After setting its source code free less than two weeks ago, Netscape's mozilla.org has posted the first version to have been modified by contributing developers.
Since its release on March 31, developers around the world have been actively working with the once-proprietary code, showing off an Aussie-built version incorporating strong encryption and plotting an all-Java version that could usurp Netscape and Sun Microsystems' plan for the same thing, the so-called Javagator.
Mozilla.org's staff emphasizes that the new code, posted Thursday, is available in source format only, and is meant exclusively for developers. That means it's not a browser any PC user can simply download and start using. "If you have never compiled and debugged a very large C/C++ program before, all that downloading the following will do for you is use up a lot of disk space," the site warns.
To developers who plan to compile it, the site also warns: "There will be problems. There's a good chance you'll have to modify it to even get it to compile.
"This is not a beta release. It is not even an alpha release. There are unfinished features and many bugs that would not be acceptable in an end-user product," mozilla.org's download area continues.
Called Mozilla in its free-source form, Netscape plans to incorporate the software's best features into the Netscape-branded version of Netscape Communicator. These executable releases will likely contain unreleased code, including that licensed from other companies, such as Sun (Navigator's Java virtual machine) and RSA Data Security (encryption software).
Netscape's official role in the ongoing development of Mozilla, says mozilla.org, is the same as developers: "Netscape writes code, and makes use of code written by others. Netscape will contribute new code back to the public just as others will."
Netscape made the code for its browser software available in an attempt to ward off a potentially mortal threat from Microsoft and its marketshare-grabbing Internet Explorer browser.
