Writing at Salon, Farhad Manjoo reports on a new trend — developing applications for Mozilla, the 'platform' . . .

” . . . But the best part about Mozilla is that it is not just a browser. Scores of developers are now talking about using Mozilla as a 'platform' — that is, using Mozilla's underlying code to build non-browser applications, like calendar programs and e-mail programs and even Linux desktops. You don't need to download Mozilla to use these apps, as some are distributed with their own stripped-down version of Mozilla's engine — which, if you think about it, is exactly the kind of thing Microsoft was trying to prevent when it launched its war against Netscape. It didn't want Netscape around, because Netscape was becoming a platform. So wouldn't it be rich if, in the end, Microsoft succeeds in killing Netscape and winning the browser war but still, somehow, doesn't eliminate the platform threat? If Netscape dies but the dragon that it spawned burns Redmond? . . . “

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