Section 1.2. Young Adulthoodthe Mozilla Foundation

1.2. Young Adulthoodthe Mozilla Foundation

The idea of an independent legal organization to guide the Mozilla project had been discussed when the project was first launched in 1998. However, it was decided that the time was not quite right. At the time, there were no models for setting up such an organization and figuring out how it would be governed, who would participate, and so on. There was enough unknown and far too much work in getting the code ready, the project launched, and a browser developed to take on things we didn't absolutely have to do. Eventually we decided that the right time to create an independent Mozilla Foundation would be when a critical mass of people was interested in supporting a foundation. That critical mass would need to include a significant set of volunteers and a set of companies interested enough to fund browser developer and distribute Mozilla-based technology.

That critical mass began to develop with the release of Mozilla 1.0. Mozilla 1.0 showed that we could produce a good product, that the Mozilla releases where determined by Mozilla rather than by Netscape, and that the project had a positive future. At least one critical corporate participant came to us and told us that 1.0 proved our viability and that they were very interested in helping form and support an independent Mozilla Foundation.

Following the release of Mozilla 1.0, I spent a fair amount of time thinking about what an independent Mozilla Foundation would look like, how we might put it together, how many employees we would need, which companies would likely provide support, and how to finance employees in the early years. I had help from a set of mozilla.org staff members. In addition, I had the good fortune of hooking up with Mitch Kapor, who had recently joined the open source world with the launch of the Open Source Applications Foundation (http://www.osafoundation.org). Mitch was an immense help in thinking through various possible structures for the Mozilla Foundation and is an unsung hero in getting the Mozilla Foundation launched.

In the spring of 2003, the stars aligned. Mozilla.org staff was ready, the project had developed a critical mass, and we had some corporate support. In addtion, AOL decided it was ready to help spin out the Mozilla project. This was an important element for mozilla.org staff. Of course, we could have launched a project without AOL's supportthat's the nature of open sourcebut the mozilla.org staff felt that AOL's support was important to the launch of an independent Mozilla project. We hoped that the use of the Mozilla trademarks would be transferred to a new organization, along with a set of machines. We wanted to be able to hire a group of people, some of whom were current AOL employees, without bad feelings. We felt it was very important to the project's stability to have a smooth transition from AOL to a successor. We also knew we needed to hire people to keep the project running well, and that it would take us time to find ongoing funding sources. So, the seed funding that AOL provided was another critical factor. Through July, I worked to reach agreement with AOL on how the Mozilla Foundation would be launched. Once again, Mitch Kapor provided invaluable assistance in helping to get the arrangements with AOL worked out.

On July 14, 2003, the Mozilla Foundation was launched as an independent non-profit organization. AOL contributed $2 million in seed funding for the Mozilla trademarks, the Mozilla Public License, the machines we were using to host the web site and other infrastructure, and the efforts of a transition team to help create a smooth handoff. We knew we had some additional funding from IBM and Sun, and Mitch Kapor donated $150,000 for each of the first two years. Based on this, Brendan Eich and I decided, with the help of Chris Hoffman and Mitch, to aim for an initial group of 10 employees.

The initial group was divided among (i) those focused on the projectwide resources (technical leadership, infrastructure, tools, web site management, builds, releases, QA), (ii) those focused on the codebase itself (Firefox, Thunderbird, Gecko, the DOM, and JavaScript) and (iii) a couple of people focused on all the other things the project and the Mozilla Foundation needed to be successful, including relationships with commercial contributors and other organizations, legal structure, trademarks, finances, and so on. Mitch Kapor offered to extend his organization for providing back-office servicespayroll, benefits, accounting, donation processing, and human resourcesto the Mozilla Foundation on very gracious terms, which has been a great boon. Securing high-quality services in these areas for the Mozilla Foundation had always been of concern to me and this has been a phenomenal solution for us.

This resulted in a group that was small for the scope of the project, but still big for a nonprofit open source project to support. We chose this route because we believed that the project was unlikely to reach its potential without a core group of at least this size. We felt this was the minimum size for critical mass for several reasons, including these:

The World Wide Web isn't finished.

It' changes all the time. New content types develop, new technologies develop, and new possibilities emerge. If the browser doesn't continue to develop, the consumer's ability to enjoy these enhancements stagnates.

Browsers and email clients aren't done yet.

There's a whole range of innovative ideas that interact with browsers and email clients. For example, RSS readers can be nicely integrated with both browsers and email. In addition, the underlying components on which the actual end-user applications are built require constant development.

Speed matters.

We need good Internet clients now. Having a core set of people able to devote full-time attention to this makes a big difference in accomplishing things quickly.

