12/28/2007, 2:45pm, EST

Friday, December 28th

Netscape browser support to end in February

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.

Filed under: industry, software
Other story tags: Firefox, AOL, mozilla, browsers, Netscape

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howiethemacguy

This is good

12/28, 3:06pm, EST

Netscape has become big and bloated anyway and it needs to die.

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Grendelmon

Nah...

12/28, 4:04pm, EST

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.

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van rijn

one less browser...

12/28, 4:06pm, EST

... to test sites on

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vasic

The final end

12/28, 4:47pm, EST

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.

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smezjj

Sad day

12/28, 10:48pm, EST

It's the end of an era...

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testudo

Re: nah

12/28, 11:07pm, EST

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.

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Jonathan-Tanya

semantics

12/28, 11:24pm, EST

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.

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coldfusion1970

What?

12/29, 6:39am, EST

I didnt know Netscape was still being developed. I'm a Safari/Camino man myself.

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nat

sad indeed

12/29, 7:40am, EST

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.

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smezjj

Killed it?!

12/29, 4:05pm, EST

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.

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