The face of the Mozilla Foundation, publisher of the Firefox browser, change jobs, but not ideal.
“The decentralization of the Net, in this time vis-à-vis the digital giants distrust, this is what will allow a revival of the positive values of the Internet. If no decentralizes is insured dystopia: profiling, surveillance, self-censorship. “ Nitot, 48, may well have left in February, Mozilla, he kept the same convictions. He recently formalized, Wednesday, March 11, he arrived in the French start-up Cozy Cloud.
This company seventeen employees offers users a set of services (email, contact management, calendar …) installable directly on its own website. A decentralized alternative to Google, free and open source. Committee will be responsible to convince developers to code applications that run on Cozy Cloud.
His ideals of decentralization and respect for privacy, Nitot has had time to defend during his 17 years within Mozilla. For the general public, this foundation is primarily the Firefox browser, the bridgehead of free software (including computer code, accessible to all, can be modified and distributed free of charge).
all these years, the face of Firefox for journalists, developers and public fringe interested in these issues, it was Nitot. “When you are passionate about free software, it is impossible not to know Firefox and it was difficult to avoid Nitot” says Pierre-Yves Gosset, the advocacy group Free Software Framasoft.
The course of a generation of computer
The career of Nitot, which began in the early 1990s, following the dotted Internet and Web, typical of a generation that has witnessed first hand the emergence of these new technologies. He made his first steps in the computer like many others of his generation. At 14, the computer arrived in the parental living as a PC lent by a friend of his father. Tristan spends all his Easter holidays.
He then learns to program in basic, without much conviction. “I was not made for that,” he finds, a few decades later: “people were missing. What interests me is to solve people’s problems. “
Before graduating, he landed an internship at the World Computer Centre human resources. Under this name redolent of the time telematics, hides a UFO in France in the 1980s, one of the first places in the country where you can connect to the Internet. There he met Richard Stallman, while the latter is not yet the Pope of free software it is today. A revelation? “I’m not evident to me,” Nitot fun today.
“Neither really a maths nor very good developer” , but passionate, he studied computer science and then engages in a human resources master. He confesses to have made “some crap” at the time: “We entered into systems at a time when people did not even know they could be hacked. “ His talent spotted, open the door to his first job in 1992 and he joined a start-up specializing in computer security.
Internet” will connect not just of networks “
A few months later, he changed working for a company selling IT services to businesses. The Web is beginning to spread in France, but it is on CompuServe it clicks. His wife wants to know how many there are hospital beds in the United States for a specific type of disease. One evening he post the question on a specialized forum. The next day, in the morning, someone on the other side of the Atlantic, found the answer. He then realized that the Internet “not only connects communications networks, but real people” .
It downloads the first navigators, gets tired of his projects company and “surfs like crazy” . In late 1997, Netscape, which sells a web browser, search profile “between engineer and human” can “Internet to explain to people” . Nitot does not hesitate for long.
Netscape is now about to be suffocated by Microsoft, which imposes a competitor, Internet Explorer, on all computers that team his famous operating system. . The dominance of Netscape, a time undivided background like snow
Netscape teams decide to try a gamble: to stop paying for the Netscape browser and open the source code . Code Name: Mozilla. Experience first taste of bitter defeat. “A Sound of Thunder, which was not understood,” remembers Nitot. Indeed, the browser works evil (because it lacks broad swathes code “Owner”), it “is torn to pieces” in the press and does not correctly display all websites, which are . at the time optimized for Internet Explorer
free and enterprises Software
At about the same time, AOL bought Netscape: “a shock cultures “, a ” crappy time, “ remembers today Nitot. After a few years, in 2003, noting the failure of its browser, the American company Microsoft sues and accuses him of having used its dominance in the PC market to precipitate the death of Netscape. Results of the operation, AOL gets $ 700 million and separates from Netscape and its employees. Which Nitot.
At this time, Nitot has the moral “in socks” . “We were against the current, in a world where Internet Explorer accounted for 95% of the market. Web developer had become a rotten business. It was full of security holes, pop-ups … “. US employees create a foundation for further work on Mozilla, who still wants to be an alternative to Internet Explorer
The few survivors of Netscape in France climb an association whose Nitot became president. “In the idea, we wanted to be a subsidiary, but at that time the United States had no interest in Europe. “ Volunteers, he then launched in a browser promotional campaign for the general public. After some time, “with two children and a loan, I was eating my savings and noodles” . When giving birth to Mozilla Firefox, he is about to throw in the towel, before being caught by the sleeve by Mozilla, offering him to pay salaries. It will be in 2005. It is then bombarded President of the European side of the foundation.
Since then, Nitot has become the face of Mozilla and Firefox. For ten years he was responsible for driving the ecosystem around this browser, which delighted its leadership in Internet Explorer before giving way to Chrome, Google. In the “open source community”, made of developers, activists and entrepreneurs, it is full of praise. “Tristan is one of those who has probably done the most to make people understand the importance of free software. He has a great ability to popularize and has a real gift of communicating, “ Frédéric ensures Couchet, founder and CEO of the April, an organization promoting free software.
admirer of Snowden
Before leaving the head of Mozilla, Nitot has launched a new project: writing a book, which is intended as a general public against the manual Internet monitoring and protection of personal data. This issue, parallel and close to the issue of free software, the “has long concerned” . He remembers having participated in 1999 in the “Echelon Day”, the name of this predominantly American system of electromagnetic eavesdropping.
Edward Snowden, who “it would do well a statue “, served as a trigger. Hence this book, which wants to “explanation for awareness” . According to him, the French are aware of the dangers but suffer from a form of “resignation” . Good “libriste”, his book is open source: it publishes to as chapter by chapter, on his blog. The comments will help him progress to the final version. At this stage it is not yet clear if he will speak to a publishing house or if it decides to publish it online.
In 2012, the arrival of Francois Hollande gives birth the second draft of the National Council of digital (Cnnum), this consultative body which advises the government. It will open widely to external experts, and a place is offered to Nitot. “It’s a different world,” he smiles. Of course, “ideas have time to change twenty times before being published Official Journal , but they put ideas into funnels, we will have helped.” is emphasized, it teases, asked what a guy like him can do well in such an official body. It takes us nicely and provides “be heard” . The day before our meeting, he dined with precisely Axelle Lemaire, Secretary of State Digital, Sunday evening, to refine the work of the “Cnnum.”
“The Cnnum is not if a statutory body, it is primarily an occupational group. The things that motivate Nitot currently are clearly political issues. His presence is no more bizarre, the Cnnum, as business leaders or computer scientists, “ tempers Daniel Kaplan, managing director of the new generation Internet Foundation, one of his colleagues Cnnum. That did certainly not convinced to enter politics. The values in the life of the little elected attempt: “ I am a nice, this is my Boy Scout, hippie .”
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