Fighting in the heartland of open source

BANGALORE: "Open source cannot win if brother cynically steals from brother". "Slap on the face of the open source community." Strong words spoken by two open source groups clashing over a sensitive issue — branding.

Mozilla organization recently announced that it would replace its Mozilla browser with a new, lighter browser, which was 'temporarily' named Phoenix. Objections against the name, Phoenix, arose because another browser by the same name (Phoenix FirstView Connect) already exists.

The company then announced, "After months of discussion and further months of legal investigation, we’re finally comfortable moving forward with new names. The new name for the Phoenix browser is Firebird. The documentation and product strings will be updated soon."

The next rabble-rouser against the name was the FireBird SQL database, which, like Mozilla, is an open source project. The company said, "We of the Firebird project are devoted to our branding." They also claim that Mozilla’s decision to go ahead with the name, FireBird, is a "slap on the face of the open source community".

The company said, "We are dismayed that Firebird was not contacted before Mozilla’s decision was finalized. This breach of principle has occurred in the heartland of open source, where we are all supposed to be above such things. The attitude adopted by Mozilla’s vocal proponents of the change, in essence 'if they don't like it they can sue', is contrary to the generally accepted core values of the open source community. It reflects poorly on a community that voices strong opinions when corporate entities employ similar tactics. If open source is to win, we can do without brother cynically stealing from brother."

Mozilla stuck to its guns and Asa Dotzler, Project and Release Manager, Mozilla said that no one could confuse a database with a browser. However, Firebird database supporters argued that having a browser and a database with the same name in the same space would confuse the market, especially as browsers and databases are often used in the same applications.

FireBird supporters have been making themselves heard by posting protest messages on various sites such as Mozillazine and slashdot.

Will such infighting tarnish the image of open source? "The Open source community has always been a radical group who are passionate about their work. The community has been a bit far removed from the real-life issues like branding and copyrights. There has to be a balance", says Gopi Garge, Network Services Consultant, ERNET and open source aficionado.

"Overall, I would like to see this in a positive light. These problems were just waiting to happen — and there is a lesson to be learnt here. The open source community needs to learn to handle such issues carefully, in mature manner", adds Garge.

Mozilla now seems more circumspect about the episode. It now posts on its site, "When referring to Thunderbird or Firebird before or during the 1.4 release cycle, make sure to use the project name with Mozilla pre-pended as ‘Mozilla Thunderbird’ or ‘Mozilla Firebird’ instead of Mozilla alone or Firebird/Thunderbird alone. Firebird and Thunderbird are project names and they are transitory."