The Day After

by Jamie Zawinski

November 24, 1998

My main point in writing the above was to point out to people that the Mozilla project is bigger than Netscape, and the destinies of the two are no longer inextricably tied together. To illustrate this, I talked about worst-case scenarios, in an attempt to show that they really weren't as bad as some people might expect them to be.

In case I wasn't clear enough, I didn't really expect this to be a worst-case scenario. And thankfully, today, we have some statements from Netscape and AOL executives to back that up!

• In Mozilla Stomps Ahead Under AOL, from Wired News, you can read the following:

   

  Netscape will continue to support its quirky open-source browser development program after the sale of the company to AOL, a Netscape executive said this morning. ... Netcenter chief Mike Homer said that the company would continue the program, and that the volunteer Mozilla team has already contributed changes to the Netscape's core Communicator browser. ... ``We are committed to maintaining continuity at Netscape'', [AOL's] Case said. ``Netscape will remain in separate headquarters, operating in Mountain View, California.'' ``Of course, we will continue to develop and promote Netscape's browser -- especially in context of [the Netcenter] portal,'' Case added.

  (But who are you calling ``quirky?'')

   

• In Mozilla.org: We Are Not Netscape, from Wired News, this page is quoted, along with more from Mike Homer:

   

  When Netscape's Homer was asked for further comment, he said that while he had not read Zawinski's remarks, he agreed with his characterization of Mozilla's mission. ``Mozilla is larger than Netscape, and that was its intention,'' Homer said. ``[Mozilla] is essentially a collaborative project that was sponsored by a commercial entity.'' ``The people that staff Mozilla.org are Netscape employees,'' he added. ``The code that was contributed was code previously owned by Netscape. However, it's also true that that code base will take on life of its own someday.''

  (Um, ``someday?'' I guess we need to show Mike some more recent demos!)

   

• In AOL to keep Netscape browser wrapped, from C/NET, we see some speculation about AOL and MSIE, but also this important detail:

   

  Communicator's development and distribution efforts are likely to remain relatively unchanged, according to executives. AOL will continue to promote the Netscape browser through Netscape's Netcenter portal site. Netscape's mozilla.org organization -- responsible for shepherding the worldwide community development effort of Communicator's open source code -- will continue operating as it does today, the executives added.

   

• And finally, in Thanks, Mozilla, also from Wired News, you can read a nice, nostalgic look back at Mozilla's roots.

Copyight 1998