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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / JULY 21, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 29
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Breaking News -
Networking:
Mozilla.org Announces Launch Of
The Mozilla Foundation
Mozilla.org, the organization that coordinates Mozilla open source
development, 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."
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.
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