Standards Battles in Open Source Software

The Case of Firefox

By Huibert de Vries, Henk de Vries and Ilan Oshri

In many ways, the rise of the open source web browser Firefox contradicts common wisdom and expectations. An industry with network effects, as is the case in the web browser industry, should follow the rationale of “the strong grows stronger, and the weak becomes weaker”. This means that in the long run, a single dominant technology will prevail that prevents competing technologies from obtaining a foothold in the market. We can therefore explain the victory of Internet Explorer (IE) over Netscape mainly because IE was bundled with the Windows operating system; however, we still need to understand the rise of Firefox in a ‘winner-takes-all market’. Could the characteristics of Firefox, an open source software web browser, explain this unexpected success?

Henk de Vries

This book brings together insights from open source software, open standards, and standards-setting, and illustrates the dynamics of standards-settings by examining two standards battles: Internet Explorer versus Netscape, and Internet Explorer versus Firefox.

About the authors:
Huibert de Vries holds a MSc. degree in Business Administration (with honors) and a BSc. degree in International Business Administration, both from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Huibert studied the web browser industry over 2 years focusing on aspects relating to standards-setting processes and Open Source Software. Huibert is currently Business Intelligence Manager at Philips Healthcare in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Henk J. de Vries is Associate Professor of Standardization at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His professional experience includes several jobs at the Dutch standardization institute NEN. His research and education concern standardization from a business point of view. Henk is author of more than 200 publications, including a PhD thesis and several other books, on standardization.

Ilan Oshri is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in Strategic Management and Technological Innovations from Warwick Business School, UK. His main research interest lies in the area of technological innovations, learning, and knowledge management in global teams. His work has been widely published in books and journals.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Open Source Software
Standards and Standards Setting

Huibert de Vries

Standardization Battles in OSS: A Theoretical Framework
Industry Background
Browser War I (1995-1999): Microsoft Versus Netscape
Browser War II (2003-2008): Mozilla Versus Microsoft
Standard Setting Mechanisms in Open Source Software
What can be learnt from these Browser Wars