Mozilla

"Mozilla" began as an open-source project announced by Netscape Communications on 22 January 1998, when the company committed to releasing the source code for its Communicator browser suite. Internal advocates including Frank Hecker and Marc Andreessen cited The Cathedral and the Bazaar as outside validation for the move. The first source drop, codenamed "Project Source 331" for its 31 March 1998 deadline, was released under the Netscape Public License, later succeeded by the Mozilla Public License (MPL). The original Mozilla Suite codebase proved difficult to ship, and a near-total rewrite of the rendering engine (Gecko) delayed a viable browser for years. The project's standalone browser, eventually named "Firefox" (after intermediate names Phoenix and Firebird), shipped in 2004 and recaptured meaningful market share from Internet Explorer, reinvigorating browser-side standards work. The non-profit Mozilla Foundation was established in 2003 to steward the project independently of Netscape's corporate successors, and the Mozilla Corporation was created in 2005 as a wholly owned subsidiary to handle commercial activities such as search partnerships. Mozilla is widely treated as the first major example of a commercial software vendor releasing a flagship proprietary product under an open-source license, and it became a reference case in arguments for the Open Source Initiative's framing of open development as a viable business strategy. The organization has since extended its mission beyond browsers to include privacy advocacy, web standards work, and projects such as the Rust programming language, which originated at Mozilla Research.