Posted on Saturday 1 October 2005 - Popularity: unranked
Very interesting interview with Firefox creator Blake Ross. Some of the highlights:
Being an open source product, will the Firefox be free forever? How do you and Mozilla Foundation get revenue from Firefox and other free products?
Firefox will be free forever. The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization, so its revenue goes toward improving its products. It makes money through the generous donations of satisfied users as well as more traditional corporate deals. Officials from the Foundation can comment further; I am not an employee.
Can you show us the way you grew up? How did you acquire the extraordinary code talents?
The only way to learn how to code is to code. You can’t learn it in school, and you can’t learn it curled up in bed with a book. You have to be right in front of the computer, facing off with it, trying to figure out how it works and ultimately trying to outsmart it.
I think I must have spent about 85% of my childhood in my room, on the computer, just writing code until I couldn’t see straight. But it’s not the act of coding itself that drives me, much as I enjoy the challenge. It’s the act of inventing. I love that I can make something out of nothing. I like creating things that inspire people. Right now, that’s software. But in a few years, it’s going to be writing novels and directing movies. Life’s too short to spend all of it in one industry.
Can you illustrate your days working in Mozilla Foundation?
Here’s the beauty of open source: I’ve only physically worked in the Mozilla Foundation offices for about 2 months. I also spent a few months working at Netscape (the progenitor of Mozilla) during high school. But other than that, the last five years of Mozilla work have been done when I want and where I want. No suits, no status reports–just a bunch of dedicated people coordinating online to make things happen.
Fredi
