Linked by Rahul on Thu 20th Nov 2008 03:17 UTC
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Mozilla are a charity, not a business.
Mozilla Corporation is a 100+ employee, $67 million per year *business* which reinvests an unspecified portion of its profits back into Mozilla Foundation. Nominally a subsidiary of Mozilla Foundation, it is essentially a bubble within the Foundation which can be as corporate and profit-seeking as it likes, loop-holing through the restrictions of the Foundation's nonprofit status. Many people do not realize this since Mozilla puts on its "Foundation" face when that suits its purposes, and its "Corporation" face when it doesn't.
I agree that when a Webkit-based browser overtakes them their stated goals will be furthered. And I guarantee that the Mozilla Corp management team will be in an absolute tizzy when it happens.
I, on the other hand, will be delighted to see true competition come to the Free web browser market for the first time.
Edited 2008-11-21 00:10 UTC
" Mozilla are a charity, not a business.
Mozilla Corporation is a 100+ employee, $67 million per year *business* which reinvests an unspecified portion of its profits back into Mozilla Foundation. Nominally a subsidiary of Mozilla Foundation, it is essentially a bubble within the Foundation which can be as corporate and profit-seeking as it likes, loop-holing through the restrictions of the Foundation's nonprofit status. Many people do not realize this since Mozilla puts on its "Foundation" face when that suits its purposes, and its "Corporation" face when it doesn't. I agree that when a Webkit-based browser overtakes them their stated goals will be furthered. And I guarantee that the Mozilla Corp management team will be in an absolute tizzy when it happens. I, on the other hand, will be delighted to see true competition come to the Free web browser market for the first time. " Where does Mozilla's money go, other than back to pay its employess and re-invest in development and research?
Do you imagine they are hiding it under a matress somewhere? Or perhaps you think some individuals at the top are siphoning it off somehow ... which is a pretty serious insinuation to make really.
As for trends, well according to one source, these are the trends:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
Firefox has closed to within a whisker of IE6 + IE7.
IE6 is in a long, slow decline.
IE7 increases do not make up for IE6 falls.
Chrome and Safari have about 3% each, just ahead of Opera.
Non-IE browsers between them have overtaken IE.
...
I can't really see a case to be made where Firefox & Gecko aren't by far the most serious competition for IE.







Member since:
2007-02-17
Mozilla are a charity, not a business.
http://www.mozilla.org/mission.html
http://www.mozilla.org/about/manifesto
Given their purpose and their mission, unlike Google or Microsoft, Mozilla does not have the market-share imperatives that you imply that it has.
...
As a result of these efforts, we have distilled a set of principles that we believe are critical for the Internet to continue to benefit the public good as well as commercial aspects of life. We set out these principles below.
The goals for the Manifesto are to:
- articulate a vision for the Internet that Mozilla participants want the Mozilla Foundation to pursue;
- speak to people whether or not they have a technical background;
- make Mozilla contributors proud of what we're doing and motivate us to continue; and
- provide a framework for other people to advance this vision of the Internet.
Principles
1. The Internet is an integral part of modern life - a key component in education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment and society as a whole.
2. The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.
3. The Internet should enrich the lives of individual human beings.
4. Individuals' security on the Internet is fundamental and cannot be treated as optional.
5. Individuals must have the ability to shape their own experiences on the Internet.
6. The effectiveness of the Internet as a public resource depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation and decentralized participation worldwide.
7. Free and open source software promotes the development of the Internet as a public resource.
8. Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability, and trust.
9. Commercial involvement in the development of the Internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial goals and public benefit is critical.
10. Magnifying the public benefit aspects of the Internet is an important goal, worthy of time, attention and commitment. "
Having said all that, gaining a sizeable market share is perhaps the best way to achieve Mozilla's actual aims.
Mozilla's aims are, however, still achieved even if Google Chrome or some other webkit-based browser eventually becomes the dominant browser.
Edited 2008-11-20 23:39 UTC