AOL has unceremoniously dumped Netscape and its accompanying open source browser suite, Mozilla. Netscape (the commercial version of the Mozilla suite) is dead, Mozilla still has a future; an independent non-profit organisation called the Mozilla Foundation has been setup with support from Sun, IBM and AOL (so AOL haven’t completely cut off Mozilla then).
The announcement concerning the formation of the Mozilla Foundation lists some of the contributions that have been made to help keep Mozilla running, AOL for instance has pledged $2 million to the Mozilla Foundation, spaced over the next two years, as well as equipment and domain names to help launch the new venture.
Death of Netscape, Rebirth of Mozilla?
Mozilla is now under the auspices of the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organisation. What does this mean? Interested companies can donate money essentially for free; the sums donated can be offset against their taxes. In this way the cost of supporting Mozilla will not be a significant burden to the corporate supporters listed previously. Mozilla is no longer tied to doing things the “Netscape” way, the monolithic applications that have blighted Netscape and Mozilla can now be done away with as Firebird and Thunderbird begin to take hold.
My first impressions are that this could be a good move for Mozilla in the long term. The crucial element is that the transition goes smoothly. There are encouraging signs already such as the very nicely redesigned front page of mozilla.org which gives much more emphasis to the products, is cleaner looking and really showcases the mozilla software products well. I hope that the momentum people put into the project during this transitional period will continue and take the browser from strength to strength in the future.