Unless you've been living in cryogenic suspension for the last year, you’ve no doubt heard about Linux, the "open source" operating system that's captured software developers' hearts and Wall Street's wallets. Open source software allows free access to a program's underlying code so anyone with sufficient tech chops can add to, repair, modify, share or copy it.

For all the excitement it has generated, though, Linux is a dubious choice as standard bearer for the open source movement. Too complex to install, too hard to use, too tricky to configure, Linux is unlikely to develop into a mainstream operating system. For now, it plays best to techie tinkerers, soapbox-thumping social engineers, Microsoft haters, and network administrators, who appreciate its superior stability, flexibility, and power (not to mention its egalitarian heritage) and don’t concern themselves with pedestrian concerns like interface, ease of use, and device driver support. But because Linux has little chance to unseat almighty Windows, it's also unlikely to make business decision makers--who stare at their Windows screens all day--rethink their corporate software purchases. And without sufficient market share, it won’t make a serious dent in the way software is built. Truth is, the open source concept deserves a better champion. At Internet World in Los Angeles this week, that champion may have come along.

Get ready to download Netscape 6, Preview Release 1, the first mainstream open source Web browser. If you're confused about what happened to Netscape 5, don't sweat it. Netscape's previous version was Communicator 4.x, but version 5.0 was so long in the birthing, that the company just skipped the number altogether. So why did Netscape 6 (the confusing moniker Communicator is now gone) take so long coming? Therein hangs a tale. Back in March 1998, Netscape, feeling the heat from fast approaching Microsoft Internet Explorer, announced they would expose the source code for their next version, code-named Mozilla. Suddenly Netscape would have thousands of developers sifting through endless lines of code, adding fillips here, improvements there, and neat user enhancements everywhere. Even Microsoft, with their flotilla of highly skilled programmers, wouldn't be able to compete against a sea of motivated open sourcers. "By giving away the source code for future versions," Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale said at the time, "we can ignite the creative energies of the entire Net community and fuel unprecedented levels of innovation in the browser market…. Netscape's core businesses [will] benefit from the proliferation of the market-leading client software."

Then the wheels came off. Though Netscape had some of the best minds in the world working for it, Communicator 5 was never ready for public release. Weeks became months; months became years; Netscape became a laughing stock. And Microsoft, while integrating its browser with Windows, kept advancing: Internet Explorer 4 begat IE 4.5, which begat 5.0 and later 5.01. Netscape's once dominant share of the browser market plummeted to less than 40 percent. One can argue that Microsoft’s achieved its position illegally, by bundling its browser with Windows, but the fact remains that IE 5 was simply a better browser—faster, more forgiving, and loaded with more goodies.

Netscape 6 addresses these inequities. Though still a prerelease piece of software, it’s packed with technical innovations, starting with Gecko, the open-source rendering engine. (A rendering engine interprets HTML code, creating Web pages on screen.) Tiny, speedy, and flexible, Gecko makes Netscape 6 fly. Perhaps more significant to the fortunes of Netscape Communications, the rendering engine is cross-platform and easy to embed anywhere, meaning it’s likely to end up powering scores of alternate Web devices, from handhelds to set-top boxes. That level of adoption (and the money it’s likely to generate) will propel open-source out of the IS closets and into the boardrooms of corporate America.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be, since open source software still has a selling job to do among the folks who make software buying choices. These business decision makers are not engineers, who look at underlying code and use terms like elegant to express approval, or kludgy for disdain. The bulk of software purchasers are business users whose typical technical expertise is drawn from the desktop applications they use everyday. These users want something they can figure out, something they don’t have to call IS to fix every other day, something they can put on their home machine for work or play when they’re not in the office. Interface and aesthetics counts in that scenario. So does ease of use.

Here’s where Netscape 6 will make a difference. Even if it doesn’t unseat Internet Explorer, Netscape 6 could open some eyes about the mainstream potential of open source software. Its success could point the way for future development and a true flowering of innovation. Linux may have laid the foundation, but Netscape 6 represents the true coming of age for the open source movement.