Meanwhile, the Mozilla project kept tinkering with the code to make it lighter and nimbler.
(One of those tinkerers was Ross, whose bug-fixing skills led to the Netscape internship.) As AOL laid off engineers, volunteers picked up the slack, and from the ashes of Netscape arose a new browser, code-named Phoenix. Less than a year after Phoenix’s September 2002 debut, AOL got rid of the remaining Netscapers and gave $2 million to the Mozilla Foundation to keep the project alive. But Ross and a fellow Mozilla coder, David Hyatt, weren’t content just to tinker with Phoenix. They were determined to transform it into an IE killer. “It was high school by day and Mozilla at night,” Ross recalls.
In its first iterations, Phoenix caught on only with hard-core techies. But hundreds of coders across 24 time zones kept banging on it, making it smarter, faster, and prettier. Its bigMeanwhile, the Mozilla project kept tinkering with the code to make it lighter and nimbler. (One of those tinkerers was Ross, whose bug-fixing skills led to the Netscape internship.) As AOL laid off engineers, volunteers picked up the slack, and from the ashes of Netscape arose a new browser, code-named Phoenix. Less than a year after Phoenix’s September 2002 debut, AOL got rid of the remaining Netscapers and gave $2 million to the Mozilla Foundation to keep the project alive. But Ross and a fellow Mozilla coder, David Hyatt, weren’t content just to tinker with Phoenix. They were determined to transform it into an IE killer. “It was high school by day and Mozilla at night,” Ross recalls.
In its first iterations, Phoenix caught on only with hard-core techies. But hundreds of coders across 24 time zones kept banging on it, making it smarter, faster, and prettier. Its big moment came this June, when yet another Explorer-borne virus outbreak prompted the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team to advise government agencies to stop using the Microsoft browser. Coincidentally, the first truly stable version of Phoenix — now renamed Firefox — had just come out. Bingo.
Firefox got rave reviews from the digerati and began spreading like wildfire to corporate America. “Over the last six months, many Fortune 100 companies have started using Firefox,” notes Chris Hoffman, director of engineering for Mozilla. “People are realizing that it’s a very stable program.” moment came this June, when yet another Explorer-borne virus outbreak prompted the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team to advise government agencies to stop using the Microsoft browser. Coincidentally, the first truly stable version of Phoenix — now renamed Firefox — had just come out. Bingo.
Firefox got rave reviews from the digerati and began spreading like wildfire to corporate America. “Over the last six months, many Fortune 100 companies have started using Firefox,” notes Chris Hoffman, director of engineering for Mozilla. “People are realizing that it’s a very stable program.” via
Other links to check:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/