Mozilla Doesn’t Want Firefox to Be Bundled With Windows

      by Wyatt Walter

Firefox architect, Mike Connor has come out and said that Mozilla simply doesn’t want Firefox to be bundled with Windows. The European Union has been throwing around ideas on what to do with Microsoft since it found Microsoft guilty of anti-competitive practices by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. The problem for Mozilla lies in the fact that, should this happen, Firefox would become everything that they are trying to fight: a monopoly.

The open source software maker gives away its browser for free, but it’s a different type of freedom that Mozilla is chasing. “Free software” is about freedom of choice which is not accomplished by forming a monopoly and forcing everyone to use a free (as in price) product. It doesn’t accomplish what the Mozilla Foundation (and other open source foundations) are about.

Firefox doesn’t really need to be concerned yet with only a 20% market share, but as users are presented with a choice, they often are choosing Firefox. Connor says that he wants Firefox to be used out of choice, not because it was what came with the operating system: “As people become aware there’s an alternative, you don’t end up in that situation. You have to be perceptibly better.”

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Feb 10th, 2009

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