Ten Years of Mozilla

"Ten years ago, Netscape announced it would release to the public the code of its flag ship product, Netscape Communicator 5, making it an open source product. The action came at a time when Netscape was still the dominant web browser: 65 million users and 90% market share in the educational segment according to Netscape's own accounts. But Microsoft's Internet Explorer was grabbing share at a furious pace thanks to it being free (at a time Netscape was about$30) and specially the fact that it came bundled with Windows 95 and upcoming Windows 98 (released on June 1998).

"With a sliding market share, Netscape decided to focus on its enterprise oriented products and gave away the browser but most importantly allow volunteers to work on the product..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• DesktopLinux: Firefox Exceeds 100 million Downloads in One Year(Oct 20, 2005)
• CNET News: Unearthing the Origins of Firefox(Oct 13, 2004)
• eWeek: Mozilla Thrives in Comeback(Jul 27, 2004)
• internetnews.com: Mozilla Growing, Moving Up(Jul 17, 2004)