Fernando Cassia wrote:
>
> Which brinds one question: why didn't Netscape just call the Mozilla
> project "Open Netscape" and the browser "Open Netscape". So
> mozilla=netscape=netscape.
Because Netscape is a trademarked name and they want to have some
assurance as to what products get associated with their brand[1].
Since anyone can do anything they like with Mozilla source code,
Netscape don't want to have to field questions about, for example, the
Red Hat branded version of Mozilla that Red Hat will be shipping in
their next major release, that may have different configuration and even
different code from the official mozilla.org version, let alone the
official Netscape version. Questions about the Netscape branded release
should go to Netscape, questions about the unbranded mozilla.org release
should go to mozilla.org, and questions about Red Hat's version should
go to Red Hat.
If mozilla was called Open Netscape, Netscape would get questions about
all of these.
It works both ways, too: If people come to mozilla.org asking about
Netscape 6.0 (which was released far before mozilla.org considered the
product 1.0 quality, and which most of the major bugs in have since been
fixed) mozilla.org can legitimately say "You should be asking Netscape
that, not us". Usually, because of the close relationship between
Netscape and Mozilla, mozilla people will actually help out with
Netscape 6 questions too, even though the answer is often "that's been
fixed for ages in mozilla, grab a recent milestone instead". Questions
about Netscape 4.x, on the other hand, will just get an "ask netscape"
response, because the code for 4.x was never released so mozilla.org
people don't even have the means to help.
Stuart.
[1] Although it seems a little strange that Netscape would put out a
horrible product like their 6.0 release and then worry about what gets
associated with their brand...
