Standards Battles in Open Source Software: The Case of Firefox

204 Pages·2008·1.125 MB·English

by  Huibert de Vries, Henk de Vries, Ilan Oshri (auth.)

Standards Battles in
Open Source Software
The Case of Firefox
Huibert de Vries, Henk de Vries and
Ilan Oshri
Standards Battles in Open Source Software
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Standards Battles in
Open Source Software
The Case of Firefox
Huibert de Vries
Henk de Vries
and
Ilan Oshri
© Huibert de Vries, Henk de Vries and Ilan Oshri 2008
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008978-0-230-22072-0
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors has asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2008 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin's Press LLC,
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Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
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Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
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ISBN 978-1-349-30618-3 ISBN 978-0-230-59509-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230595095
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
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country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vries, Huibert de.
Standards battles in open source software : the case of Firefox /
Huibert de Vries, Henk de Vries, and Ilan Oshri.
p. cm.
1. Open source software – Standards. 2. Browsers (Computer programs)
3. Firefox. I. Vries, Henk J. de. II. Oshri, Ilan. III. Title.
QA76.76.S46V75 2008
005.7(cid:2)1376—dc22 2008029951
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge
Proverbs 1:7a
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Contents
List of Figures viii
List of Tables ix
Preface x
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction 1
2 Open Source Software 6
3 Standards and Standards-Setting 20
4 Standardization Battles in OSS: A Theoretical Framework 35
5 Industry Background 47
6 Browser War I (1995–1999): Microsoft Versus Netscape 68
7 Browser War II (2003–2008): Mozilla Versus Microsoft 84
8 Standard-Setting Mechanisms in Open Source Software 120
9 What can be Learnt from these Browser Wars 135
Appendix: Worldwide Market Share 147
Notes 151
References 168
Index 187
vii
List of Figures
3.1 Standards-setting attributes 25
4.1 Basic structure of the theoretical framework 36
4.2 Theoretical framework 38
4.3 Continuums for OSS issues 42
4.4 Potential direct influences/interlinkages 44
5.1 Transformation of the PC industry 48
5.2 Structure of the IT industry 49
5.3 Web browser market share 55
5.4 Worldwide market share 56
5.5 O verview of market share of main web browsers
1994–2005 56
6.1 OSS characteristics of IE in Browser War I until
1997, IE 3.0 80
6.2 Overview of characteristics of IE in Browser War I 83
7.1 OSS characteristics of Mozilla Firefox
(Browser War II): competition versus cooperation 113
7.2 Overview of characteristics of Firefox in
Browser War II 119
viii
List of Tables
2.1 Overview of software licenses 11
3.1 Openness in different phases 28
5.1 Downloads of Firefox 1.0.x from Mozilla website 67
6.1 Browser War I timeline (1994–1999) 69
6.2 Standards-setting attributes:
collaboration – competition 79
6.3 Seven key assets of Shapiro and Varian (1999a);
IE relative to Netscape 82
7.1 Browser War II timeline (2001–2007) 86
7.2 Overview of product/standard characteristics
of Mozilla Firefox 99
7.3 Standards-setting attributes: collaboration – competition 112
7.4 Openness in different phases 114
7.5 Seven key assets of Shapiro and Varian
(1999a): Firefox relative to IE 118
8.1 Key influencers explaining the adoption of IE 121
8.2 Key influencers explaining the adoption of Firefox 126
A1 W eb browser market shares in percentages of
visits, World Index 148
A2 W eb browser market shares in percentages,
June 2007 149
A3 Web browser market shares in percentages,
2002–2007 149
A4 Web browser market shares in percentages,
September 2005–September 2006 149
A5 Web browser market shares in percentages,
September 2006–March 2008 150
ix