The browser that helped kick-start the commercial web is to cease development because of lack of users. Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 February 2008, the company has said. In the mid-1990s the browser was used by more than 90% of the web population, but numbers have slipped to just 0.6%. In particular, the browser has faced competition from Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), which is now used by nearly 80% of all web users. "While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer," said Tom Drapeau on the company's blog.
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Netscape Navigator set to be discontinued
Haddaway 
on 28 December 2007 - 22:22 · 68 comments & 42122 views
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Last edited by Emon on 28 Dec 2007 - 23:02
It's not about that. It's about how "great" it actually was. I'm all for competition, but the competitors have to TRY.
yes, and netscape is only firefox with some additional functionality and different gui
I know only 4 "major" browser engines:
safari
firefox
opera
ie
yes, and netscape is only firefox with some additional functionality and different gui
It shows that you obvesly haven't used it, I used it on all PCs I have as the version of firefox they use in it was secured against a big number of exploits, the 9999*9999 PNG exploit in firefox didn't exist in Netscape 8 and 9. And now to proove you don't use the products you rate, Netscape 8 / 9 is Secured Firefox AND IE, yes thats right, it had the IE engine in it as well for dynamic switching, VERY useful when some site are incompatible with IE and when some sites are (very rarely) incompatible with firefox, so I would advise you to test the program you slag off next time before you walk into the same big whole again. Also it had a spyware scanner built-in, a phising filter and a temperature thing, WAY before IE or Firefox put it in or any toolbars had it
Last edited by n_K on 29 Dec 2007 - 00:58
yes, and netscape is only firefox with some additional functionality and different gui
I know only 4 "major" browser engines:
safari
firefox
opera
ie
Or none, since that is not engines...
Safari: Safari/KHTML
Firefox: Gekko
Opera: Presto
Internet Explorer: Trident
Last edited by [X]-bYtE on 29 Dec 2007 - 00:58
yes, and netscape is only firefox with some additional functionality and different gui
I know only 4 "major" browser engines:
safari
firefox
opera
ie
Or none, since that is not engines...
Safari: Safari/KHTML
Firefox: Gekko
Opera: Presto
Internet Explorer: Trident
Don't you mean Safari: WebKit?
WebCore, and it's based on KHTML.
Presto: Opera
Gecko: Firefox, Camino, Netscape, K-Meleon
WebCore: Safari, OmniWeb
KHTML: Konqueror
Trident: Internet Explorer
Last edited by Jugalator on 29 Dec 2007 - 16:26
No need for it anyway.
Last edited by LTD on 29 Dec 2007 - 12:30
AOL was using the IE engine for their "browser" before the purchase. You might recall the conniption fit AOL had when MS planned to release Win95 with a desktop icon called "MSN"...it was part of that deal. Components of what they utilized is sometimes referred to as "IE Lite", but the basic underlying code is Microsoft.
To say Navigator failed because of IE's market share is essentially correct...but with an enormous amount of help from AOL. It's obvious that after paying 4.2 billion dollars, they actually had no interest in the browser.
It was just a few days after the purchase of Netscape when AOL re-upped their agreement with MS to continue using IE. Then in 2003, AOL re-upped with MS again for another seven years (and pocketed $750M as well)...two months after that, Time Warner disbanded Netscape.
Don't bother giving me the "7.2" lecture...development of Navigator was ceased years ago. This is a total non-story.
Didn't netscape start the mozilla thing? In the end, netscape still lives on firefox
Last edited by Julius Caro on 29 Dec 2007 - 00:01
how life has changed...
When I was just "a young Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecat"
iIn 1998 well my true into to the net age as well when I was younger I had much better things to be into
Like women!!
Then came the divorce and my dabblinngs into the internet
Since my Netscape days as it was the browser that came with that dial up connection
Now I work for MS and still will miss the Netscape days... whats next ICQ???
NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
yeh although I hardly use that either..
Oh well such is life
Out with the old and in with the new
PS
Still love my Mini Mac
(sorry Bill its just so damn cute)
I don't know anybody who uses it, so it's good to see it be discontinued.
Haha! Ok you got me
Damn my Firefox Fanboyism!
Last edited by Xerxes on 29 Dec 2007 - 01:17
but yeah they were doomed long ago.
Glad to see them put it to rest though.
R.I.P.
Instead of trying to fix those problems they started with the stupid Communicator thing and trying to put everything and the kitchen sink in it. Then they died and there was no version 5. When it came back under AOL's control version 6 was the most horrible pile of nothing ever released. Funny that once they finally make it good again with version 9 they decide to dump it. I guess AOL is only satisfied when their products suck.
I loved Netscape (from NCSA Mosaic onwards) and always will, but IE's documentation kicked serious tush over what Netscape had to offer back in the day. I was doing browser client-side development in 96 and was amazed at how frustrating the Netscape documentation was. That started my switch to the MS side. When you refer to IE's docs to figure out Netscape, you know something is awry on Netscape's side. For all the JWZ and Marcs, I wish they had had comparable documentation wizzes.
I loved Netscape (from NCSA Mosaic onwards) and always will
Strictly speaking, it wasn't NCSA that created Netscape, but a couple of programmers that used to work there (Marc Andreesen being one of them).
/me looks for a "Netscape Now!" button like he had in 1994...
Rabbits. Wayback only goes back to 1996 *cry*
Sidenote: whassup with the escaping quotes after edit?
Last edited by mrbester on 03 Jan 2008 - 13:46
Once it became competitive with Microsoft's IE browser, Netscape was always just a hopeful contender than any serious threat. I was using IE for the longest time because Netscape insisted on installing all kinds of crapware with it (remember that anyone?), and then only switched to Firefox in the last year or two because of...the gsync plugin. Otherwise IE would still be my favourite.
