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The Book of Mozilla is a well-known computer Easter egg found in the Netscape and Mozilla series of web browsers. The Easter Egg is viewed by having the browser go to the page about:mozilla. A virtual Easter egg is a hidden message or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, or video game. ... Netscape Communications (formally known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape), is an American computer services company, best known for its web browser. ... Mozilla was the official, public, original name of Mozilla Application Suite by the Mozilla Foundation, nowadays called SeaMonkey suite. ... An example of a Web browser (Mozilla Firefox) A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. ...

About The Book of Mozilla

There is no real book entitled The Book of Mozilla. However, apparent quotations hidden in Netscape and Mozilla give this impression by revealing passages in the style of apocalyptic literature, such as the Book of Revelation in the Bible. When about:mozilla is typed into the location bar, various versions of these browsers display a cryptic message in white text on a maroon background in the browser window. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Visions of John of Patmos, as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ...

There are four official verses of The Book of Mozilla (official in the sense that they have been included in shipping releases), though various unofficial verses can be found on the World Wide Web. All four official verses have biblical-looking chapter and verse references, though these are actually references to important dates in the history of Netscape and Mozilla. WWWs historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. ...

The four verses all refer to the activities of a fearsome-sounding "beast". In its early days, Netscape Communications Corporation had a green fire-breathing dragon-like lizard mascot, known as Mozilla (after the code name for Netscape Navigator 1.0). From this, it can be conjectured that the "beast" referred to in The Book of Mozilla is a type of fire-breathing lizard, which can be viewed as a metaphor for, or personification of Netscape. Netscape Communications Corporation was the publisher of the Netscape Navigator web browser as well as many other internet and intranet client and server software products. ... For other uses, see Dragon (disambiguation). ... lizards are pink and become very aggressive when they see other females. ... Mozilla was the mascot of the now disbanded Netscape Communications Corporation. ... A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. ... This article is about metaphor in literature and rhetoric. ... Phillipp Veits Germania (1877), a personification of Germany. ...

While part of the appeal of The Book of Mozilla comes from the mysterious nature, a knowledge of the history of Netscape and Mozilla can be used to apply some meaning to the verses. Furthermore, the page www.mozilla.org/book has annotations for each of the first three verses hidden as comments in its HTML source code. These comments were written by Valerio Capello in May 2004 and were added to the Mozilla Foundation site by Nicholas Bebout in October that year. Neither Capello nor Bebout are 'core' Mozilla decision-makers; and there is no evidence that Capello's interpretations received any high-level approval from the senior management of the Mozilla Foundation. HTML, an initialism of Hypertext Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... Valerio Capello (alias Elf Qrin) Valerio Capello, also known as Elf Qrin, is known in the hacker community for his contributions to many magazines and e-zines of such scene. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Mountain View office shared by the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation The Mozilla Foundation (abbreviated MF or MoFo) is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. ...

In some versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, about:mozilla produces a blank blue page, which some have conjectured refers to the blue screen of death. The about:mozilla link was disabled in SP2 of Windows XP; however, the file [res://mshtml.dll/about.moz] still exists, for those who wish to re-enable the link add a string value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerAboutURLs called mozilla with the value res://mshtml.dll/about.moz Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE), commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of proprietary graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. ... A blue screen of death as seen in Windows XP and Vista. ... Windows XP is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ...

Before Netscape 1.1, about:mozilla produced the text "Mozilla rules!".

Viewing the about:mozilla page with a Unix version of Netscape would change the throbber to an animation of Mozilla rising up from behind the "planet" logo and breathing fire. (Images viewable here) Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®, sometimes also written as or ® with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... A throbber from the Netscape web browser A throbber is a graphic usually found in the top-right corner of the graphical user interface of a computer program (especially a web browser) that animates to show the user that the program is performing an action (such as downloading a web... Mozilla was the mascot of the now disbanded Netscape Communications Corporation. ...

Verse 11:2 is available on the Flock Browser. It can be viewed by typing "about:mozilla" in the address bar. Flock is both a web browser heavily based upon Mozilla Firefox and other Mozilla technologies, and is also the name of the company developing the web browser. ...

The Book of Mozilla, 12:10

The Book of Mozilla first appeared in Netscape 1.1 (released in 1995) and can be found in every subsequent 1.x, 2.x, 3.x and 4.x version. The following "prophecy" was displayed: Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ...

The chapter and verse number 12:10 refers to December 10, 1994, the date that Netscape Navigator 1.0 was released. is the 344th day of the year (345th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ...

Screenshot of The Book of Mozilla, 12:10 in Netscape Navigator 1.1

The page www.mozilla.org/book, which includes the first three verses from The Book of Mozilla, contains the following explanation in its HTML source code: Image File history File links The_Book_of_Mozilla,_12-10. ... Image File history File links The_Book_of_Mozilla,_12-10. ...

