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Mozilla

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The Mozilla logo (early version)

Mozilla is a free software community, best known for producing the Firefox web browser.

The Mozilla brand name is originally coined by Netscape Communications Corporation for use in reference to the company's application software, and later used to refer to various open source software initiatives originating at Netscape. Mozilla was originally the codename for the defunct Netscape Navigator software project, along with Netscape's mascot, a cartoon reptile inspired by Godzilla.

When Netscape Navigator was released as open source software, Mozilla was the name of the development project and community, along with the project's first product, the Mozilla Application Suite (later renamed SeaMonkey). Following the closure of the Netscape project, the name was adopted by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary the Mozilla Corporation, who continue to promote the original project's goals in association with the wider Mozilla community.

Codename of Netscape Navigator

Main article: Netscape Navigator

Historically, Mozilla had been used internally as a codename for the Netscape Navigator web browser from its beginning. Jamie Zawinski came up with the name during a meeting while working at the company.[1] The name was created as a portmanteau of the words "Mosaic killer",[2] hinting that Netscape would be the end to the (then only) competitor browser, Mosaic. The logo was a reference to the name of the fictional monster Godzilla.

Mascot of Netscape

Main article: Mozilla (mascot)
Depiction of the official Mozilla logo, a five-pointed star with the mascot in the middle
The official Mozilla mascot
Depiction of an earlier version of the Mozilla mascot
An early Mozilla mascot

Mozilla was the mascot of the now-disbanded Netscape Communications Corporation, formerly called Mosaic Communications Corporation. Initially, the mascot took various forms, including that of a helmeted astronaut or "spaceman", but the eventual choice was a Godzilla-like lizard thought to go well with the name. It was designed by Dave Titus in 1994.

Mozilla was featured prominently on Netscape's website in the company's early years. However, the need to project a more "professional" image (especially towards corporate clients) led to it being removed. Mozilla continued to be used inside Netscape, though, often featured on T-shirts given to staff or on artwork adorning the walls of the Netscape campus in Mountain View. The color of the Mozilla lizard changed from its original green to a red version of the monster after the source code of the Netscape browser was released.[3]

When Netscape acquired the website directory NewHoo in 1998, they re-branded it the Open Directory Project with the nickname "dmoz" (Directory of Mozilla) due to its similarity to the Mozilla project. An image of Mozilla was placed on every page of the site, which remains the case today. Netscape Communications continued using the image of the red Mozilla in its iconography [4] in the Mozilla.org project web site.

Mozilla Project

Main article: Mozilla Foundation
The Mozilla Foundation logo

"Mozilla" is the every-day name for the free and open-source software project that was founded in 1998 in order to create a next-generation Internet suite for Netscape. On 15 July 2003, the organization was formally registered as a non-profit organization, and became the Mozilla Foundation. The foundation now creates and maintains the Mozilla Firefox browser and Mozilla Thunderbird email application, among other software, and holds the Mozilla trademarks.

Mozilla Corporation

Main article: Mozilla Corporation

On 3 August 2005, the Mozilla Foundation announced the creation of Mozilla Corporation, described as "a taxable subsidiary that serves the non-profit, public benefit goals of its parent, the Mozilla Foundation, and that will be responsible for product development, marketing and distribution of Mozilla products."[5]

Mozilla Application Suite

Main article: Mozilla Application Suite
Startup screen of the Mozilla Application Suite for Mac OS 9 featuring the Mozilla mascot

The Mozilla project's initial software offering was known as the "Mozilla Application Suite". Its origin came from Netscape. January 22, 1998 Netscape announced that it would be relicensing its source code for future development.[6] In March 1998, Netscape released most of the code for its popular Netscape Communicator Internet suite under a free software/open source license, the Netscape Public License. The application developed from this was named Mozilla, which also was the codename of the original Netscape Navigator. After a series of pre-releases, Mozilla 1.0 was released on June 5, 2002.

In 2004, the Mozilla Foundation announced that it would be no longer maintaining the suite, in order to focus its attention on the standalone products Firefox and Thunderbird, which are built on the same Gecko layout engine. The suite was renamed SeaMonkey and was handed over to the SeaMonkey Council, which has continued the development within the Mozilla community.

