The Mozilla Foundation today announced a major reorganization effort, creating what will be known as the Mozilla Corporation. All but 3 employees will be moving over to the corporation.
Aside from a name change, it is not immediately apparent (to me, at least) what sort of effect this will have on Mozilla. According to an FAQ released with the press release, the will not start charging for Firefox or Thunderbird and will not be offering an IPO.
The Mozilla Corporation was established to support the Mozilla Foundations mission to ensure choice and innovation on the Internet by leveraging the economic value of Firefox which has resulted from its growing marketshare. By forming a commercial subsidiary, the revenue-generating activities of the new entity can provide funds to support development, testing, and productization of the various Mozilla open source technologies.
I guess we will just have to see how this plays out in the coming weeks and months.
I could have told you 6 months ago this would happen. I just hope all the folks that contributed but don’t get to be on the cover of Wired magazine aren’t forgotten, brushed aside, or end up disillusioned. Popular begets recognition and attention, money soon follows, and then the power struggle and messed up politics begin. And pretty soon you have a brand new Netscape beast, bought out by AOL and turned into crap. FTS!