The Dark Empire and The Lone Jedi

Its been a while, and i'm lazier than ever.
But yerserday I was busy typing away and firing mails , with glib satisfaction as I hit the Send button of my mail client. It all happened shortly after i had my coffee, and decided to send out a microsoft joke to my friends, who I figured were probably, lazing around and waiting fro something to happen just like me. And yes. It started a long series or mails, cuss words and a heated argument...
So I thought i'd post a part of it on my blog...
PS: some names have been obscured and mail-ids hidden.

Jubin Joseph wrote:

Mr.Jeevan…we all know that you are a linux prophet….
But you sent this mail using bill’s software….
So even the big shots of linux ( like you) are in a sense forced to work with Bill…..

From: Jeevan G Joseph [jeevan.joseph@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 4:35 PM
To: Jubin Joseph
Cc: anildev@xxxxxx; Arun Thomas; Arun Thomas; Binu Koshy; Dhanaraj, Chethan (Cognizant); Firos_EK@xxxxxxx; George Cherian; leo_paul@xxxxxxxxxxx; Manu M; Mohamed Manesh; Mohamed Shafi; mohamed shiraz tk; Ratheesh P.Kumar; Sachin Bhaskaran; sajish_s@xxxxxxxxxx; Shabir A; Sreenath N; Tony Thayil
Subject: Re: Punishment for Gates

Hi,

Sorry for cluttering your inbox with this mail. This is not a flaming message/thread, and sent only in the good intention of spreading the message of freedom and FreeSoftware.

Now interested guys can join in...... [If you make any replies to this mail. kindly reply to me alone. Avoid unnecessary trouble to others.]

Sorry to disappoint you Jubin. I'm no Linux Prophet...just an average everyday user. But...
The mail was sent with Mozilla Thunderbird from my Linux Workstation (yes [my company name] provides linux machines also).
A free and OpenSource (Mozilla License) IMAP4 and POP3 mail client, Mozilla Thunderbird is the youger and probably lesser known sibling of the widely popular Firefox Browser. Firefox and Thunderbird are both lightweight than most of its commercial couterparts. They are also safer, and offer more features than other competing products.

Following is an interesting story. But if you have better things to do then close this mail and delete it.
(Disclaimer : This is my best understanding of the Microsoft-Netscape-AOL-Mozilla Drama. I'm not claiming its 100% correct. This is just what I know.)

Before 1994-The Dark Ages
Internet is something relatively unknown except to a few tech junkies at MIT and the like. Tim Berners Lee creates "Enquire Within," predecessor to the WWW. Internet access is limited to a few terminals, with the 'lynx' browser running solely on Unix systems. Mosaic Web browser developed by Marc Andreesen at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Mosaic becomes popular on PCs running MS-DOS ans MS-Windows.

1994-The Dawn of Time
Marc Andreesen decides to commercialize his Mosaic browser, and forms the first browser company. Netscape is born and the Internet is about to be changed forever. Netscape Navigator, the first 'web' browser with a GUI was released by Netscape, and took the market by storm. A new dimension had been opened for connectivity and collaboration. Everything we associate with the internet today, including the e-com bubble, web-based applications and the birth of 'Service-Oriented Infrastructure' (SOA and webservices) are simply an after effect of what Netscape had triggered.

1995-New Horizons
Almost overnight, the Netscape browsers had obtained over 80% of the new web browser market. Then, in a moment of history … Netscape, a newborn company, goes for its IPO. And the response is wild! Their initial float into the market is a rave success, and birth of the now (in)famous ‘Tech Bubble’ is triggered. Along with their loveable mascot “Mozilla” (a combination of the original browser Mosaic and Godzilla), Netscape has become the reigning king of the new “Web”.

1995 - The Phantom Menace
Netscape is king of the World Wide Web.… and then came Microsoft.

Netscape's overnight success opened the eyes of many – and Mr. Gates was certainly not blind to the potential of millions … no … billions of new customers. So he built his own line of browsers – Internet Explorer. Of course, it wasn’t as polished as Netscape, and it wasn’t built in a way that allowed thousands of computer sages to constantly help make improvements. Nope, it wasn’t built that way at all – but it was built into every single copy of Windows operating system! Uh Oh !.

