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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
IMO, aol never took the long run, imagine the power they could have wheeled if they had a good 30 to 50% of the market using their browser.
That would be wonderful.
Where else has this been reported?
America Online on Tuesday said it has laid off 50 employees involved in Web browser development at its Netscape subsidiary amid a reorganization of its Mozilla open-source browser team.The move affects less than 10 percent of Netscape employees, according to an AOL representative, who added that the company plans to continue to support current versions of the Netscape browser and the Netscape Web portal.
"Netscape remains a key part of our multibrand strategy," AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said. "We will continue to support the browser and the portal."
That means the news is less "final" than it might have first seemed.
[edited by: tedster at 1:36 am (utc) on July 16, 2003]
this move of cutting staff, etc. looks like a planned exit by AOL...it will do Mozilla good.
Now, where is that GoogleBar with PR when we need it the most?
Could AOL just be loosening it's grip a bit so that it can get the benefit of the next 5 or 6 years of open source community development in time to have an alternative to IE when it's 7 years is up?
Webproperties etc, will still continue to be run like normal or?
I think it's better for Mozilla. the "why use Netscape 7.1 vs Mozilla 1.4" is just confusing to users. Now we can just say, use Mozilla it's the best.
AOL, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, and other companies will continue to support Mozilla through the Foundation.
I never liked AOL. They haven't done one thing right in the history of their corporation.
Look at the amount of subscribers they have..! I know lots of people wh are very happy with there service.
I personally wouldnt go near it and I agree whole heartedly with your opinions but this is obviously some kind business tactic. Personally I love Netscape 7.1 and if it was a bit faster to open etc and didnt eat as much memory I would use it over IE6 everytime.
The first thing I do when installing Mozilla is track down the latest version of the Orbit 3+1 skin. Why this isn't the default instead of a 1995 browser's icons I'll never know.
What does Firebird look like? I heard they're going for a new look. The screenshot on Mozilla.org looks like IE!
What a week this has been! Slightly OT; this simply has to make some bells ring in the web developer community, so that coding according to standards will increase ;)
/claus
Am I the only one who finds the default skins for Netscape 7 and Mozilla revolting? I can't believe you get the same icons as Netscape 4 in Mozilla! Those disgusting purple and green blocky graphics that should have been deleted long ago. While Netscape 7 has a sickening shaded purple look.
Totally agree, the modern skin should be enabled by default.
Anybody know where this page is?
Google Zeitgeist: [google.com...]
Am I the only one who finds the default skins for Netscape 7 and Mozilla revolting?
Is it time to start a DMOZ spinoff pool? ;)
The move affects less than 10 percent of Netscape employees
Netscape remains a key part of our multibrand strategy
the original quote
[daniel.glazman.free.fr...] sounds to me like a frustrated employee who has been laid off, not like a business journalist.
the fate of dmoz.org
That depends on the future of "Netscape Communications Corporation" (an AOLTW brand).
ODP is funded by Netscape but is independent of the business divisions. And although it started out as directory.mozilla.org, I believe that was simply an instance of Netscape stamping a name that it owned on a newfangled open content project. The browser and server software development teams are/were not connected to the ODP management. And the ODP Terms of Use have nothing to do with the MPL (just as GNU infamously wanted nothing to do with Gnuhoo.com :-) ).
AOLTW utilizes ODP-based technology to manage content for its Netcenter portal (future admittedly uncertain), and as it seems everyone in the world has noticed, they have made a long-overdue hardware investment by adding half a dozen new servers. Perhaps they will kill Netcenter (which hardly anyone visits any more) and give the ODP a nice sendoff, but then why hand all that value over now, when they could have had a nice tax writeoff after incorporation? In the long run it is fun to speculate about the future of the ODP, but for the short term it doesn't look like things will change much. And ODP staff has indicated the same to editors.
You know I'd never even heard of dmoz until now.
Hester, DMOZ is the source of the Google Directory - and a zillion smaller directories as well. A link in the DMOZ is a major shot of juice for most any website. Many crawlers start their crawl with the Open Directory.
