“In Part II of our Mozilla series, we look at that Mozilla face
which is the multiplatform application programming framework upon
which Mozilla-based software such as the Mozilla 1.0 and Netscape
6.0 browser suites are built. These cross-platform browser suites
demonstrate the scope and power of the underlying Mozilla
applications programming framework.”
“When you see a Mozilla-based application such as the Mozilla
web browser (or its Netscape 6 sibling) on your monitor screen, you
are not exactly looking at an application or program. Rather what
you see is an interactive web page generated by Mozilla and its
Gecko layout engine. … Web page is an oversimplification. The
Mozilla web browser face and a web page are similar in that the
Mozilla Gecko engine lays both out in the same way.
Mozilla-the-browser is a combination of text, images, widgets and
so forth laid out by Gecko to form an interactive user interface.
That interactive user interface is quite similar to a web page,
something we will call a “web-like page” here.”
“To better understand what the Mozilla applications framework
is, and the implications of it within the Linux community, you have
to peel back the little, yet powerful, fellow’s skin carefully to
see what’s under all that reptile leather. When you do that, you
will find among other things that Mozilla-the-framework is
compiled for several platforms (multiplatform) including Linux, Mac
OS and Windows. More importantly, software built to run on the
Mozilla applications programming framework or stage is pretty much
OS independent and, therefore, cross-platform. That’s because
software built to run on top of the Mozilla framework deals with
the Mozilla framework, not the underlying OS.”