1996-A Dark Tale
And so the war began. Suddenly the giant Netscape became a determined David against the Goliath called Microsoft. It a war of epic proportions. But as the war war waged on, the dark empire had cast its shadow on mankind caputuring the OS market share with truculent brutality. Windows dominated and with it came Internet Explorer. Explorer’s market share has grew exponentially while Netscape’s has dwindled.

1998-A New Hope
Just when things looked bleakest – another giant of the Internet industry rides to the rescue. Yes! America Online, the mightiest of the mighty new Internet Service Providers, rides out into the storm and comes to Netscape’s rescue with a buyout – hurray!! The beginning of 1999 has these two great forces united. Hope for Netscape is restored and the future is looking bright. Imagine - all those AOL clients using the Netscape browser! What a wonderful thing to behold!

1999 - Dreams can turn to Nightmares
If you can't remember the day when AOL cleints came bundled with Netscape, Well, that’s because it never happened. In a decision which should have been an omen of executive decisions to come, AOL executives decided to forego the unleashing of their newfound fortunes and instead built a stronger bond with – Microsoft. It is alleged that the entire AOL buy-out of Netscape was orchestrated by none other than Microsoft, since the buyout with their own proxy would ensure that they gained control over the enemy and could silence it once and for all...from the inside.But this could never be proven. And in those dark days, the hopes of the valiant Netscape faded away. Their host, the ruthless King AOL was also dying, cornered by its dwindling subscriber strength and unable to shoulder the weight of the Netscape battle . The future of Netscape, who triggered the Internet revolution, who changed world economies, and who changed the very way you and me used computers were all but dark.

2003-A story of Rise and Fall

But the war was not over. Like a determined soldier Netscape held on to its life, for there was still the final battle with Microsoft. And as history would have it,David had brought Goliath down...! for that battle was won! In early 2003, Microsoft was finally brought to its knees and paid a settlement of $750 million dollars to AOL – thereby ending the war. Shortly thereafter, the once-mighty AOL , now weakened after years of war against Microsoft, but still as ruthless as ever,gave Netscape it’s final blow – by relieving almost all of it’s staff of their jobs and announcing that no future versions of Netscape were planned. Netscape's throat was slit by its own brethren.

A sad tale of rise, glory and fall – to say the least. In a moment sympathy, the despotic king AOL granted the dying prince Netscape one last wish, A soldier's death – freedom. The starved and dying browser(code) was freed from the grasp of AOL and allowed to live on, though the creation of a non-profit organization called the Mozilla Foundation. While this tiny group of crusaders had faint hope of making another profound impact upon the browser market again, it’s spirit and open-source architecture will live on to fight another day.

2004-A New Beginning

The Mozilla Foundation released the Mozilla Suite v1.0(Browser+Mail client), which included all the features of its dead twin brother Netscape Navigator . Mozilla , powered by the new and all powerful 'Gecko' engine, became the standard browser for Open source community and OSes (including the numerous variants of Linux). AOL announced the re-starting of its Netscape Navigator Browser line, although in a very limited way. And Mozilla 1.0 breathed life in to its commercial brother Netscape 7.
Although Mozilla was widely accepted, it failed to gain singnificant ground on the windows platform, where, thoughtout the dark times of legal battle, the users had slowly and unknowingly come under the nefarious grip of the dark ruler, Internet Explorer.

2005- Rising from the Ashes

In late 2004/early 2005 Mozilla foundation announced the release of its next generation browser, initially codenamed 'Phoenix', after the mythical bird that symbolizes immortality, resurrection and life after death. Pheonix was later renamed as FireFox. Along with Firefox, Mozilla released Thunderbird mailclient.
Two and half months after Firefox's 1.0 launch, the Mozilla Foundation has more to celebrate than non-stop media coverage: Firefox has surpassed 20 million downloads. Firefox breathed a new life to windows users' internet experience with more features and security than the stock Internet Explorer. Powered by the revolutionaly 'Gecko' technology, the core rendering engine, Firefox and Thunderbird also features built in popup blocking, Tabbed browsing, and a host of security features, but most importantly, Extentions. Extentions allow Firefox and Thunderbird to do no browser/Email client has ever done before. from custom searches to blocking of objectionable content (images/text), to interpretting mouse movements as commands, the Mozilla Firefox became a religion on its own, claiming millions of 'converts' from the microsoft camp. Firefox became the fastest spreading software on planet earth. with 100 millon+ in its first year and counting.

If you would like to try Firefox or Thunderbird......



Thanks ,
Jeevan