Standards-Battles in Open Source Software: The Case of Firefox
"In many ways, the rise of the open source web browser Firefox contradicts common wisdom and expectations. An industry with network effects, as is the case in the web browser industry, should follow the rationale of "the strong grow stronger, and the weak become weaker." This means that in the long run, a single dominant technology will prevail that prevents competing technologies from obtaining a foothold in the market. We can therefore explain the victory of Internet Explorer (IE) over...
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"In many ways, the rise of the open source web browser Firefox contradicts common wisdom and expectations. An industry with network effects, as is the case in the web browser industry, should follow the rationale of "the strong grow stronger, and the weak become weaker." This means that in the long run, a single dominant technology will prevail that prevents competing technologies from obtaining a foothold in the market. We can therefore explain the victory of Internet Explorer (IE) over Netscape mainly because IE was bundled with the Windows operating system; however, we still need to understand the rise of Firefox in a "winner-takes-all market." Could the characteristics of Firefox, an open source software web browser, explain this unexpected success?" This book brings together insights from open source software, open standards, and standards-setting, and illustrates the dynamics of standards-setting by examining two standards battles: Internet Explorer versus Netscape and Internet Explorer versus Firefox.
List of Figures List of Tables Preface Acknowledgments1 Introduction 12 Open Source Software 63 Standards and Standards-Setting 204 Standardization Battles in OSS: A Theoretical Framework 355 Industry Background 476 Browser War I (1995-1999): Microsoft Versus Netscape 687 Browser War II (2003-2008): Mozilla Versus Microsoft 848 Standard-Setting Mechanisms in Open Source Software 1209 What can be Learnt from these Browser Wars 135 App Worldwide Market Share 147 Notes 151 References 168 Index 187
