Mozilla Organization

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The Mozilla Organization (mozilla.org) was an informal group formed and funded by Netscape Communications Corporation to co-ordinate the development of the open source Mozilla web browser. Founded on February 23, 1998, the organization consisted mostly of Netscape employees, but in theory operated independently.

The Mozilla Organization claimed to be developing the Mozilla browser for testing purposes only, and not for use by end users. This led to the creation of Beonex Communicator, which released end-user versions during the period that the Mozilla Organization oversaw the project (although most end-users simply downloaded the "official" Mozilla builds.)

When Netscape's now-parent AOL disbanded Netscape on July 15, 2003, a formally-registered not-for-profit organization, the Mozilla Foundation, was founded to ensure that the Mozilla project could continue without Netscape's support. The Foundation effectively replaced mozilla.org (though as mozilla.org was always an informal group, there was no official closure of it). Today, the terms Mozilla Organization and mozilla.org can be taken as synonyms for the Mozilla Foundation.