What's the point of developing a web browser?

[RoloMather]

And then releasing it for free? What does the company gain?

 

[Barfo]

Originally posted by: RoloMather
And then releasing it for free? What does the company gain?

karma

 

[ChaoZ]

Revenue?

 

[BeauJangles]

In Google's case, they developed Chrome because they wanted IE and Firefox to incorporate a whole bunch of features and the easiest way to get that done was introduce a competitive browser with that functionality. So far, it's worked.

 

[mugs]

Firefox makes a ton of money with the google search bar

 

[Capt Caveman]

What is the point of your posts?

 

[LS21]

for the lulz

 

[RESmonkey]

OP, ever heard of Open Source?

 

[acheron]

In Microsoft's case, they licensed Mosaic from the company that owned the rights, Spyglass, and used it to develop the first versions of IE. The deal was that Microsoft paid Spyglass royalties for every copy of IE that they sold. Guess how well that worked out for Spyglass.

(Eventually Spyglass sued MS over it, and they settled out of court.)

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: mugs
Firefox makes a ton of money with the google search bar

No joke, I use it all the time.

 

[Chaotic42]

What I want to know is how you can have a monopoly in a market where no one (relevant)charges for the product.

 

[sdifox]

Otherwise you would have to find something else to bitch about.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
What is the point of your posts?

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: mugs
Firefox makes a ton of money with the google search bar

 

[Skeeedunt]

Originally posted by: ChaoZ
Revenue?

LOL?

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: mugs
Firefox makes a ton of money with the google search bar

this

Google pays Mozilla a substantial sum - in 2006 the total amounted to around $57 million, or 85% of the company?s total revenue. The deal was originally going to expire in 2006, but was later extended to 2008 and will now run through 2011.

 

[Gothgar]

Originally posted by: Syringer

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: mugs
Firefox makes a ton of money with the google search bar

this

Google pays Mozilla a substantial sum - in 2006 the total amounted to around $57 million, or 85% of the company?s total revenue. The deal was originally going to expire in 2006, but was later extended to 2008 and will now run through 2011.

wow, 57 mil aint half bad

 

[frostedflakes]

I don't know, why does anybody bother developing free and open source software? Obviously some people are in it for something other than the money.

And it's not like there isn't money to be made from FOSS. For example, I think the bulk of the Mozilla Foundation's revenue comes from Google search referrals. Obviously they're not going to be pulling in the same money that a commercial software developer would be, but I'm sure they earn enough to get by.

 

[OhSnap688]

It's to make more jobs for Web Developers and Web Designers. Thanks guys !

 

[Red Squirrel]

Lot of the time it's just for the joy of having made something that other people enjoy. For example I spend a great deal of time coding for my game server. I don't charge people to play since I enjoy coding and seeing people enjoy what I made. There is more to life then money. Seeing your own accomplishments get seen is worth more then money sometimes.

 

[sao123]

theres more to life than money.

 

[Regs]

Whatever happen to Netscape?

 

[Epic Fail]

Originally posted by: Regs
Whatever happen to Netscape?

It couldn't keep up with lynx.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Regs
Whatever happen to Netscape?

The company? Bought by AOL. The browser? Dead. But they started the Mozilla project with the source from Navigator years ago, so Netscape is essentially the grandfather of Firefox.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5aJAaGZIvk