Mozilla developers form nonprofit foundation

The people behind the Mozilla open source project have created a foundation largely funded by America Online (AOL) that will build, support and promote Mozilla products, the new Mozilla Foundation said Tuesday.

AOL has pledged $2 million in cash to the new nonprofit foundation, to be paid over two years in two $1 million installments, said Christopher Blizzard a Mozilla Foundation board member. AOL’s money, together with other donations, will be used to pay about 10 software developers and other foundation expenses, he said.

“We have always wanted to create some sort of legal entity to represent Mozilla,” said Blizzard, whose everyday job is as a software developer for Linux vendor Red Hat. “It is convenient to do it now, mostly because AOL wanted to provide funding.”

The Mozilla Foundation will put more focus on making the Mozilla browser and e-mail client more end-user friendly, Blizzard said.

“We have always been a technology clearing house and we did not care about people who use our products. We will now provide help and focus on end users,” he said.

As part of the funding deal with AOL, several Mozilla developers at AOL will move to the new foundation, Blizzard said. There is a “transition team” at AOL to help these developers move over, he said. Also, AOL will give the foundation equipment, domain names and trade marks associated with Mozilla, the foundation said in a statement.

AOL will still use Mozilla technology and keep some people who work on Mozilla, according to Blizzard.

AOL did not return calls seeking comment.

Mozilla was started in early 1998 by Netscape Communications, which AOL acquired later that year. AOL has been supporting Mozilla development since then, but the amount of support had been decreasing.

Without the close ties to AOL, the foundation is free to look around for funding, Blizzard said. Mitch Kapor, the chairman of the Mozilla Foundation and founder of Lotus, has pledged $300,000, for example, according to the Mozilla Foundation statement.

Money for Mozilla should not only come from donations, but also from direct revenue generated through end-user services or developer services, Blizzard said.