Yes, there has been a lot of talk about the Mozilla platform lately. This is to be expected considering the hype generated around Sliverlight and Apollo platforms. Most of the discussion is coming from well meaning developers, using (or trying to use) the Mozilla platform to build products. Developers who want to see the open Mozilla platform flourish in the face of closed competitors. I have a special interest in the platform too, its how I ended up working at Mozilla, so I also want to see it succeed.
Yes, Mozilla made an official announcement (Mitchell’s pre-announcement, Shaver’s preemptive-response) about the plan for XULRunner, a physical manifestation of the Mozilla platform. The announcement contains a lot of information and covers many aspects of the Mozilla platform. Mitchell discusses how the platform will be used internally, to how Mozilla will respond to the platform runtimes from Microsoft and Adobe, and everything in-between. The plan specifically covers:
- XUL as Language
- XULRunner to Support Firefox and Browsing
- XULRunner to Support Other Applications
- Stand-Alone XULRunner
Yes, there have been a few “sky is falling” responses to the official announcement. It’s my opinion that the responses have been focused too much on one item in the announcement:
The Mozilla Foundation does not plan to invest in a pre-packaged or stand-alone XULRunner at this time. We plan to re-evaluate this as we approach the release of Mozilla 2.
This quote is part of the Stand-Alone XULRunner plan (#4). The news that Mozilla will not be packaging a system-level version of XULRunner is disappointing to some people. I, too, would like to see such a product, but I think people are severely underestimating the amount of work required to make it happen. A shared, system-level component is not an easy thing to do. When multiple applications share a runtime, versioning and upgrading needs to work almost magically, or some applications will break.
Personally, I am far more interested in the first 3 points. There is some really positive information in the other points:
- Mozilla will continue to invest in XUL. Just look at the XUL section on the Firefox 3 for Developers page. Development focus is primarily on the needs of Firefox, but should also address broader needs (“Specific examples of how this works in practice have been the inclusion of thread-safety patches and graphics patches beyond Firefox requirements …”)
- Mozilla will continue to develop XULRunner as a platform for delivering Firefox. Anyone tracking the Mozilla 2 development knows that Firefox and XULRunner will be the primary projects. Just because Firefox will not be delivered with a shared, system-level XULRunner does not mean Firefox will not be built on XULRunner.
- Mozilla will work with XUL application developers to help move the XULRunner platform forward. This includes working on features and bugs that no only add value to Firefox (and Mozilla projects) but also external projects. Downloadable builds of XULRunner will still be available.
XULRunner is not dead. Do not believe words to the contrary. Its time the XULRunner community begins to focus its efforts to move the platform forward and provide less negative, stop energy.