Code Warrior's Tech Freedom Fight

Chase Phillips fits most of the stereotypes of open source developers. He got involved with Mozilla's open source Firefox Web browser to fight the evil empire, Microsoft, and its Internet Explorer browser, and he almost let it consume his life.

The reason the 27-year-old contributes code "boils down to a passion or belief that Mozilla provides freedom to people to control their own computers," he says. "I believe in different layers of freedom, technological freedom."

And he also would be the first to say that his point of view can be taken too far. He got so immersed in Mozilla's battle with Microsoft that he found himself spending 80 to 110 hours a week programming. It wasn't all volunteer work. He was an employee of Mozilla, so he was paid for many of those hours. He notes with pride that he was employee No. 12 at Mozilla. Still, as his Mozilla workweek began to consume all available hours, "I realized it was important to disconnect, to take some breaks."

A computer science grad of Tulane University, with minors in math and philosophy, Phillips left Mozilla and now works as a senior release engineer at LiveOps, a teleservices startup. And he's putting in a more reasonable 40- to 50-hour week. He hangs out with friends and has a girlfriend. Now, he says, "I've got a life outside the stuff I'm working on."

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