Jason Mosser wrote: > The one thing that people need to remember is this, "Mozilla is not > intended for end users." plain and simple. If one takes a good look > around the Mozilla.org website, they will find numerous statements > like this.
I've been seeing this a lot lately in the newsgroups, but I always wonder: Where does this idea come from? Of course mozilla is intended for end users. Why else would we all be building this application suite? Mozilla.org is itself a distributor, and even other distributors are largely distributing mozilla applications, relatively intact. If the goal were really just a platform, we would be spending a lot more effort on test harnesses and a lot less on apps. Success means getting this code into the hands of as many end users as possible, and that means the apps as well as the components. I can't find anywhere on mozilla.org that says 'Mozilla is not intended for end users', but I can find these mozilla.org pages: http://www.mozilla.org/get-involved.html , which says " We need documentation for users...". http://www.mozilla.org/quality/ , which says "...contribute to placing a fast, stable, and truly standards-compliant browser and mail/news reader onto the hard disks of tens of millions of Internet users..." http://www.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/ , which says "This page provides links to documentation for users of Mozilla and Mozilla-based browsers." http://www.mozilla.org/unity-of-interface.html , wherein JWZ said "the goal is to let the user accomplish what they want to accomplish: not to produce the perfect implementation of a particular protocol." http://www.mozilla.org/mozilla-at-one.html , which says "Now that that groundwork has been laid more attention can be paid to other areas where work is needed, like Mozilla testing by end users ..." http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap/mozilla-1.0.html , where Brendan says '...the world needs a "1.0" from mozilla.org soon...' and " We think the world will be a better place, with more hands helping to improve Mozilla, and more people benefiting from distributions of Mozilla..." http://www.mozilla.org/binaries.html , which shows several end user products which either incorporate mozilla intact, or use it as the basis for their products. I think people are confusing some things that *are* often said on mozilla.org, and are true: mozilla.org mailing lists and newsgroups are not intended for end users, nor are the nightlies or other pre-release builds. Even milestone builds may not be suitable for many end users, but a key goal of mozilla1.0 must certainly be no less than to displace non-mozilla browsers on every possible desktop. They might not all have the red star ;-), but let's face it, they are all mozilla at heart. Peter
