Netscape browser support to end in February
updated 02:45 pm EST, Fri December 28, 2007
Netscape death in Feb.
All support for Netscape web browsers will stop as of February 1st, the AOL-owned company has announced. Security updates will continue to be developed until that date, but afterwards, users will only be able to download archived versions of browsers such as Navigator. The company is instead pushing users towards Mozilla's Firefox, as the group was a creation of Netscape reaching back to 1999, to which AOL soon decided to provide backing. Firefox and Navigator have often shared close connections, to the extent that Navigator 9 became little more than a re-skinned version of its cousin.
Netscape's web browser was at one point dominant in the public space, and for many people the first browser they ever used. Its death knell was sounded with the introduction of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which came bundled with Windows 95, and eventually matched its rival's features. Navigator thus became redundant, although not before triggering an infamous anti-trust case that saw Windows opened more widely to third-party software.
This is good
12/28, 03:06pm reply
Netscape has become big and bloated anyway and it needs to die.
howiethemacguy
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2007
Nah...
12/28, 04:04pm reply
Netscape has always had a little piece of my heart. I've actually been using it 100% since I discovered v9 was available (and soon to realize it's just Firefox). And since it is Firefox, it isn't as bloated as it's predecessors because of it's lacking of the email/newsgroup/composer modules. I like the WeatherBug integration, although the "mini browser" feature is kind of weird.
Grendelmon
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2007
one less browser...
12/28, 04:06pm reply
... to test sites on
van rijn
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2002
The final end
12/28, 04:47pm reply
This represents the end of Microsoft's successful effort to abuse monopoly in order to drive out competition. After successfully "cutting its air supply", Microsoft stood there, watching Netscape die slow and agonising death. There was only so much Mozilla could do for it, and it only shows that if you are powerful and patient enough, you can kill your enemies without a meaningful punishment, even when the entire US government stands up against you.
Netscape personifies the consequences of monopolies running around without control. Better product lost, and consumers will for long time be suffering because of it.
vasic
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
Sad day
12/28, 10:48pm reply
It's the end of an era...
smezjj
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2001
Re: nah
12/28, 11:07pm reply
And since it is Firefox, it isn't as bloated as it's predecessors because of it's lacking of the email/newsgroup/composer modules.
The hilarious thing was, back when v4 was released as Communicator, every yelled bloat and wanted Navigator back. So they released Navigator as just a browser. And then the public yelled because they removed the email program.
So, apparently, bloat is in the eye of the beholder.
Yet I never really figured out why they wasted the time with Netscape, since it was always just reskinned versions of Mozilla and then Firefox.
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
semantics
12/28, 11:24pm reply
they are killing the name Netscape...they killed it as an independent browser many years ago.
As others have noticed, it was a barely dressed up Firefox. The fact that Firefox is on a different codebase than Mozilla was before it...doesn't make it any less the heir to the netscape line of browsers...
its just a name change that took several years. Now, if AOL had dropped support for firefox, that would have been news.
Jonathan-Tanya
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2004
What?
12/29, 06:39am reply
I didnt know Netscape was still being developed. I'm a Safari/Camino man myself.
coldfusion1970
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2004
sad indeed
12/29, 07:40am reply
the work/vision of andreeson, the coolness of this new web thingy... all trampled under by gates and company. i still love the quote from gates in '95 - the web is a fad and ms won't be getting into it.
rip netscape.
nat
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2002
Killed it?!
12/29, 04:05pm reply
That's funny... I am using Netscape Navigator on my Mac right now this version was released in 2007. That doesn't seem like "many years ago" to me.
smezjj
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2001