Let this be a refresher lesson for everyone depressed at the deplorable state of where the IT world has wandered of late: Open may yet win the Browser Wars!

Noted today on the Mozilla press page, the Mozilla Foundation has joined forces with, dig this, a who's who of old old-school lock-in masters such as with Adobe, Apple, and Macromedia, together with competitor Opera and free-software sugar-daddy Sun Microsystems, and together they have a plan to create a new generation of open web browser plugins with an aim to "allow web developers to offer richer web browsing experiences, helping to maintain innovation and standards on the Net."

Without these improvements, enhanced interactivity could remain tied to a single, proprietary browser solution, which reduces choice and leads to monoculture on the web.

Hmmm ... oh, really? Sound like anybody we know?

This new initiative makes enhanced interactivity available without locking users in to a specific computing platform or web browser. This will allow users to choose among a range of browsers without sacrificing interactivity.

Somebody, I say, somebody say Amen.

[ Source: Mozilla Foundation Announces More Open, Scriptable Plugins ]