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From Mozillazine.org ( [mozillazine.org...] )
"AOL axes Gecko team, dumps Netscape
It has been learned through public and private sources that AOL has axed the Gecko team in a mass firing and are dismantling Netscape (they've even pulled the logos off the buildings).
To us, their $2 million contribution to the nascent Mozilla Foundation now comes across as nothing more than a face-saving gesture.
Stay tuned for updates.
UPDATE: Looks like folks are starting to post to ex-mozilla.org.
UPDATE: I was told to stress that Mozilla will continue, and that many of the folks let go today will continue to devote time and energy to it. I'd like to wish all the best of luck, and I'd like to thank everyone for the amazing contributions that they have made over the past five years."
Quoting a French Netscape employee ( Blog @ [daniel.glazman.free.fr...] )
"Netscape hired me three years ago, AOL laid me off today (technically, having a french contract of employment, I am still employed; we don't throw away people in ten seconds here. We take thirty seconds, that's cleaner). AOL axed Netscape by the same time. People, it's over. Netscape is dead. Nothing to see here."
All because of the Microsoft deal I would suppose. Now what for the Mozilla open source movement? I guess Apple were on the ball with KHTML! Later,
Andrew Boyd
<news clipping>
"Netscape remains a key part of our multibrand strategy," AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said. "We will continue to support the browser and the portal."
</news clipping>
IE has 90% share. From a business stand point IF AOL/Netscape are trying to compete with IE then they wouldn't be firing employees when their market share is so low.
I think AOL says it only affects 10%, because they probably let 10% go yesterday and the rest will be gone in 3 months or will not be working for Netscape.
I actually didn't like the Netscape browser. I felt it took away from Mozilla. Mozilla does all the work then Netscape slaps on a few icons and a lot of extra AOL stuff then pushes the browser.
Now I'll just tell people, forget about Netscape, get the newest version of Mozilla.
One thing we can be assured of in life is "CHANGE".What goes around comes around!
That's called "using the browser defaults."
When that page was designed, the links were in dinosaur-green-and-maroon, to match the green banners (and, IIRC, in some Sans-serif font). It did look cooler.
And despite that, some of us editors argued strenuously for the current design.
You see, there are color-blind people in my family, and the spiffy forest-green and maroon colors would have been indistinguishable to them. Fonts and font sizes are also significant usability issues, and the user ought to have control over them also.
If you'd like green and maroon -- hey, your browser configuration is your own business. But the decision was made to let usability trump designers' egos. That was the right decision for dmoz.org.
If you run a commercial site with 10,000 competitors differing in no significant way from you, then you can blow off the disadvantaged minority of the population -- they probably don't have as much money to spend on inessential consumer goods anyway -- in order to wow the significant portion of the population that's swayed by flash and glitter rather than content. And, financially, that may be the right decision for that site.
But the ODP has different priorities, and (as you say) content is king. (Also crown prince, grand vizier, high priest, pontifex maximus, poet laureate, head gardener, and keeper of the royal privies.)