<!-- 10th December 1994: Netscape Navigator 1.0 was released -->
<!-- This verse announces the birth of the beast (Netscape) and warns bad coders (up to Netscape 3, when you watched the HTML source code with the internal viewer, bad tags blinked). -->

The "beast" is a metaphor for Netscape. The punishments threatened towards the "unbelievers" (most likely users who didn't conform to standards) are traditionally biblical but with the strange threat that their "tags shall blink until the end of days".
In computing, an HTML element indicates structure in an HTML document and a way of hierarchically arranging content. ... The blink element is a non-standard presentational HTML element that indicates to a user agent (generally a web browser) that the page author intends the content of the element to blink (that is, alternate between being visible and invisible). ...

The Book of Mozilla, 3:31

On May 10, 1998, Jamie "JWZ" Zawinski changed The Book of Mozilla verse to reference the fact that Netscape had released its code as open source and started the Mozilla project. This verse was included in all Mozilla builds until October 1998, when a rewrite of much of the Mozilla code meant that the Easter egg was lost. On February 5, 2000, Ben Goodger, then working for Netscape, copied The Book of Mozilla verse across to the new code base. It was included in all subsequent Mozilla builds (until the introduction of the 7:15 verse) and Netscape versions 6 to 7.1. is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Jamie W. Zawinski (born 1971 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), commonly known as jwz, is a computer programmer responsible for significant contributions to the free software projects Mozilla and XEmacs, and early versions of the proprietary Netscape Navigator web browser. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... Ben Goodger (born in London, England) is a former employee of Netscape Communications Corporation and the Mozilla Foundation and former lead developer of the Firefox web browser. ...

The verse states:

The chapter and verse number 3:31 refers to March 31, 1998, when Netscape released its source code. is the 90th day of the year (91st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ...

Screenshot of The Book of Mozilla, 3:31 (Red Letter Edition) in Netscape 6

The www.mozilla.org/book page has the following comment in its HTML source about this passage: Image File history File links The_Book_of_Mozilla,_3-31. ... Image File history File links The_Book_of_Mozilla,_3-31. ...

<!-- 31st March 1998: the Netscape Navigator source code was released -->
<!-- The source code is made available to the legion of thousands of coders of the open source community, that will fight against the followers of Mammon (Microsoft Internet Explorer). -->

Again, the "beast" is Netscape. The text probably refers to Netscape's hope that, by opening its source, they could attract a "legion" of developers all across the world, who would help improve the software (with the "din of a million keyboards"). "Mammon" refers to Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer browser was Netscape's chief competition. The word "mammon," in various semitic languages, is related to money and riches; it appears in English translations of the Bible, and is sometimes used as the name of a demon of avarice. It may therefore imply not only that Microsoft has vastly greater funds to draw on, but that it has greedily abused that fact to further its own position in the marketplace; it also highlights the difference between the purely commercial development of Internet Explorer, and the new community-driven development of Netscape/Mozilla. "Red Letter Edition" may be a reference to so-called Red Letter Editions of the Bible, which print quotations by Jesus in red ink. It could also be a reference to a fact that March 31, 1998 was a red-letter day for the Mozilla project.
Legion can refer to: Roman legion, a division of troops within the Roman army Legion (demon), a demon found in the Christian Bible in Mark 5:9 and Luke 8:30 The American Legion, A veterans organization in the United States A creature from Castlevania Category: ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE is a web browser from Microsoft currently sold as part of Microsoft Windows. ... 14th century BC diplomatic letter in Akkadian, found in Tell Amarna. ... “Fiend” redirects here. ... Greed is often associated with death and disease. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Red Letters. ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... is the 90th day of the year (91st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Look up Red letter day in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The Book of Mozilla, 7:15

The next installment of The Book of Mozilla was written by Neil Deakin. It is included in all versions of Mozilla released since September 2003 (Mozilla 1.5 and above), all versions of Firefox, Camino and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client, the SeaMonkey application suite, the Epiphany web browser (version 1.8.0), and all Netscape versions from 7.2 onwards (except some Netscape Browser prototype releases): Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Firefox may refer to: Firefox (novel), written by Craig Thomas, published in 1978 Firefox (film), the 1982 movie starring Clint Eastwood, based on the novel Firefox (arcade game), the laserdisc arcade game based on the movie Mozilla Firefox, a web browser The Red Fox or the Red Panda, based on... For other uses, see Camino (disambiguation). ... Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. ... SeaMonkey is a free, open source, and cross-platform Internet suite that is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite. ... Epiphany is a web browser for the GNOME computer desktop. ... Netscape Browser is the name of a proprietary Windows web browser published by AOL, but developed by Mercurial Communications. ...

