DevX: Longhorn and Mozilla: Birds of a Feather

“Software technology goes forward in fits and starts. Bigger
advances can cause plenty of information indigestion for
technologists. At each leap, a new understanding gap opens up. Such
a gap takes learning effort to close. Windows Longhorn is a big
advancement for Microsoft, and the understanding gap created is
proportionally large. Take heart, there’s little that’s truly new
under the sun. A look at Mozilla technology shows that this road is
already laid out. Don’t believe me? Read on.

“Mozilla is the technology behind the Netscape Navigator 6.x and
7.x Web browser. Although Microsoft beat Netscape to a pulp in the
‘browser wars,’ the Mozilla technology underneath didn’t quite die.
Instead, it mutated into an application platform. Mozilla
applications such as the Mozilla browser are built on top of this
new Mozilla Platform. The browser application is not important for
this discussion, but what lies underneath it is.

“This platform is a fairly generic group of technologies
implemented as a single executable and a set of dynamic link
libraries. You can use the executable as a starting point for a
wide range of software applications. For example, you can easily
create a set of interpreted files that display a window just like
any Visual Basic, Java or Tcl/Tk program. Sometimes the resemblance
is perfect. Companies are already building on and using the Mozilla
platform for commercial applications—some of which run
outside the Mozilla browser itself. Examples are tools such as
ActiveState’s Komodo IDE, Pearson Education’s Longman
dictionary-on-CD software, and Crocodile Clips’ e-learning
tools…”

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