The size and scope of the project requires it.

Just keeping track of what's going on in the Mozilla project takes time. About 80 people actively check into the CVS repository each month, and of course, many more active participants don't have CVS access. We also have a high level of involvement with commercial entities and with Mozilla development teams at commercial entities. Providing the technical leadership and coordination for this large a group is a big job, even with a set of full-time employees. Doing so without a set of people available full time (or more than full time) would be beyond daunting.

The founding in July was followed by a hectic startup period through the fall. We assembled the team of employees. We found office space at an affordable rate, thanks again to friends of the Mozilla project who extended a helping hand. We moved our equipment from AOL to our co-location facility and our offices. We knew it was important that enterprises and other institutions got a good picture of the Mozilla Foundation and grew confident that we are not a naive, flaky group, so we spent a chunk of time talking with these groups.

We decided that a serious focus on the end user needed to be added to our traditional focus on developers. Product development continued at a fast clip through this period.

1.2.1. Firefox and Thunderbird

As if forming the Foundation, moving employees, and establishing and supporting ourselves wasn't enough, we also began a determined transition from the application known as Mozilla or the Mozilla Application Suite, or by its codename, Seamonkey, to our new products: Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird.

We knew that our future lay with the new applications. The integrated Mozilla Application Suite is a fine product that many love. But the integration caused difficulties, the UI had been built by accretion and had been added to over the years, and we knew we wanted updated, standalone browsing and mail applications. Given our limited resources, we had to place a bet, and we did.

The Mozilla Foundation hired the lead Firefox and Thunderbird developers, Ben Goodger and Scott McGregor. We talked with Ben and Scott about providing assistance to the community of people working on the Mozilla Application Suite. We continued with our releases of the Mozilla Application Suite, including improvements to the core components, performance, stability, and security, and coordinating feature work done by our community. But we did not hire people focused on the Mozilla Application Suite.

Both Firefox and Thunderbird were in the early stages of development when we made this decision. Indeed, Thunderbird had not even seen its 0.1 release when the Foundation was launched. Despite this, we knew that the then-current state of Thunderbird could probably have supported an 0.1 or 0.2, or maybe even an 0.3 label. This was borne out when we were contacted over the summer by a Fortune 100 company wanting information about Thunderbird. The company had already done a significant amount of due diligence and had realized that Thunderbird was the best option. They wondered if the Foundation would be interested in speeding development of certain enterprise features if we had some additional funding to do so. As a result, Thunderbird has had a rich set of enterprise features from its early days. It lacks an integrated calendar, but the Mozilla calendar project was reinvigorated and an integrated calendar project launched in the fall of 2004.

Firefox was further along the development path, but still quite young. It wasn't even called Firefox at that time; it was called Firebird, the second of two early names which we abandoned due to trademark issues. The application-eventually-known-as-Firefox was at the 0.5 stage, quite usable, but not a polished end-user application. The development goal had always been a strict focus on the end-user experience above all else. This continued, and Bart Decrem drove the end-user focus throughout all aspects of the Foundation's operations. Firefox began to be noticed in 2004 with the 0.6 release. It quickly began to capture the interest of much of our developer community. There were still millions of contented users of the Mozilla Application Suite, but the momentum had clearly begun shifting to Firefox.

In February 2004, we found a public posting by a visual designer named Steve Garrity, describing what Firefox needed for its icons, logos, and visual identity in general. The content of the post was excellent. Better yet, Steve seemed to have both knowledge of and an interest in tackling these problems, instead of simply complaining or pointing out problems. We asked him if he'd like to take the lead for a bit and show us what could be done. He said yes, and the Visual Identity Team was created. Both Firefox and Thunderbird took a giant step toward becoming sophisticated, polished end-user applications. By the 0.8 release of Firefox in June 2004, the momentum for Firefox was growing dramatically. Firefox was already an impressive product, offering features new to most users.

In addition, the Internet experience had become extremely painful. Malicious actors were everywhere. The Web was infested with viruses and security exploits, seemingly uncontrollable pop-up windows appeared almost everywhere, and distracting, bandwidth-chewing ads appeared long before desired web content. The browser, a piece of software many had come to take for granted, suddenly mattered. The browser is the mechanism through which one's computerone's hard drive with its critical and private dataconnects to the wild, wild world of the Web. A modern, high-quality browser is necessary to keep this connection from being increasingly painful and even dangerous. The Mozilla Foundation had a great browser in Mozilla Firefox, and people began to notice. By mid-2004 we began to see that the types of people who were interested in Mozilla Firefox were expanding. We began getting messages from people who clearly were neither early adopters nor even particularly savvy. So, we knew we were making a difference. And we knew that the difference was important enough for more people than ever before to pay attention. People who tried Firefox loved it. Around the 0.9 timeframe (June 2004), a groundswell began building.

