Mozilla insists that it is proud that its evangelism over open web standards has changed browsers forever, but jokes that it has wished itself up some serious competition to Firefox.
Speaking to TechRadar Mozilla principal evangelist Tristan Nitot and Chris Heilmann the principal evangelist at Mozilla for HTML5 and open web admitted that they were proud that Firefox's success was rooted in the need for an option to the now-derided IE6 from Microsoft.
And the not-for-profit company's consistent pushing of open standards has had a huge impact, with Microsoft's newer Internet Explorer versions representing a massive leap forward, and the likes of Chrome and Safari all embracing HTML5 and a more open web.
Know your roots
Nitot:
"You have to careful in what you wish for! But we wished it and it's here now."
"We certainly know where we came from and know what we have achieved and we are very proud about this," Nitot told TechRadar.
"Google are pushing ahead with Chrome and Microsoft are making a much better browser with IE9 – the competition is really tough and this is what I call success.
"You have to careful in what you wish for! But we wished it and it's here now."
Heilman explained that he was personally involved in making other company's browsers better.
"What we wanted we wanted to achieve was good browsers with open standards and that was what Microsoft didn't do and now it does," he said.
"I'm actually recording videos for Microsoft talking about HTML5 for training and that's what I'm really proud of.
"We work for a not-for-profit organisation to make the web better and I don't have to be in competition with the Microsofts and the Googles and the Operas but by working with them I can influence them and be the voice of reason in that market."
