Frequently I hear people say "Mozilla is not an end user application".
Most often this is in reply to people asking about spell checkers for
mail/news.
Well, why not?
Binaries are being released, and "end users" are using them. And from
what I can see, there aren't large notices that say "Warning: these
binaries are only meant to test the Mozilla code, and are not meant to
be used by non-developers (end users)".
I could understand if we were talking about some math library, or even
some GUI library. But it seems to me that Mozilla provides user-level
functionality, and is therefore an end user application.
Instead of saying "Mozilla isn't an end user application", maybe it
would be better to say "Mozilla is an end user application, but the
developers are targeting the browser and mail/news right now. Try
Netscape 6.1 if you want spell checking".
If someone were to develop a copyright/royalty/patent free spell checker
for Mozilla, it would be incorporated, right? So to imply that features
like spell checking aren't on the radar isn't quite right, and probably
hinders Mozilla's ability to eventually gain world domination by
addressing common needs of end users. ;)
Regards,
David
