One of my favorite documentaries, also because it captures so much personal reality and feeling of what it must have been like, it really inspires me.
I watched Code Rush tens of times. That was my time, I just had my degree in Computer Science in Milan, Italy. Before Mosaic and then Netscape, the only way to get access to information was through an Ampex terminal using tools like Gopher and Veronica. Internet connection was rare and hard to get, and the first browser changed my life forever. Soon after, the first ISPs emerged, and in an instant, access to information became available, even from my 10,000-person town. Netscape is how I became aware of Silicon Valley, and it took me almost 15 years to get there. It has been a lot of fun and excitement; I knew something big was happening, but nobody believed me or even understood me. When Code Rush finally became available on YouTube, it was like being part of the pirate crew from my small town for the first time. I still watch it once a year. It changed everything.
Just discovered the documentary, and it's such an interesting time capsule. That period simultaneously feels like yesterday, and a lifetime ago.
its weirdly endearing in the age of LLMs to see a word like company misspelled in a blog post
I remember when Phoenix was born because of Mozilla -ex Netscape- bloat. Now Firefox uses far more resources than Seamonkey itself even with all the bundled functionality.
Building the SVN Aviary Mozilla branch by Blake. Good old time.
True, though the reason to remove all that functionality was to get something maintainable that could grow from there.
> By the end of the documentary he is seen in retirement, spending time with his family and reflecting on the time he had missed with them. Thankful for the opportunity but wistful for what could have been.
Netscape thought that open sourcing their code will save them but it didn't.
I wasn't party to the discussions so I don't know, but I think it's unlikely this was the idea. More likely the open source pivot was a way to preserve the product, which it did, since Firefox still exists.