," said Mozilla Foundation president Mitchell Baker, "but that's only if you're using IE. We want people to know that there's a better product out there."

AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein states, "We will continue to support the [Netscape] browser and the portal." But macobserver notes, "It has been learned through public and private sources that AOL has cut or will cut the remaining team working on Mozilla in a mass firing and are dismantling what was left of Netscape (they've even pulled the logos off the buildings). Some will remain working on Mozilla during the transition, and will move to other jobs within AOL."

Outside of the development community, it's little known that Mozilla was the open source release of Netscape Communicator and that its development ever since has been [largely] funded by AOL funds and Netscape manpower.

On April 16, 1998, Tom Paquin, Netscape fellow managing mozilla.org, announced,

"Since Netscape made its Communicator 5.0 source code available through mozilla.org two weeks ago, we have received an overwhelmingly positive and welcoming response from developers around the world."

A [fair] number of Netscape employees continued to be assigned to Mozilla development. How many? Noone knows for sure but Mozillaquest took a stab at guestimating.

Excerpt from Mozilla Foundation press release
On July 15th, 2003, Mozilla.org announced the establishment of the Mozilla Foundation, which "will continue and expand on the efforts of mozilla.org, the group managing the daily operations of the Mozilla project since its inception." The Mozilla Foundation acknowledges a pledge from AOL of USD2 million during the next two years and the provision of "some transitional assistance for key personnel as they move into the new organization."

Excerpt from Internet News article on Netscape/Mozilla reorganization
" . . . Mozilla.org Tuesday officially separated from its one-time browser parent Netscape Communications by moving its operations under the roof of new non-profit group The Mozilla Foundation . . . Netscape has laid off about 50 members of its Netscape browser teams, but said some employees have been re-hired by the new foundation."

List of Netscape's trademarks [look for Mozilla]