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AOL released Mozilla as an independent project, which morphed into the stripped down version, Phoenix. Anyway, it was already open source by the time it was rel
by mmahemoff 14y ago
AOL released Mozilla as an independent project, which morphed into the stripped down version, Phoenix. Anyway, it was already open source by the time it was released, so it's a very different situation to this startup-releasing-open-source wish, but still the closest example I can think of, when considering only successful projects.
- pjmlp 14y agoPhoenix only became Firefox thanks to Google's support, otherwise it would have eventually died.
- Joeri 14y agoNetscape committed to spinning off mozilla prior to the AOL deal. Also, mozilla is an example of how releasing a closed source codebase often doesn't work, because the mozilla project ended up throwing away the old code and rewriting the engine and user interface. A better example is blender, whose source was bought out and open sourced through a community effort.
- ldng 14y agoThe Mozilla Foundation choose the rewrite path, it's true. Yet, the Sea Monkey project [1] is still alive. It's not like the code base vanished in thin air. [1] http://www.seamonkey-project.org/ http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
- Joeri 14y agoIIRC seamonkey is a rewrite of the netscape communicator codebase. The seamonkey code was what firefox grew out of (firefox itself was not a rewrite, just a refactoring).