MOZILLA.ORG
ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF THE MOZILLA FOUNDATION
TO LEAD OPEN-SOURCE BROWSER EFFORTS
America Online Pledges $2 Million to
Help Launch Independent Non-Profit
Industry Leaders Reaffirm Support for
Mozilla
Mountain View, CA, July 15, 2003 – Mozilla.org, the organization that
coordinates Mozilla open source development, today announced the launch
of a new foundation that will continue to promote the development,
distribution and adoption of the award-winning Mozilla standards-based
web applications and core technologies, including the Gecko browser
layout engine. The Mozilla Foundation will continue and expand on
the efforts of mozilla.org, the group managing the daily operations of
the Mozilla project since its inception.
"It has been a long-standing objective of the Mozilla team to create an
independent organization so we can continue to lead and innovate," said
Mitchell Baker, Chief Lizard Wrangler at mozilla.org, who will become
President of The Mozilla Foundation. "We're grateful for the past
and ongoing support of America Online, and we look forward to
continuing to work with AOL over coming years. Mozilla was
developed in an open source environment and built by harnessing the
creative power of thousands of programmers on the Internet. Going
forward, we
will continue to partner with developers and industry leaders to keep
content on the Web open."
Mozilla.org’s flagship product, Mozilla, is rapidly emerging as the
most widely acclaimed web browser, with PC World’s July issue honoring
it as “Best of 2003” in its category, LinuxJournal Magazine giving it
an “Editor’s Choice Award” for “Best Web Browser” (July issue) and
eWeek raving that “eWEEK Labs found the new features in Mozilla 1.4 ...
to be remarkable improvements that enhance what was already the best
browser option out there.” (July 1). The Guardian recently
predicted that mozilla.org's upcoming new products “could make
Microsoft's
offerings look very shabby indeed” (July 10).
In addition, Mozilla is a cross-platform toolkit for developing
Internet-based applications. By offering a set of components that can
be used in a wide range of applications, are all open source, free of
charge and have been tested through their use in Mozilla 1.4's end-user
applications, Mozilla 1.4 enables developers to build applications for
a cross-platform, network-centric world.
To help launch the new organization, America Online has pledged $2
million in cash to the Mozilla Foundation over the next two
years. AOL will also contribute additional resources through
equipment, domain names and trademarks, and related intellectual
property, as well as providing some transitional assistance for key
personnel as they move into the new organization.
Other industry leaders also offered their support to the new
organization: Mitch Kapor, the new Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation,
is making a personal contribution of $300,000, and Red Hat and Sun
Microsystems are among the companies planning to continue their
contributions to the Mozilla
project.
“As an independent organization, the Mozilla project will have even
more freedom to innovate and provide meaningful choice to users on all
computer environments. A competitive, standards-compliant browser
suite is vitally important to maintaining freedom and innovation on the
Internet, so I’m delighted to make a contribution,” commented
Kapor. Kapor was the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the “killer
application” that made personal computers ubiquitous in the business
world in the 1980s. He currently chairs the Open Source
Applications Foundation.
"PC World's recognition of Mozilla in its Best of 2003 is further proof
that great software can be built using licenses that grant freedom
instead of imposing onerous restrictions," said Michael Tiemann,
Chief Technology Officer at Red Hat. "Mozilla has long been
important to Red Hat, not only for the experience it offers or the
features it implements, but because it extends our commitment to
supporting W3C standards, interoperability, and choice in the
marketplace. We are pleased to support the creation of the
Mozilla Foundation, and will continue to devote engineering resources
to increase the value of Mozilla over proprietary alternatives."
"Mozilla has consistently offered users the features, performance and
innovation instrumental to the evolution of the Internet," said
Curtis Sasaki, Vice President, Engineering, Desktop
Solutions, Sun Microsystems. "Sun is committed to the
Mozilla technology and is contributing significant engineering
resources to move it forward. By the end of July, Sun will ship
Mozilla for the Solaris Operating System and make Mozilla the
standard browser for Mad Hatter, Sun's Linux-based desktop software
stack, due later this year."
About mozilla.org and the Mozilla
Foundation
Mozilla.org (www.mozilla.org) is the group that exists to make Mozilla
a successful open source project. Mozilla.org provides open
source Internet client software that includes a browser, mail and news
functionality, and a toolkit for developing web-based
applications. Mozilla.org was founded by Netscape Communications
Corporation.
The Mozilla Foundation has been incorporated as a California public
benefit corporation and is seeking to obtain 501(c)(3) status as a
non-profit organization. It will continue to be based in Mountain View,
California.
Mozilla and the Mozilla logo are trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation.
Contact information
Mozilla Foundation:
- Bart Decrem, (650) 387-0625, bart@mozilla.org
- Catherine Corre, (650) 814-1356
America Online:
- Andrew Weinstein, (703) 265-1746
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