Oh, the nail-biting suspense! Which browser will come out on top? The intrigue! The drama! The… the routine.

We’ve actually been watching this fight between Microsoft and Mozilla since 1995, and in fact they’re actually descended from the same web browser. You heard me: Internet Explorer and Firefox. The same parent browser.

Meh, loosely speaking, anyway. The original, the one and only classic, is NCSA Mosaic. Another company, Spyglass, licensed the web browser code. To quote the Mosaic Wiki page:

“Spyglass licensed the technology and trademarks from NCSA for producing their own web browser but never used any of the NCSA Mosaic source code. Microsoft licensed Spyglass Mosaic in 1995 for US$2 million, modified it, and renamed it Internet Explorer.”

So that was at least the technology that went into Mosaic and also got sold to Microsoft. Meanwhile, Mosaic Communications begat Netscape Communications Corporation, producing Netscape Navigator. And lo, Netscape Navigator was eventually released as open source, under the codename of “Mozilla”. Does that name ring a bell? Yes, the same Mozilla corporation which produces Firefox.

The next time you’re in a heated debate with other web developers about which is the better browser or which one will win the desktop war, you can just wave your hand and go “What’s the difference? They’re both at least cousins to each other.” Then point them here.

Peter Brittain