The 7:15 chapter and verse notation refers to July 15, 2003, the day when America Online shut down its Netscape browser division and the Mozilla Foundation was launched. is the 196th day of the year (197th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...

Screenshot of The Book of Mozilla, 7:15 in Mozilla Firefox 1.0

In the HTML source of www.mozilla.org/book, this verse is accompanied by the following annotation: Image File history File links The_Book_of_Mozilla,_7-15. ... Image File history File links The_Book_of_Mozilla,_7-15. ...

<!-- 15th July 2003: AOL closed its Netscape division and the Mozilla foundation was created -->
<!-- The beast died (AOL closed its Netscape division) but immediately rose from its ashes (the creation of the Mozilla foundation and the Firebird browser, although the name was later changed to Firefox). -->

The "beast" falling refers to Netscape being closed down by its now parent company AOL. The "great bird" that rises from the ash is the Mozilla Foundation, which was established to continue Mozilla development. The bird rises from the ash like a phoenix — a reference to the original name of the Mozilla Firefox browser (known as Firebird at the time this verse was written). The bird casts down "fire" and "thunder" on the "unbelievers", which is a direct reference to the Mozilla Firebird (now Firefox) and Mozilla Thunderbird products, which became the main focus of Mozilla development a few months before the events of July 15. The fact that the beast has been "reborn" indicates that the spirit of Netscape will live on through the Foundation (which is made up mostly of ex-Netscape employees) and its strength has been "renewed" as the foundation is less reliant on AOL (who many feel neglected Netscape). Again, "Mammon" is Microsoft, Mozilla's main commercial competitor.
For other mythic firebirds, see Fire bird (mythology). ... Firefox redirects here. ... Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. ... is the 196th day of the year (197th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Reborn may refer to: rebirth Larry Reborn, Swedish poet Reborns The Dark Sith clones of the Dark Side. ...

The Book of Mozilla, 8:20

Netscape's Lead browser engineer Christopher Finke contributed the next verse of The Book of Mozilla. It was first made public in the June 5, 2007 release of Netscape Navigator 9.0b1. is the 156th day of the year (157th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Also see Netscape (web browser) Netscape Navigator 9 is an upcoming release of the Netscape series of browsers produced by Netscape and published by its parent, AOL, first announced on 23 January 2007. ...

Screenshot of The Book of Mozilla, 8:20 in Netscape Navigator 9.0b1

The 8:20 chapter and verse notation refers to August 20, 2006, when the first internal email was sent mentioning the possibility of developing the next Netscape Navigator in house. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Unlike previous verses, the HTML source does not feature any verse-related annotations.

The "Creator" refers to Netscape the company. There are two interpretations of the verse: The phrase "beast reborn" appears in the previous verse referring to the Mozilla Foundation and "it was good" could be a tribute to everyone who contributed to the Mozilla project. "beast reborn" could also be a reference to Netscape reopening their browser division instead of outsourcing development; Netscape Browser 8 was produced by Mercurial Communications.
Netscape Browser is the name of a proprietary Windows web browser published by AOL, but developed by Mercurial Communications. ... Mercurial Communications Inc. ...

See also

• about: URI scheme

External links

• The Book of Mozilla, 12:10
• The Book of Mozilla, 3:31
• The Book of Mozilla, 7:15
• Book of Mozilla, a portal for former Netscape employees

Changes to about:mozilla page

• Bug 213117 — new text for about:mozilla (bug report that led to the change from 3:31 to 7:15)
• CVS history for the about:mozilla file in the old (classic) Mozilla code base
• CVS history for the about:mozilla file in the new Mozilla code base until it was renamed to mozilla.xhtml
• CVS history for the about:mozilla file in the new Mozilla code base after it was renamed to mozilla.xhtml
• CVS history for the about:mozilla file in applications that use the new toolkit (Firefox, Thunderbird etc.)

Book of Mozilla on Mozilla.org

• The Book of Mozilla (includes annotations in HTML source)
  • Bug 217203 — Book of Mozilla not on mozilla.org (bug report that led to the creation of www.mozilla.org/book/)
  • CVS history for www.mozilla.org/book/index.xml (later replaced by index.html)
  • CVS history for www.mozilla.org/book/index.html (replaced index.xml)

Articles about The Book of Mozilla

• MozillaZine article announcing the new verse of The Book of Mozilla
• Results of a MozillaZine poll on the readers' favourite verse
• Some clarifications regarding about:mozilla written by mozilla.org staff member Gervase Markham

Collections of passages

• Extracts from The Book of Mozilla — a compilation of official and unofficial passages from The Book of Mozilla