[LINK] What happens when an OS becomes successful?

[Marghanita da Cruz]

stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> Link by Link
> Firefox and the Anxiety of Growing Pains 
> By NOAM COHEN Published: May 21, 2007
> 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/technology/> +free-sign-in
> 
> The open-source people behind Firefox have a dilemma: what happens — and 
> what is owed to volunteer contributors — when an open-source project 
> starts to become successful? 
<snip>
> Under the agreement, the Google search page is the default home page when 
> a user first installs Firefox, and is the default in the search bar. In 
> the last two years, the deal has brought in more than $100 million. 
> (Google has a similar placement with Apple’s Safari.) 
> 
> So far, no one has figured out how to balance keeping an open-source or 
> collaborative project fully financed while remaining independent and 
> noncommercial. 
<snip>
This story seems to be a little hyped up and confused - not to mention,
missing some of the fundamental tennents of open source.

Firstly, Apache, is the open source webserver software of choice by a
long way, and I would argue is relatively significantly more successful.
<http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html>

Firefox would be a late second in the browser choice.

> Throwing money around among volunteers can backfire, Ms. Baker said, 
> though the foundation has been quietly assisting contributors who are 
> hampered by poor equipment.

It was interesting that the issue of the order of/default for the search
engines in the search bar in firefox came up as one of the questions to
Ms Baker and she said it was a reflection of market demand, which was
believable. There was no mention of the default home page.

By the way, Knoppix 5.1 includes ICEWEAZEL browser, this is how the Open
Source Community responds - more on Knoppix at:
<http://www.ramin.com.au/linux/slug-bootcamp-19may2007-knoppix.shtml>

Presumebly there is potential for some nasty legal battles as ICEWeazel
is based on Firefox which started of as Mozilla which was based on
Netscape. Wonder where the money will go?

M
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au/
Telephone: 0414-869202