In 1998 Netscape released the code base for their popular browser under an open source license and created the Mozilla organization and the mozilla.org website for developers to collaborate on its work.
After some time working on the original Netscape browser code, the Mozilla developers decided to scrap the whole codebase and to start all over again with much more ambitious goals. Despite problems associated with this massive rewrite, the Mozilla project now provides a servicable, standards based, web-browser on multiple operating systems. Development of its underlying technologies (such as the Gecko? rendering core) have also helped many spin-off/enhancement projects based on the core code. Even help code have generated spin-offs, such as the Bugzilla bug tracker, the Bonsai? CVS code management system needed to build software in a collaborated effort with many outside programmers, and the Tinderbox? detective tool that allows developers to see which changes have broken which builds on which platforms.
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