Mozilla, the open-source software company that created Firefox, celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with a cake. The cake was sent to Microsoft as a sign of goodwill after the company announced it would no longer support Internet Explorer. “Mozilla is grateful for the support of our community and partners over the past decade,” said Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs in a statement. “We hope that Microsoft will reconsider its decision to end support for IE and work with us to create an open web platform that works for everyone.” Microsoft responded by saying it was “disappointed” by Mozilla’s decision but that it still supported open standards. ..
Internet Explorer was officially retired in June, which was a happy occasion for nearly everyone in the tech industry. Following a long tradition of sending cakes to each other, the Firefox team at Mozilla sent a cake to Microsoft to celebrate the end of Internet Explorer.
Microsoft shared a photo earlier today of a cake it received from the Firefox team at Mozilla, complete with a large Internet Explorer logo. The cake reads, “you were the ie6ing on the cake” — spelling icing that way might be a little bit of a stretch, but we’ll let it slide this time.
— Microsoft Edge Dev (@MSEdgeDev) July 11, 2022
Web browser development teams sending each other cakes is a tradition that goes back nearly a decade. Microsoft sent the Firefox team a cake for the release of Firefox 2.0 in 2006, which continued for most new major releases of Firefox — though they eventually became cupcakes as browser release cycles sped up. Mozilla sent its own cake to Microsoft after Internet Explorer 10 arrived in 2012, then Google’s Chrome team started sending cakes.
The celebratory sugar comes after Internet Explorer was finally retired in June, though the core engine is still sticking around as Internet Explorer Mode in the new Chromium-powered Edge browser. Microsoft will support IE Mode until 2029 at the earliest, so there might be an opportunity for one more IE-themed cake in the future.
