What the hell was in the coffee?

An email I sent to a list I'm on, in responce to AOL cutting Mozilla loose.

[NOTE: I've since read things that make it sound like Netscape is not yet, officially dead. Mozilla is out from under AOL though]

Every analyst in the business saw it coming. Not a sole was surprised.

Number 1 and 2 from blogdex this morning:

1. AOL Cuts Remaining Mozilla Hackers
2. the Mozilla Foundation launched

Basically, the short of it is, Netscape has been officially killed, to
the average user (silly PC users, at least) IE now looks like the only
browser on the market.

But, underneath the surface, bubbling up on computers all over the world
like some super virus, there lies the only software package currently
available today that has a true chance to slay the giant, Mozilla. Now
free of it's corporate bonds, Mozilla is free of restrictions, free to
innovate, free to do... um, pretty much what they've been doing all
along. :)

As part of the AOL/Microsoft settlement, Microsoft "had to give" (I'm
sure it was hard for them) AOL royality free access to IE for 6 or 7
years. When word leaked, every software analyst on the planet was
counting the days till AOL killed Netscape, and cut Mozilla loose, in a
cost cutting measure. But, what would happen to the open source Mozilla
project? The development community was quick to jump in. "AOL/Netscape
is not that vital to the project anymore" they said. "They just give us
domains and server space for builds, which other companies have already
promised to give us." they said. "Mozilla will live on no matter what"
they said. And today, they delivered. Kudos. And for this, I'm
acctually happy. In the short run, MS has won, but in the long run,
they may have just signed their death warrent in the browser wars,
because now it's a geurilla war. Now, the oposition will take the
market away machine by machine. And they won't give them back. Sooner
or later, the emporer will bow before the will of the people.

A moment of silence though for the fallen. Netscape was the sole direct
decendant of the mighty Mosaic, from which all browsers came. It showed
it's age in recent years, as younger, more nimble browsers ran loops
around it, but it still commanded a certain kind of respect from those
who knew the history. In it's death throws, it birthed Mozilla, and for
that, we are grateful. Mozilla will live on in the proud tradition of
it's forefathers honoring thier memory. It will avenge the murder of
it's ancestors, by the pretender to the thrown. And one day, people
will know what good software is.

So raise a glass, one and all. We mourn for the past, and toast to the
future. We will avenge the fallen, and rejoice the new born. They
think they have won, but we have just begun. Now the war is on our
terms, and we can not fail. We will not fail. And we will not stop,
not until the pretender has been crushed and the world has been shown
the true power that comes from the will of the people!

SOLIDARITY!!!!