Wasn't Mozilla a Netscape creation whereby they released their source code. After that Mozilla development continued as open source, and Netscape still proprietary code.
Recently its been the cart pulling the horse, as Netscape runs off the Mozilla builds.
From a business/manufacturing/economics perspective it is demonstrating the impact of economies of scale/scope. Nobody can match the resources available for research and development as at Microsoft. Long term -- those company's products will lag behind. They do not have either the resources in terms of money or the user base to keep the playing field level.
Enter open source. A brilliant way for smaller companies to extend their resources by employing labor even less expensive than your typically third world sweat shop...its free R&D.
Standards are the great rallying call, as all of the minor players corroborate to determine what the "standard" should be. If not for their consortium the standard would naturally extend from the market leader, in this case Microsoft. However, they are able to hold back the natural momentum of the market with the release of open source standards.
Microsoft in the mean time continues along their merry way developing their proprietary technologies, and is villified for not releasing their source code, or adhering to the standard set by the world communities (i.e. their competitors).
It's really an interesting perspective. The small players in the market need open source in order to shore up the resource gap. Further more the standard ensure that Microsoft isn't able to run away due to a widening technology gap.
Netscape could not compete with Microsoft, few can, largely because of the economies of scale/scope Microsoft is able to achieve.
Congratulations, all of you who have read this are now one step closer to your MBA
