Les Jones

Tech > Joel Knows Software

Years ago, Netscape and the Mozilla group decided to re-write Netscape from the ground up. 4.7 was out. They never shipped 5.0, even though it was almost ready. Instead, they waited two years and released 6.0. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer became the dominant Web browser.

Joel Sposky has said for years that re-writing the code from scratch without improving the existing code base was the worst mistake Netscape could have made. Netscape is now Mozilla (more or less). Scott Collins of the Mozilla project agrees: "Well, you can't put 50 pounds of [crap] in a ten pound bag, it took two years. And we didn't get out a 5.0, and that cost of us everything, it was the biggest mistake ever, and I put it all on the feet of this one individual, whom I will not name."

Sposky also criticized Netscape and Mozilla for using non-native interface controls. Collins backs him up there, too: "We should have used native controls as soon as it was possible, despite of the fact that they're harder to write, because we ended up going that way anyway."

Sposky called it right.