MOZILLA FOUNDATION RELEASES THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED MOZILLA FIREFOX 1.0 WEB BROWSER

  1. Yesterday, Firefox turned four. At the time, we were very proud to release a piece of software in a dozen languages. It was indeed quite an achievement, but we're now heading to a release of Firefox 3.1 in more than 60 langages :-)
  2. 700 millions downloads (on Nov 3rd) (we know that downloads is not the most meaningful metric, but it's still impressive when we think about it).
  3. Mozilla surpasses 20% worldwide maket share.

In just 4 years, things have changed tremendously in the browser space: more innovation, more players. Overall, the Web is in a much better shape than before, and the outlook is much more positive. One should remember that in 2003, anybody building Web sites made them exclusively for Internet Explorer, a browser which was not maintained at the time. How things have changed since then! In places like Spain, France, Germany and Poland, Firefox is used by 30 to 40% of Internet users[1]

In just 4 years, Mozilla has demonstrated a few key things:

  1. Open-Source / Free-Software can put into the hands of users high quality desktop applications
  2. Building a sustainable not-for-profit organization is possible
  3. People care about browsers and the Web and are ready to step up and help to shape the on-line future

Now, a lot needs to be done by Mozilla (and this is just an incomplete list):

  1. Articulate better what is Mozilla as a movement, and where it's going
  2. Keep making progress on the desktop, now that competition is back
  3. Show relevance in the Mobile market
  4. Lead on the data and privacy issues on the Web.

We're trying, with the 2010 goals initiative to decide what should Mozilla be doing in the next 2 years. Want to participate? Head to the Wiki discussion page[2] and try to answer the following question:

What can Mozilla do with our products and our product development processes to move the Internet toward our vision of an open, decentralized, participatory place in the next two years?

... or leave a comment below.

Notes

[1] More accurately, 30 to 40% of Web visits are done using Firefox.

[2] You'll need an account, but you probably have one already, or if not, guess what, it's free! :-)