Soon, Netscape Navigator - the first highly successful graphical web browser (yeah, yeah, I know Mosaic came before Netscape, but I don't remember seeing Mosaic floppy-disks bundled with my PC World and Macworld magazines in 1995, at least not under the name "Mosaic") - will be nothing more than a footnote in Internet history. Let's take a moment of silence for the big N. OK, that was long enough. AOL, the parent company of this blog and Netscape, has announced that they will cease support for the current version of Netscape as of February 1, 2008. Netscape, which at its peak in the mid-1990s held 80% of the web browser marketshare, and was a player in Browser Wars 1.0.
Long before Apple released Safari in 2003, Netscape was a pretty familiar application to scores of Mac users. Even after Apple started shipping Internet Explorer for Mac with OS 8.1 and enabling it as the default browser, Netscape Navigator was still included, and at least in my experience, often preferred over IE for Mac. The very first web browser I ever used was Netscape Navigator 1.something on a Power Mac 6200 (which some say was the worst Mac ever) way back in 1995. Although other browsers were available at the time, Netscape was the first to be cross platform (and perform the same across platforms - which was an important distinction).
Shortly before AOL bought Netscape in 1998, the code base of Netscape Communicator 4 was released under an open-source license. This project, which was called Mozilla, eventually resulted into what we now know as Firefox (note that the Mozilla team basically rewrote the code for what became the basis of the Mozilla suite, later forked as Firefox, from the ground up, as the Communicator code was too much of a mess).
Although Netscape is gone, a theme is available for the current version of Firefox to make it look like Netscape 9.
Netscape Navigator 2 for classic Mac OS
[via Download Squad]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
12-28-2007 @ 7:46PM
ST said...
that screen shot is from navigator 2.0... not 3.0
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12-28-2007 @ 9:05PM
Christina Warren said...
D'oh - I fixed that as soon as I saw your comment. Thanks for the heads-up!
12-28-2007 @ 8:23PM
Kroc Camen said...
What, you mean this theme?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3471
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12-28-2007 @ 8:27PM
Christina Warren said...
I have been pwned! Awesome.
12-28-2007 @ 9:18PM
John Russell said...
The sad part is that it mainly lost out to Microsoft's monopolistic Internet Explore and only because it was being bundled. :'(
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12-28-2007 @ 9:21PM
Christina Warren said...
I don't know - I mean, IE 6 was the giant suck, but I stopped using Navigator on anything but a Mac (or to check compatibility) as soon as IE 4 was released, because it was SO much better than anything else on the market. I think a big reason it lost the browser war was that Microsoft had the better product - regardless of what was bundled.
12-28-2007 @ 10:24PM
Fritz Laurel said...
I would have to agree with Christina. I've always said that if MS has a better product, I'd use it (we'd all be maroons not to). And I used IE over NS (at the time).
I'm sorry to see the competition let up on everyone else, but let's be honest. NS hasn't been a contender since before AOL bought them (as noted, the code base was too much of a mess.)
But, the silver lining is that my compatibility checklist just got one browser shorter. :D
Cheers,
FL
12-28-2007 @ 9:51PM
Mark d said...
I worked at Netscape, and am sad about this news. And don't let the years that have passed fool you - Microsoft killed Netscape through monopolistic behaviour. If they'd won marketshare entirely by producing better software, or by including it with Windows it wouldn't have been illegal. When they did it by bullying Netscape, threatening PC manufacturers who bundled Netscape with their systems, and embedding the browser in the OS in such a way it could not be removed, and so on, that's when the play was dirty.
Netscape RIP. Long live firefox.
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12-28-2007 @ 11:33PM
Joshua Ochs said...
On Windows IE was inferior (ironically), but on the Mac it was actually much better by around version 4 or 4.5. It was smaller, faster, had innovative features (at the time) like a download manager, subscriptions (a primitive precursor to RSS), customizable toolbar, etc. IE5 even had such a good rendering engine that it was widely hailed as the most standards compliant at the time.
Netscape turned into a huge bloated mess around versions 3 and 4. The mail/news components were never up to snuff, and they dragged down the browser. No major features were being added to Netscape at that point.
As time went by, Microsoft did ultimately show its true colors and kill off IE for the Mac, and so it stagnated into the mess it is today, but when it came out, it won based on its merits.
