Mozilla.org Unleashes Mozilla 1.0
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In what has been described as "a huge milestone for the free software community," Mozilla.org Wednesday launched Mozilla 1.0, the first major-version public release of the source code which powers the Netscape 7.0 browser.
Mozilla.org was created by the former Netscape Communications Corp. (now an AOL Time Warner subsidiary) in 1998 to coordinate the Mozilla community's open source development of the Netscape source code.
"The Mozilla project has quietly become a key building block in the open source infrastructure," said Tim O'Reilly, founder and chief executive officer of O'Reilly & Associates Inc. "In addition to the open source Mozilla browser and the Netscape 7.0 browser, the Mozilla toolkit has been used to create additional browsers for platforms such as Linux and Mac OS X, instant messaging clients such as Chatzilla and the cross-platform Jabber client, and software development tools such as ActiveState's Komodo IDE."
Mozilla 1.0 consists of a full-fledged browser suite based on the latest Internet standards, and a cross-platform toolkit for developing Internet-based applications. The cross-platform suite was built on the Gecko layout engine and integrates a core set of applications, including a Web browser, e-mail reader and chat client.
The toolkit also includes Mozilla's XML-based user-interface development technology (XUL), networking libraries, ECMAScript implementation and security and encryption libraries.
Additionally, Mozilla.org said the suite has been designed for easy localization into languages other than English. The first localized versions of Mozilla 1.0 will be Asturian, Chinese, Dutch, Greek, Estonian, Galician, German, Georgian, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Malay, Polish, Slovak, Sorbian and Ukranian.
While the Mozilla 1.0 components are all open source and free of charge, Mozilla.org has especially aimed Wednesday's release at developers, noting that the release "expands the range of developers who can write complex applications since Mozilla's architecture enables the creation of such complex applications by building upon the same technologies that are used to create Web content."
Mozilla 1.0 is available for free download at Mozilla.org's Web site.