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Code Rush – The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla (2000) [video]

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Re: Code Rush – The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla (2000) [video]

#31

Post by bengoodger »

mrpippy wrote: post #22

Look closely and you'll see Don Melton ("Gramps") who was responsible for the Mac port at the time, then went to Eazel, then to Apple where he managed Safari from its creation. He's now retired from Apple and does some entertaining podcasts and speaking.

Gramps was my first manager @ Netscape when I was hired after contributing patches through Mozilla. He is wickedly funny as were a lot of the rest of the people that worked there. One of these days I need to write down some of my recollections of that time.

Re: Code Rush – The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla (2000) [video]

#33

Post by tomphoolery »

nailer wrote: post #29
chrissnell wrote: post #18

Wow. I remember watching this fifteen years ago and seeing that young kid (Stuart Parmenter) join Netscape right out of high school and thinking, "Don't do it!". I, too, joined the industry early and by 2000, I'd pissed away the first half of my twenties pulling all-nighters working at tech startups while the rest of my friends were partying at college or backpacking around Europe. Recently, I'd read something about…

I read about jwz in months old copies of Wired in the 90s and basically wanted to be him. Then he left the tech industry because it was so shitty which made me question that plan.

So then he joined an arguably much shittier industry? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_Lounge

No matter how shitty either industry is, I'd much rather own a nightclub and have my entire life be about the music than work in tech at all.

Re: Code Rush – The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla (2000) [video]

#34

Post by hockeybias »

tomphoolery wrote: post #33
nailer wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read about jwz in months old copies of Wired in the 90s and basically wanted to be him. Then he left the tech industry because it was so shitty which made me question that plan.

So then he joined an arguably much shittier industry? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_Lounge No matter how shitty either industry is, I'd much rather own a nightclub and have my entire life be about the music than work in tech at all.

Sounds sorta like tech is not for you.

Re: Code Rush – The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla (2000) [video]

#35

Post by anon3_ »

angersock wrote: post #23
lern_too_spel wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That explains it. The reason you think Mozilla is shifting from technology into politics is that you've been reading ESR's lunatic ravings.

You don't have to read any of the political culture ranting of ESR (and you probably shouldn't unless you're masochistic) to have seen that Eich was railroaded and screwed and witch-hunted pretty hard. It seems very reasonable to interpret that whole situation as Mozilla acknowledging the importance of politics over technical leadership--fair or not, when you broadcast your realpolitik that hard, you're gonna lose pe…

> when you broadcast your realpolitik that hard, you're gonna lose people.

Hacker culture may not necessarily be aligned with Eich's personal views / situations. But crucial underlying concept is ignoring nebulous things like that. So taking action / reforms based off the premise feels like a Chesteron's fence [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Chesterton%27s_fence

Re: Code Rush – The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla (2000) [video]

#36

Post by csixty4 »

ianremsen wrote: post #17
hayksaakian wrote: post #16

This is really good. Thank you for sharing. As a younger person, this is a piece of history that was never taught.

I absolutely agree. When I watched this for the first time ~6 months ago it was crazy how much of this relatable oh-so-familiar stuff was taking place before I existed, the central date of March 31, 1998 being about 3 months before I was born. Programmers these days stand on the shoulders of giants, most of them still living and breathing. And it is a priceless gift that it is so much easier to learn this craft when…

> And it is a priceless gift that it is so much easier to learn this craft when you're starting out.

It truly is. I started my career in July, 1999 and even though there was an open source movement, it was nothing like there is today. Young people can post code up on Github and even participate in huge open source projects that affect millions of people.

Teach each other. Learn from each other. Grow together, and make the world more awesome than you found it.

Re: Code Rush – The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla (2000) [video]

#37

Post by csixty4 »

nailer wrote: post #29
chrissnell wrote: post #18

Wow. I remember watching this fifteen years ago and seeing that young kid (Stuart Parmenter) join Netscape right out of high school and thinking, "Don't do it!". I, too, joined the industry early and by 2000, I'd pissed away the first half of my twenties pulling all-nighters working at tech startups while the rest of my friends were partying at college or backpacking around Europe. Recently, I'd read something about…

I read about jwz in months old copies of Wired in the 90s and basically wanted to be him. Then he left the tech industry because it was so shitty which made me question that plan.

I wrote jwz a fan email back then because I was afraid I'd have to give up who I am to work in computers. I'm not much of a goth anymore, but it was exciting to see someone like me in such a prominent position.

Re: Code Rush – The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla (2000) [video]

#38

Post by stuartparmenter »

chrissnell wrote: post #18

Wow. I remember watching this fifteen years ago and seeing that young kid (Stuart Parmenter) join Netscape right out of high school and thinking, "Don't do it!". I, too, joined the industry early and by 2000, I'd pissed away the first half of my twenties pulling all-nighters working at tech startups while the rest of my friends were partying at college or backpacking around Europe. Recently, I'd read something about…

No regrets at all. I've been very fortunate to work with many amazing people throughout my career and have learned more than I could have ever imagined back then. The tech world is always evolving and never boring. Those early years, including all the ups and downs of the industry taught me things that would be very difficult to learn these days.

People should step back and think about all the things they do in browsers today. Without the hard work of thousands of people from Netscape and Mozilla, you probably wouldn't be doing most of those things. I'm proud to have been able to play a small role in that.

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