Netscape browser for Free *and* distribution of source code

[Peter Murray]

The news today, along with the news from Microsoft vs. The United States,
has an item about Netscape giving away Communicator for free beginning
Monday.  What isn't in the popular news press is the fact that beginning
with Communicator 5.0 Netscape will be posting the source code on their
site!  From http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/980122/ca_netscap_3.html:

  Netscape, plans to make Netscape Communicator 5.0 source code available
  for modification and redistribution beginning later this quarter with
  the first developer release of the product. The company will handle
  free source distribution with a license that allows source code
  modification and redistribution and provides for free availability of
  source code versions, building on the heritage of the GNU Public
  License (GPL), familiar to developers on the Net. Netscape intends
  to create a special Web site service where all interested parties
  can download the source code, post their enhancements, take part in
  newsgroup discussions, and obtain and share Communicator related
  information with others in the Internet community. Netscape will
  also continue to develop new technologies and offer periodic certified,
  high-quality, supported releases of its Netscape Communicator and
  Navigator products, incorporating some of the best features created
  by this dynamic community. 

So, what I think this means is that if there are specific features of a
powerful web browser that the library community wants, we just need a few
energetic individuals to do the programming work and make the results
available to the rest of us.

Personally, this sounds like it is going to be a big mess.  These browsers
have a huge amount of source code and it will likely be difficult to modify
one piece of if without affecting the stability of the rest.  But still, it
would be nice to try!


Peter
--
Peter Murray, Library Systems Manager                    pem at po.cwru.edu
Digital Media Services                 http://www.cwru.edu/home/pem.html
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio          W:216-368-5888