jwatton Hacker News • Recommends
On “Contributing to the Mozilla code base”
It was Netscape in 1999 he got flown out. Documented in Code Rush, which is an awesome documentary for anyone interested in the history of the Web: link to this video
0:00 / 0:00
Project Code Rush - The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla Documentary
The Documentary Network
173K subscribers • 2 videos on Hallway
- Recommended by 14 people: 13 on Hacker News and 1 on Lobsters.
- A classic. People kept recommending it from 2018 to 2026.
Beginner. No background in the topic needed.
337K views13 years ago14 recommendations
History and cultureTools and practiceHistory of computingOpen sourceInside tech companies
This documentary follows Netscape engineers in 1998 as they rush to open-source their browser's code and launch the Mozilla project.
Code Rush is a documentary following the lives of a group of Netscape engineers in Silicon Valley. It covers Netscape's last year as an independent company, from their announcement of the Mozilla open source project until their acquisition by AOL. It particularly focuses on the last minute rush to make the Mozilla source code ready for release by the deadline of March 31 1998, and the impact on the engineers' lives and families as they attempt to save the company from ruin. Code Rush by David Winton is licensed under a CC 3.0 US License. clickmovement.org/coderush --- The Film Code Rush. The year is early 1998, at the height of dot-com era, and a small team of Netscape code writers frantically works to reconstruct the company's Internet browser. In doing so they will rewrite the rules of software development by giving away the recipe for its browser in exchange for integrating improvements created by outside unpaid developers. The fate of the entire company may well rest on their shoulders. Broadcast on PBS, the film capture the human and technological dramas that unfold in the collision between science, engineering, code, and commerce. Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 US license. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_RushWhy it's here
14 people recommend thisWhat people say. Widely recommended as a classic documentary capturing the intense culture, excitement, and human toll of the late-90s dot-com era.
e15ctr0non Hacker News • Recommends
On “Mitchell Baker Named CEO of Mozilla”
…in an office in Mountain View that is today occupied by the Khan Academy. 5 Wikipedia 6 has a good summary of her career. The documentary Code Rush is required viewing, IMHO, to capture some of the excitement of that era. 78 Bonus points for spotting JWZ. :-) 1 link 2 link 3 link 4 link 5 link 6 link 7 link 8 link to this video…
imlon Lobsters • Recommends
Project Code Rush - The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla Documentary (2000)
Reedxon Hacker News • Recommends
On “AOL acquires Netscape in $4.2B deal (1998)”
There's a good Netscape documentary filmed during their last year leading up to the acquisition. When they were working to get the Mozilla source code released. link to this video
mtmailon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Ask HN: Books to recommend about early tech history (late 90s)?”
"The PayPal Wars". Also see link "Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days" "Project Code Rush", a 1h documentary ( link to this video )
lancebeeton Hacker News • Recommends
On “Ask HN: How was life for a regular dev during the dot com burst?”
I really recommend the 2000 documentary Code Rush1 about Netscape's open sourcing of the browser and acquisition by AOL. It doesn't give any major insights into the industry, but does give a glimpse of what the culture was like back then. 1 link to this video
ragleon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Yelp to stop auto-creating fundraisers after outrage from business owners”
> and worked on a few important pieces of software before becoming a bar owner instead. Fun documentary: link to this video
Jugurthaon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Cloudflare TV”
…(Sean Fanning, Sean Parker, Ron Conway, etc.)4 PS: Since you're here, I was unable to log to my CloudFlare account for more than a week, reset my password an everything, but always couldn't log in until a couple of days ago. I would have wanted to see a video on the background of the issue and how it was resolved : ) 1: link 2: link 3: link to this video 4: link…
purerandomnesson Hacker News • Recommends
On “Ask HN: Career and life advice for a 30yo”
There's a wide community of people feeling just like you, assembling in "Maker communities", as they call it. Good entry points are the IndieHackers podcast, and conferences like MicroConf (watch their conference talk recordings here, especially Patrick McKenzie's aka patio11 0) The basic idea is to create a sustainable job you love for yourself, the people that depend on you, and many others. The antithesis of "Our incredible journey", aka VC sellout. Once you've done this, you can do whatever you want. Build a game company. Pursue academia 1. Join the demoscene, tour the world, join demo party competitions and write sick 64k intros. Commit to open source and help the Haiku project. Han…
RichardCAon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Kids find a security flaw in Linux Mint by mashing keys”
It has something to do with the 1990's dot-com culture, like the original Netscape was somehow more pure than what came after, and this causes him to view modern inheritors like YC with a jaundiced eye. You can watch this if you have an hour. link to this video
rzzzton Hacker News • Recommends
On “Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?”
Code Rush, a one-hour glimpse into Netscape Communications in 1998, just as they open source their browser: link to this video I get very tired whenever I watch it for some reason.
aklingon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Firefox 1.0 New York Times Ad”
There’s a fun documentary that follows some folks inside Netscape during the rush to make Mozilla open source: link to this video
wenbinon Hacker News • Recommends
On “The story, as best I can remember, of the origin of Mosaic and Netscape [video]”
gonna watch it over the weekend :) And re-watch this also - Project Code Rush - The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla Documentary link to this video
st_goliathon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Why Microsoft Entertainment Pack had a sticker announcing that it had Tetris?”
…re. "Cathode Ray Dude" is all over the place but often also covers hardware and software of roughly that era5. A sibling comment already mentioned JWZs blog, if you have fond memories about Netscape, you might enjoy "Project Code Rush" 6. Btw. Netscape Navigator 3.0 has just turned 30. 1 link 2 link 3 link 4 link 5 link 6 link to this video…
jd3on Hacker News • Mentions
On “Y Combinator and Paul Graham are bad for the world (Part 1)”
Fascinating read. Thank you for this. Reminds me of a piece Jamie Zawinski did a few years ago01 regarding a similar issue relating to VC's and "your one and only youth." 2 0: link 1: link 2: link to this video
greymeisteron Hacker News • Mentions
On “FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see”
News like this makes me think back to this0 statement by jwz from the Netscape/Mozilla documentary "Code Rush" 0: link to this video