Channel Register®

Original URL: http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/02/14/mozilla_two/

Mozilla 2 promises big change

Behind Firefox

By Phil Manchester

Posted in Software & Security, 14th February 2008 10:05 GMT

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The beta 3 version of Firefox 3 [1], released this week, will probably be the last version of the browser based on the original Mozilla platform, celebrating its tenth anniversary next week. Work is already underway on a revamp of Firefox's underlying platform - Mozilla [2].

It was on February 23, 1998, that Netscape announced [3] the creation of the Mozilla website as the "focal point for developers interested in modifying and redistributing Netscape client source". It was an historic time for the embryonic open-source movement. Netscape's move happened around the same time that open-source evangelists Bruce Perens and Eric Raymond formalized [4] open-source development with the Open Source Definition.

Although Firefox 3 introduces some changes that will affect many developers [5] given Firefox's growing number of downloads, it should be noted that those promised [6] for Mozilla 2 will also have a far-reaching impact. The Mozilla code has become widely used by a range of hardware manufacturers, from mobile devices [7] to media servers [8], in addition to regular ISVs, all rolling their own browsers.

While the current Mozilla 1.9 platform for Firefox has evolved incrementally since 1998, Mozilla 2 is likely to be more of a revolution with cleaner application program interfaces (APIs) and possible adoption of a Just In Time (JIT)-oriented JavaScript Virtual Machine with incremental garbage collector to manage DOM object memory, instead of using Cross Platform Component Object Mode (XPCOM) reference counting. Interestingly, the Mozilla 2 definition specifically excludes a mobile version although the architects say "volunteers are welcome to port" to mobile platforms and note that it will be easier with Mozilla 2 than its predecessor.®