(Pulsa aquí para la versión en español)

Given the great stir caused by Firefox, do you think that it will help the rose of the open source initiatives? Should they focus more on the end user than in the experts needs?

Absolutely. Open source leaders make the mistake of letting the loudest voices—which invariably belong to the technically elite—dictate their product development. With Firefox, we strive to focus on the needs of the “silent majority”—the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who don’t have a physical seat at the development table but would benefit most from our products.

I have a feeling about what will you say about this but I'm sure our readers wanna read it from you: A couple of weeks ago I interviewed David MacKey from IBM Security Services, and he said that using Firefox is not a security measure because it will have its own growing flaws and problems as its popularity increases. What do you think about it?

Every city has crime. I’d still rather live in a city that has a responsible, well-equipped and proven police department. Likewise, every browser has suffered security problems, but the Mozilla Foundation has a track record of responding to flaws quickly. We’ve managed as little as 24-hour turnarounds on security patches because we prioritize security to the exclusion of all else. And I do mean all else: the Foundation’s offices were bustling this past Mother’s Day as engineers scurried to respond to a security fire drill. Contrast this with Microsoft, who is notorious for leaving exploits unpatched—and customers exposed— for weeks or months at a time.

Some people say that Firefox will have a hard time increasing its market share as soon as the early adopters and their relatives be out of the game. Are you looking for commercial alliances with ISP's or computer manufacturers? How can you reach those people who associates the IE desktop icon with 'Internet'?

We are always looking for ways to increase our browser distribution, but don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth; our competitors did, and only now are they realizing their mistake. It’s not just an early adopter game anymore. The people most liable to be gushing about Firefox at the mall or in a restaurant are the people it has most profoundly impacted, and those tend to be the people who are least computer-literate.

Let's pretend that Bill Gates knocks your door and offer you and your pals team up with Microsoft and make Firefox the new deafult browser for Windows. It's unfeasible to collaborate with them?

In the face of rampant criticism from website developers, in spite of the growing unrest of millions of people who were very clearly dissatisfied with their Internet experience, and in the midst of an online revolution gated by the web browser itself, Microsoft stopped developing Internet Explorer. This leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

We have read your thoughts about Mozilla, Netscape, Safari and – of course – Internet Explorer, but what about Opera? What do you love and hate from this browser?

I think Opera is missing the mark on its product design. They still seem baffled by Firefox’s success as a simple, lightweight browser and have been very vocal lately about their smaller download size. I urge them to consider that simplicity has many flavors, and is not so easily measured. Firefox’s greatest selling point is not its small download size but its small feature set: we include only the features people need. I’d like to see Opera sharpen its focus similarly and refine its interface.

What I love about Opera is that I see the passion of our community reflected in theirs. Regardless of what I think about their product design, these are clearly people who are motivated first and foremost by their love of the Web.

I was checking the forums on mozillaZine the day after the MoFo announce that SeaMonkey would be discontinued and I sense a lot of resentment from users and background collaborators towards you and other project leaders. It seems that some of you turning 'celebrities' is affecting some members of the Mozilla community. What do you think about it?

I think most of our community understands that the press will write the story it wants to write, and that in the long run, all such publicity can only help the project as a whole.

It's Linux a desktop alternative to Windows for the end users nowadays? Why?

No, I don’t think so. If you don’t mind, I’ll quote myself from another interview:

Many Linux developers seem to think that it’s enough to have better technology. It’s not. The other half of the battle is making a usable product out of the technology. This is going to require many open-source zealots to swallow their egos, acknowledge the dominance of Windows, and learn from it. They can’t expect people to drop everything they know and switch whole-hog to their newly invented wheel; they have to make it easy to switch even if it means mimicking certain aspects of the Windows interface. We went to a great deal of trouble to ensure that Internet Explorer users feel comfortable with Firefox.

People are switching to Firefox because it solves their problems, even though a web browser is the most used (and thus most entrenched) application on any computer. People experience many more problems with Windows itself, and so by all rights, a well-designed competitor should be thriving alongside Firefox. That this hasn’t happened suggests to me that Linux is failing due to its own inadequacy. As our day-to-day work moves online, software incompatibility—the oft-cited barrier to Linux’s success—is becoming less of an issue.

What do you prefer in software development: an engineer or a hacker? It's the self-learning way a viable alternative to formal education?

I’m self-taught, and some of the best hackers I know are self-taught, so I certainly think it’s viable. I think many hackers are intrinsically driven to create and feel weighed down by the slower pace of formal education. That said, some people prefer a more structured approach. All that matters is the knowledge itself; how you acquired it is, in the long run, irrelevant.

If you had to advise novel programmers, on which languages, platforms or technologies would you put your attention?

I’d recommend Python for almost anything these days. It’s clean, intuitive and refreshing. As for platforms, well, I’m biased, but I think Firefox provides a great platform for building software that will be used by millions. Our vibrant community of extension developers would seem to agree.

What's in the future of Firefox? Are you working on that new bookmark system that you announce some months ago?

The future of Firefox is its past: we will continue focusing obsessively on the user experience until the browser is so in tune with your expectations that it virtually fades away into the background. For example, Firefox 1.1, due out within the next couple months, will offer “fast back” which will make back and forward navigation instantaneous. By removing the delay, we are removing more one thing that pulls people “out of the dream” by forcing them to focus on the browser itself instead of the Web.

Every musician have a song from another artist that he would wanted to compose. What computer program would you wanted to write?

Well, I can’t say, because I’m writing it now :) I just founded a startup with a former Firefox teammate, Joe Hewitt.

By the way, what was your first computer?

I think it was a 386.

Three websites to visit everyday?

I don’t visit the same three websites every day anymore. Bloggers tell me what’s worth my time on any particular day.

Do you have time for videogames? What are your favorite ones?

Rarely, but I was quite the Mario Karter in my day. (Wario, of course.)

You want to make it in the screenplay business, right? What can we expect from Blake Ross: action, drama, romance, humor? What's your favourite movies?

I like two kinds of movies, and they’re polar opposites: the movies that leave you breathless and genuinely impact you in some way, and the movies that promise only to entertain you and succeed spectacularly. I’d like to write and direct both, and I’ll probably start with comedy, since I’m tired of sitting stonefaced through modern “comedies.