12-29-2007 @ 12:21AM
HandyMac said...
Well, I'm sorry to hear this; I've been enjoying having the Netscape (the new v.9) icon back in my Dock.
What I'd really like to see, now that AOL has abandoned it entirely, is the Netscape name go back to Mozilla, and Firefox (which I've never liked) renamed/branded Netscape. Then we could watch Netscape take back its market share from IE. Wouldn't that be fun.
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12-29-2007 @ 1:36AM
darngooddesign said...
Browser War 1.0
I was in teh shit!
12-29-2007 @ 6:23AM
airmanchairman said...
Brilliant idea, HandyMac!
12-29-2007 @ 3:36AM
Mike K. said...
Ah yes, Netscape 1.0. I still have it on a floppy disc I used with my PowerMac 7200/75 (also one of the worst macs ever) and I even used it one time several years later to be able to download a newer version.
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12-29-2007 @ 3:44AM
Sypie said...
The very nice thing about Netscape: Jim Clarck, the CEO, bought a few sailing boats in Holland. Tha last one is navigating on Seascape. You get it?
Here is the specification page: http://www.royalhuisman.com/p_mi_athena_spec.htm
Picture Page: http://www.royalhuisman.com/p_mi_athena_photos.htm
And there is even a book about it: http://www.athenabook.com/
And by the way: Jim Clarck boat that boat by himself wich means that that boat is the biggest private sailing boat in the world.
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12-29-2007 @ 5:38AM
airmanchairman said...
Really sad to hear this, as I returned to my good old 'Gator (with my favourite SkyPilot theme by Sailfish) ever since the 9.x series came out, and have faithfully installed every update so far (9.0.0.5 to date). This dirge is actually being typed in NN9.
However, this is not the first "rumour of Netscape's demise" there has been, and I for one hope that it is greatly exaggerated.
It could be an idiosyncracy of my PC (Dell Dimension 9100, 3.4Ghz, 2Gb RAM etc) and I haven't bothered to investigate why or how, but it beats the pants off Firefox and IE7 for speed and runs every plug-in that I need to use.
Will be greatly missed. Aw, shucks (sound of grown man crying follows...).
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12-29-2007 @ 6:09AM
airmanchairman said...
It is also worth remembering that Netscape Navigator came as part of a suite of applications that included a full-blown email client (Communicator), which explains the "bloat" effect often pointed out by both fans and detractors of Netscape.
However, IMHO this would have been progressively ironed out by continued R&D had the devastating effects of MS strong-arm tactics not taken such a toll on Netscape as a company. I realise this is all moot and hypothetical, overtaken by events, yaddayaddayadda....
What I will never forget is that odious photograph of Bill Gates and his cronies cracking open a bottle of champagne and toasting the dramatic fall of Netscape's share price when the market absorbed the implications of their bundling strategy - talk about "schadenfreude" (vicarious pleasure in the demise of others).
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12-29-2007 @ 11:11AM
Meredith Christine said...
my first mac was a Performa 6200 !!! lol, I dunno about it being the worst mac never had any problems with it, but i was also like 10 so, i dunno. but yeah I used netscape on it when I got aol the following year, but for some reason i think I ended up switching to internet explorer when I got my Powermac G3 a few years later. Now I'm a loyal firefox user, I'm running the 3.0 beta, right now. it's smoking fast, I can't wait til the actual release comes out. technically that is Netscape though, so I don't feel that sad to see it go.
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12-29-2007 @ 11:21AM
Ed G said...
Yeah! IE next!
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12-29-2007 @ 6:25PM
Randy said...
Actually, Netscape *IS* Mosaic. The University of Illinois group that wrote Mosaic went on -- with the university's blessing -- to found Netscape which, in fact, was based entirely upon its progenitor's code. So there's really not a question of which came first. Netscape (i.e., Mosaic-renamed) was indeed the first viable browser, and some of us cast a downward reverent glance at its passing. R.I.P.
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12-29-2007 @ 6:49PM
Randy said...
Addendum for those few among us who enjoy internet history: More information about Netscape's origins (including an early release called "Mosaic Netscape") can be found in the Wikipedia article titled "Netscape."
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