13. Epilog: Netscape Embraces the Bazaar!
It's a strange feeling to realize you're helping make history....
On January 22 1998, approximately seven months after I first published
this paper, Netscape Communications, Inc. announced plans to
give away the source for Netscape Communicator. I had had
no clue this was going to happen before the day of the announcement.
Eric Hahn, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at
Netscape, emailed me shortly afterwards as follows: ``On behalf of
everyone at Netscape, I want to thank you for helping us get to this
point in the first place. Your thinking and writings were fundamental
inspirations to our decision.''
The following week I flew out to Silicon Valley at Netscape's
invitation for a day-long strategy conference (on Feb 4 1998) with
some of their top executives and technical people. We designed
Netscape's source-release strategy and license together, and laid some
more plans that we hope will eventually have far-reaching and positive
impacts on the open-source community. As I write, it is a bit too
soon to be more specific; but details should be forthcoming within
weeks.
Netscape is about to provide us with a large-scale, real-world test of
the bazaar model in the commercial world. The open-source culture
now faces a danger; if Netscape's execution doesn't work, the
open-source concept may be so discredited that the commercial world
won't touch it again for another decade.
On the other hand, this is also a spectacular opportunity. Initial
reaction to the move on Wall Street and elsewhere has been cautiously
positive. We're being given a chance to prove ourselves, too. If
Netscape regains substantial market share through this move, it just
may set off a long-overdue revolution in the software industry.
The next year should be a very instructive and interesting time.