Application Framework

Main article: Mozilla application framework

The term Mozilla is also occasionally used to refer to the Mozilla application framework, a cross-platform application framework for writing applications that can run on multiple operating systems. It consists most notably of the Gecko layout engine, but also the XUL user-interface toolkit, the Necko networking library, and other components. This is the core that all Mozilla-based browsers and applications are built from.

Codebase

Source code for Mozilla software projects such as Firefox, Thunderbird, and XULRunner are managed collectively in a single Mercurial repository. This large codebase is referred to as the Mozilla codebase, the Mozilla source code, or just Mozilla.

The Mozilla codebase was originally released under the Netscape Public License. Shortly afterwards, the license was updated to version 1.1 and renamed the Mozilla Public License (MPL). The Free Software Foundation and others noted that a GPL-licensed module and an MPL-license module cannot be legally linked, and they recommend that developers not use the MPL for this reason.[7] To address this concern, between 2001 and 2004 the Mozilla Foundation relicensed all of the Mozilla codebase under the GNU General Public License and GNU Lesser General Public License as well as the Mozilla Public License.[8]

Community

Mozilla also refers to a loose-knit community of people, known as "Mozillians",[9] dedicated to using, developing, spreading and supporting Mozilla-related products and advancing the goals of the Open Web according to the Mozilla Manifesto.[10] Its activities include:

  • Localization - translating Mozilla software and websites to other languages.
  • Evangelizing for web standards in blogs and at relevant events. This is sometimes done independently and sometimes in a more structured way with programs such as "Mozilla Reps".[11][12]
  • Organizing local and international meetings of Mozilla activists, such as Mozilla Camp, Mozilla Summit and Drumbeat.
  • Providing support to users of Mozilla products through online forums, and IRC.
  • Organizing educational events for school children, teaching them how to understand the World Wide Web and develop web content, with programs such as "Hackasaurus".[13]
  • Testing future ("beta") release of Mozilla products and reporting bugs.

Many of these activities are done on a voluntary basis, and some are sponsored by the Mozilla Foundation.

User Agent String

Main article: User agent string

When users visit a website (using "user agent" software such as a web browser), a text string is generally sent to identify the user agent to the web server. It is known as the "user agent string". The Netscape web browser identified itself as "Mozilla/<version>" followed by some information about the operating system it was running on.

Because the Netscape browser initially implemented many features not available in other browsers and quickly came to dominate the market, a number of web sites were designed to work, or work fully, only when they detected an appropriate version of Mozilla in the user agent string. Thus, competing browsers began to emulate ("cloak" or "spoof") this string in order to also work with those sites. The earliest example of this is Internet Explorer's use of a user agent string beginning "Mozilla/<version> (compatible; MSIE <version>...", in order to receive content intended for Netscape, its main rival at the time of its development. This format of user agent string has since been copied by other user agents, and persisted even after Internet Explorer came to dominate the browser market.

See also: Browser wars

See also

References

  1. ^ "Jwz.org". Jwz.org. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
  2. ^ "History of the user-agent string". Nczonline.net. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
  3. ^ "Dilanchian Lawyers and Consultants". Retrieved 2010-11-09.
  4. ^ http://www.dilanchian.com.au/images/stories/mozilla_logo_lizard.gif
  5. ^ "Mozilla Foundation Reorganization". Mozilla. 2005-08-03.
  6. ^ "Netscape Announces Plans To Make Next-Generation Communicator Source Code Available Free On The Net". Netscape. 1998-01-22.
  7. ^ "GNU comments on MPL". Gnu.org. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
  8. ^ Frank Hecker. "Mozilla Foundation MPL Relicensing FAQ". Mozilla.org. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
  9. ^ "the Mozilla community directory". mozillians.org. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
  10. ^ "Mozilla Manifesto". Mozilla.org. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
  11. ^ "William Quiviger talks on Mozilla's REP PROGRAM (ReMo); Kape + Teknolohiya, August 26, 2011". Ayalafoundation.org. 2011-08-26. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
  12. ^ "For Mozilla, users are not the end". Expressbuzz.com. 2012-03-02. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
  13. ^ "Hackasaurus". Hackasaurus. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
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