Why we all need
Web Standards and
a good Open-Source browser

Tristan Nitot

President, Mozilla Europe

The Gutenberg revolution

• Before printing was invented, monks were handwriting copies of the Bible. I took one year to complete a single copy.
• 1440: Printing was invented by Gutenberg
• End of XIXth Century: the Linotype was invented, enabling faster composition of texts
• Suddenly, it made sense to know how to read and write
• It was a revolution in terms of spreading culture and knowledge

Comparing Printing and Internet

• Internet enable the individual, as opposed to radio and TV
• Internet is about speed and getting rid of distances
• Internet is all about interoperability (Windows, Mac, Linux, mobile phone, PDA).
• Internet is independent of Operating Systems.
• With Internet, proprietary systems become obsolete.

Printing and the internet are both a set of existing techniques that, put together, enable amazing spreads of culture, communication and commerce.

The Web: an Open system

• 1992: Tim Berners-Lee, scientist at the CERN, invents the Web, an open, freely accessible cyberworld, based on open non-patented, royalty-free technologies (HTML, HTTP, URL).
• 1995: Netscape, a young start-up company, ships Netscape Navigator and reveals the Web to the public at large;
• 1996: Microsoft feels threatened and starts competing with Netscape. Innovation is everywhere.
• 1999: Now that IE is bundled with Windows, Netscape is dying. IE 5.5 ships.
• 2001: IE 6.0 ships.
• 2002 to 2005: nothing

Two lessons...

1 - A monopoly has no reason to improve a free product unless it can sell an upgrade.

2 - No competition? No innovation!

Back to Gutenberg

• What if Gutenberg's invention was prevented by a company who had monopoly on hand-copying?
• What would be our civilization today?
• What if a company having a monopoly on candles: would it let the electricity industry develop itself?

Looking closer...

• March 1998, Netscape reveals its source code to the public: Mozilla.org is born;
• November 1998: Mozilla.org opts for a complete rewrite. Many people claim that the project is doomed.
• June 2002: Mozilla 1.0 is silently released. Netscape offers products based on Mozilla, but with very little marketing
• June 2003: AOL and Microsoft reach an agreement. Microsoft gives 750 million dollars to AOL. All Netscape employees are axed;
• By then, the world Wide Web is mostly "optimized for Internet Explorer", a product which is not actively developped, with 95% market share, and not available on all platforms

How can we avoid this in the future?

• We need browser technology for every platform (and every version of Windows)
• This browser technology must implement Web standards (for the future of the Web)
• It also needs to be compatible with existing Websites.
• It must have significant market share so that it cannot be ignored.

Innovating with Standards

In a world where interoperability is key, innovation must follow Standards...

• For several years, browser vendors have created proprietary elements to differenciate from the competition. Images, Tables, Background sound, Marquee, ActiveX...
• This led to incompatible browsers and infamous "best viewed with..." buttons everywhere.
• If we want the Web to grow, we must stick to well-documented, open standards.
• The W3C, World Wide Web Consortium, provides such standards, by working with vendors.

Dealing with compatibility

Two main concerns:

1. Implementing Web standards (HTML, CSS, DOM, JS) in order to avoid the mistakes of the past;
2. Remaining compatible with existing documents (litterally years of work to inject IE 4 and Netscape 4 quirks into our product);

• Test you web site with Firefox and other modern browsers (Safari, Opera, Konqueror);
• Check that your sites are valid, using http://validator.W3.org
• Demand Web standards conformance to your vendors

State of the Mozilla Project

• Successful launch of Firefox and Thunderbird, end of 2004
• Both Firefox and Thunderbird are now available in over 30 different languages
• 56 million downloads for Firefox
• Participation and interest in the Mozilla project is stronger than ever

Mozilla Foundation and the Project

• Mozilla Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization created in July 2003
• The mission is to preserve choice and innovation on the Net by creating standards-based, open source products and technologies
• Stewards of the Mozilla Project, providing the infrastructure to manage the project
• Deliver end-user products
• International Affiliates: Europe, Japan, China.

Mozilla by the Numbers

• Engineers - 18 at the Foundation; others full time from Sun, IBM, Redhat, Novell, Google, others; still more contributing patches
• Localizers - products translated into many languages
• Testers - 10,000 pre-alpha testers file 70 to 100 "bugs" a day, more than 100,000 beta testers
• Advocates - over 100,000 advocates of our products through Spreadfirefox.com project
• Extension Developers - over 200 extensions for Firefox
• Great reliance on each of these "communities" to make the project successful

The Mozilla Recipe

• Open source development model
• Great products that matter
  • Web browsers and email clients matter
  • Cross platform, multiple language support, extensible, easy to use and migrate to
  • Involves many communities including design and marketing
• Products are complete
  • Includes cd, guidebook, support documentation, marketing support, and t-shirts
• Relentless focus on the end user
• And lots of luck, right product, right time

Mozilla Firefox web browser

• 56 million downloads in 6 months
• Key Features:
  • Streamlined user interface and functions
  • Tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking
  • Live bookmarks, RSS feeds
  • Integrated search
• Web developers are excited

Marketshare for a recent Sunday

Source : XitiMonitor.com. Figures from Sunday 20050424.

The Road Ahead

• Move the web forward: better web sites and applications based on modern browsers and standards
• Continued innovation with the Mozilla Platform, Firefox and Thunderbird products, and more products
• Focus on global efforts, improving coordination and communication

Participating in the Mozilla Project

• Easy with many ways to participate and with real results
  • Marketing community: Spread the word, http://spreadfirefox.com
  • Testing community: download builds, provide feedback, and file bugs
  • Web development: code to standards, push the limits
  • Localization: localize and translate the browser
  • Extension development: easy way to start developing
  • Application and platform development
• A truly rewarding project