The summer of 2004 was an even more painful time on the Web. A series of viruses and security issues caused enormous inconvenience and concern. Internet Explorer was a vector for many attacks. These problems caused consumers to pay more attention to their browser. They helped people realize why an alternative browser is so important to the health of the Internet and one's ability to interact comfortably with the Web. Security is a very difficult problem. A browser must be open to the content of the Webthat's the whole point. At the same time, it can't be too open. A browser needs to have a series of defenses to help filter out bad content. No browser can be perfect, and that includes Firefox. We know that we will be making security changes and improvements in our products on a continual basis, and we hope that others do as well.

We saw significant adoption of Firefox 0.9 through the summer and fall of 2004almost 8 million people came to get a product that hadn't reached its 1.0 status yet. Mozilla Thunderbird adoption was also proceeding well, though not at the same fantastic rates. On the marketing side, Spread Firefox was launched in September 2004. This was a community marketing effort, perhaps the first of its kind. We knew that the great strength of the Mozilla project is the community of people dedicated to making it successful. We also knew that we would not have a traditional "marketing" or "PR" effort, spending large amounts of money on media events. And the mail we were receiving made it clear that people were excited about Firefox and wanted to help their friends and family switch.

The result was www.spreadfirefox.com, the home of a fervent evangelism community focused on increasing Firefox adoption. The most famous Spread Firefox campaign to date has been the New York Times campaign, which was proposed and initiated by a community member. This started out as a 10-day campaign to get 2,500 people to contribute funds to buy a full page ad in the New York Times supporting Firefox. Ten days was the wrong timeframe2,500 people signed up in the first two days. We kept the campaign open for 10 days anyway and ended up with 10,000 choosing to participate. We had promised that contributors' names would be in the ad and would be legible, so we enlarged the ad and made it a full two-page ad. It ran on December 16, 2004. A while later I came to work to find two young men standing outside our door. The door is glass and we had taped the NYT ad to the door so that it was visible from the outside. The two young men looked lost, but one wore a Firefox T-shirt. So, as I reached the door to go in, I asked, "Can I help you find something?" The men were rather shy, looking at their feet and mumbling, "We just wanted to see the Mozilla Foundation. We're only in town for a few days and had to see it." Then one of them straightened up, looked me in the eye, jabbed his finger at the New York Times ad, and said proudly, "And there's my name, right there!" Sometimes I think people believe I'm exaggerating when I describe how passionate consumers are after they've tried Firefox, but it's actually hard to overstate the excitement that Firefox has generated.

Getting Firefox and Thunderbird to a 1.0 status and shipped was a very intense period. We knew we had great products in the works, but we had to finish them. We also had to get a set of related activities completed. These included revamping our web site, developing our communications plan, working with the Spread Firefox community, improving our localization process and working with the various localization communities, figuring out our search relationships, working with our affiliatesMozilla Europe and Mozilla Japanon the international aspects of the launch, and so on. The ferocious dedication of everyone involved was required. I cannot stress enough the commitment of the Mozilla community. On Sunday, November 7, I logged onto IRC at about 8:00 A.M.., which is early for me and for most of the Mountain View-based staff. I was bombarded with questions from our localization communities in Europe and Asia. Some were up early, many were up very, very late, and all were trying to figure out how to manage their schedules over the next 48 hours to be available whenever needed to get their localized versions finished, approved and shipped as part of the 1.0 release.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 were released on November 9, 2004. To say they have been well received is an understatement. Firefox 1.0 was downloaded from our mirror site about 2 million times in the first two days alone, and has plunged on at an average rate of almost 250,000 downloads per day since then. As of mid-April 2005, the number of downloads that we can track is very close to 50 million. On the usage side, Firefox has gained worldwide market share at a rate of nearly 1% per month from November to April. As of April 2005, surveys are beginning to show Mozilla browsers at or above 10% market share. Among technically focused sites, the market share of Mozilla products ranges up to much higher numbers.

It's extremely difficult to gain this sort of market share on the desktop in the face of a competitive product that people get when they buy a computer. The fact that Mozilla Firefox has done so is a reflection of a great product, a huge need, a fervent community, and the power of the Internet.

Many people have wondered whether open source development can produce great end-user applications. One school of thought says that open source developers can produce infrastructure and products that other developers like, but not applications aimed at the general end user. Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird demonstrate that open source software can indeed produce great end-user products. I believe that we are only at the beginning, and we will see a range of innovative end-user products come from the open source world in the coming years.