Nothing. Firefox is the collective product of volunteer programmers in what is known as the open-source community. That means anyone is free to add features and fix flaws. Any improvements go back to the community and are made available for free.
Who's behind it?
America Online Inc., which owns the Netscape browser, contributed $2-million to set up the Mozilla Foundation. About a dozen staffers coordinate the project and rely primarily on about 60 full-time engineers on the payroll of Microsoft Corp. rivals such as IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. About 1,000 other volunteers, including college professors and high school students, contribute tweaks and test the product.
What is Firefox's relationship with Mozilla and Netscape?
As Netscape lost market share to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the then-independent Netscape Communications Corp. opted to release its software blueprint to the public and encourage developers to offer improvements. The product, which includes e-mail and chat, is known as Mozilla, and subsequent versions of Netscape share the underlying code. Firefox is the browser component of Mozilla with added features.
Why do we need another browser?
The open-source community is generally upset with Microsoft's lock on technology. Internet Explorer has features that depart from published Web standards, forcing users to rely on that browser to avoid misbehaving Web pages. Having enough users of alternative browsers could help persuade Web developers to adhere to standards. The open-source community also thinks Microsoft technology is fundamentally insecure because of its closed nature; the blueprint for Firefox is open for inspection - and correction.
Will it make a dent?
Firefox is not likely to displace Internet Explorer as the world's dominant browser, but it could gain enough users to influence Web developers and prod Microsoft to add features.