You forgot one: "the fat lady."
it was good back in the day, but past its prime now, gotta hand it over to the new heavy weights
Edit:
I wonder if I'll see those nostalgic little "Get Netscape" and "Netscape-version" sort of icons ever again. The 90s were a good time...
On a related note, http://web.archive.org/ might have something along those lines in its archives somewhere. Time to hunt for them!
Edit++:
What's up with the outputting of the escaped quotes?
Last edited by rpgfan on 29 Dec 2007 - 07:27
It didn't bundle Weatherbug, it was an extension for firefox. Not the actual program that goes in the tray.
I still have the retail box and floppy disks of the app ...
A sad day ... Maybe they might release it ...
So, others can revamp it ... most likely not ... you never know ...
These security fixes included in Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 have been included in Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.5.
http://browser.netscape.com/features
Looks and feels just like firefox.... hmm...doesnt suprise me since we all know netscape is based on firefox already, only thing i noticed different between firefox and netscape was the linkpad, minibrowser(sidebar), and the weatherbug extension...anyways bye netscape
Last edited by ibetheone on 29 Dec 2007 - 13:55
it was a neat feature..it didnt make me use netscape since i dont need hte ie engine for anythin i use, but it was a nice feature
as far as I recall, my first internet experience was with a netscape navigator
I've just installed and using 9.0.0.5 to celebrate.
r.i.p.
Last edited by TCLN Ryster on 30 Dec 2007 - 16:21
Too bad netscape navigator 9 its very good, i used the last netscape 7.12 before i moved to firefox.
Firefox is simply kicking ass in market share. In Europe, where the Opera lawsuit was filed, Firefox holds a little more than 40% of the market on average. In some European countries, Firefox's market share is as high as 49%. Firefox continues to grow at the expense of IE.
Both Firefox and Opera were given the same market dilemma where the vast majority of users were using IE, which came pre-installed with their computer. Even then, Firefox was able to obtain massive gains in market share whereas Opera's market share remained stale. I don't see how anyone could blame MS for that. The fact of the matter is, Opera is in danger from Opera, not MS. Mozilla made a browser that the mass market can appeal to. Opera did not. They are suing MS because they are cry babies and don't want to take responsibility for their own shortcomings. Firefox is a much bigger threat to Opera than IE is, since when users want to switch to a new browser, they are not going to go to Opera, they are going to move onto Firefox.
EDIT: Why does it add a escape characters before my apostrophes?
Last edited by Mikee99 on 30 Dec 2007 - 21:19
Firefox is simply kicking ass in market share. In Europe, where the Opera lawsuit was filed, Firefox holds a little more than 40% of the market on average. In some European countries, Firefox's market share is as high as 49%. Firefox continues to grow at the expense of IE.
Both Firefox and Opera were given the same market dilemma where the vast majority of users were using IE, which came pre-installed with their computer. Even then, Firefox was able to obtain massive gains in market share whereas Opera's market share remained stale. I don't see how anyone could blame MS for that. The fact of the matter is, Opera is in danger from Opera, not MS. Mozilla made a browser that the mass market can appeal to. Opera did not. They are suing MS because they are cry babies and don't want to take responsibility for their own shortcomings. Firefox is a much bigger threat to Opera than IE is, since when users want to switch to a new browser, they are not going to go to Opera, they are going to move onto Firefox.
EDIT: Why does it add a escape characters before my apostrophes?
There is a massive flaw with your arguement, and that is Opera.
Everything Opera does [with 1 exception] is better than firefox. Speed, memory usage, bugs. The only exception is extensions. And as over 75% of the firefox extensions are pieces of ****...even that isnt such a big problem.
The reason why Firefox has more marketing share than opera is cuz of their marketing. Stupid little boxes on sites that you go to without using Firefox that say get firefox or you will go to hell etc. And also because there was once a time when Opera was pay-to-use [or free with an ad in the menu] and hence not many people wanted to use it.
Everything Opera does [with 1 exception] is better than firefox. Speed, memory usage, bugs. The only exception is extensions. And as over 75% of the firefox extensions are pieces of ****...even that isnt such a big problem.
The reason why Firefox has more marketing share than opera is cuz of their marketing. Stupid little boxes on sites that you go to without using Firefox that say get firefox or you will go to hell etc. And also because there was once a time when Opera was pay-to-use [or free with an ad in the menu] and hence not many people wanted to use it.
What you're talking about != what I'm talking about.
Opera is not a massive flaw to my argument. I was merely using the success of Firefox to point out that MS's control over the market has little impact on the success of Opera since another third party browser was able (and continues) to capture such a significant chunk of the market. And you said it yourself, that Opera's past pay-to-use system hurt their market share growth (even today since it prevented growth before the Firefox boom). So really, Opera has only themselves to blame for their stale market share and growth.
Also, your points about Opera being "better" than Firefox is very subjective. Some do not like the interface of Opera, or even the name for that matter. Also, I find that Firefox renders web pages nicer than Opera does. As for extensions, while it is true that most extensions are crap, some of which are simply stellar that some people cannot live without. NoScript, for example, is an extension that I simply cannot live without. GooglePreview is another extension that I cannot live without.
Last edited by Mikee99 on 03 Jan 2008 - 02:02
Netscape 1.0
http://netscape.1command.com/nsplus/m.php?p=G32D304P.EXE
But!
the latest version 9.0
Sure its like a copy of FF.
But I find it faster and less craving on my memory than FF ...
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