The Mozilla project was wrongheaded from the start. Anyone who genuinely believed in open source could have known that KHTML was better quality code and so it proved, despite vastly greater resources being poured into the terrible Netscape codebase. (I can't help thinking this was largely jingoistic Americans preferring an American project).
Some good things have come out of Mozilla-the-organisation - I very much hope that Rust/Servo is a success. But when it actually comes to developing an open-source browser, the incentives of a donation-funded foundation like Mozilla are all wrong.
I don't know what the right way to fund open-source development is. Dual licensing has its share of failures. So does trying to make it a direct business. So do research grants. Partly it's just the tragedy of the commons. In my darkest days I wonder if open source is fundamentally doomed because it simply can't make the monetary incentives line up with good engineering practice.
Mariner was an attempt to upgrade the old Netscape 4 codebase that got cancelled. Gecko/NGLayout was the new rewritten layout engine. WaSP pushed for this cancellation:
This is full of TILs, and mind-bogglingly enlightening to read.
In many ways the Web feels like exactly the same place as it was 16 years ago (especially to read about the WSP xD) but things have gotten significantly better for the user and standards of late.
TIL that NS/Mozilla was really the thorn in everyone's side on the tech front, but M$ wore the blame for the Web's early history because of the antitrust cases... that's insane. Absolutely insane.......
Are there any binary builds of Mariner, newlayout and NGLayout I can track down?
The Mozilla project was wrongheaded from the start. Anyone who genuinely believed in open source could have known that KHTML was better quality code and so it proved, despite vastly greater resources being poured into the terrible Netscape codebase. (I can't help thinking this was largely jingoistic Americans preferring an American project).
Some good things have come out of Mozilla-the-organisation - I very much hope that Rust/Servo is a success. But when it actually comes to developing an open-source browser, the incentives of a donation-funded foundation like Mozilla are all wrong.
I don't know what the right way to fund open-source development is. Dual licensing has its share of failures. So does trying to make it a direct business. So do research grants. Partly it's just the tragedy of the commons. In my darkest days I wonder if open source is fundamentally doomed because it simply can't make the monetary incentives line up with good engineering practice.
It was already being rewritten as Gecko, which also reminds me of the Mariner fiasco which is part of why Netscape 4 stuck for so long.
What do you mean by / what are you referring to with "it was already being rewritten as Gecko"? And what was the Mariner fiasco?
Mariner was an attempt to upgrade the old Netscape 4 codebase that got cancelled. Gecko/NGLayout was the new rewritten layout engine. WaSP pushed for this cancellation:
http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=88
http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=1524
http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=1708
Wow, wow and wow.
This is full of TILs, and mind-bogglingly enlightening to read.
In many ways the Web feels like exactly the same place as it was 16 years ago (especially to read about the WSP xD) but things have gotten significantly better for the user and standards of late.
TIL that NS/Mozilla was really the thorn in everyone's side on the tech front, but M$ wore the blame for the Web's early history because of the antitrust cases... that's insane. Absolutely insane.......
Are there any binary builds of Mariner, newlayout and NGLayout I can track down?