End of a Browser Era
December 28th, 2007 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy 7 Comments
Depending on how far back you go with the internet, it’s pretty likely that you used to use Netscape Navigator to browser the web. Well, that experience is on its way to join hula hoops and the Charleston in the history hall of fame: AOL has announced that they are finally killing the last active Navigator development. There will be some support around through January, but the official recommendation is: switch to Firefox.
That makes sense, of course, since Firefox is the fruit of the last thing Netscape did before they got bought by AOL - spinning off the open-source Mozilla Foundation, which is still going strong. Indeed, with the imminent release of Firefox 3 things are looking brighter than ever for the open source version, which provides the most serious competition around for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
The AOL/Netscape portal page will survive, but that really shares nothing other than a name and a color scheme with the browser. Overall, the impact of this change, in 2008, should be minimal for web workers: most of us have long since moved on to other browsers, and Navigator’s market share was so miniscule that it wasn’t even worth testing pages with.
Some people will ultimately blame this disappearance on Microsoft, who famously threatened to “cut off the oxygen supply” of Netscape, driving it into AOL’s arms as a matter of corporate survival. But at least as much blame must attach to Netscape’s own decision to abandon market momentum by rewriting a successful codebase from scratch. Either way, it’s worth taking a moment to consider that the difference between market leader and historical footnote for web firms is measured in years, not decades.
7 Comments Post your own comment
linkerjpatrick says: December 28th, 2007 12:01pm
I have font memories of Netscape. I was my first real interaction with the Internet. I was dating my wife who was going to a local college I would go with her into the computer labs while she worked on projects. Being the curious sort I was I tried out this Netscape thing I saw on the computer and yes, I started “surfing” by exploring the Yahoo directory, looking up sites of things I was interested in like Star Trek and late at night I had been listening to Art Bell on Coast to Coast talk about his web site. Naturally I wanted to check it out.
One of the things I think has been lost with the transition to Firefox and newer Netscape versions is the “art” of the program. I always found the artistic looking Netscape splash screen as well as the “throbber” or rather the big N with the starfield behind it that would animate when you would load up a web site.
As much as I love the Firefox browser and other Mozilla projects they still feel “generic” and “unofficial” compared to Netscape. I really wish the Mozilla foundation could just buy out the Netscape name and rebrand Firefox to Netscape and bring back to great branding and artwork of the program. I guess I’m just a sentimental person. Maybe I’m just a sentimental fool but does AOL really need Netscape? Well, to tell the truth do we really need AOL?
All that being said I have been getting some clients who actually used Netscape off it and setting them up with Firefox yet my old sentimental self can’t help but feel the the Firefox name is a little less “real” and “beta” although it is better and ahead of current Netscape versions.
Jason Duerr says: December 28th, 2007 4:22pm
The memory of using Netscape is already almost gone. I remember feeling a little weird the first time I didn’t install it as part of my browser testing suite. I’d been using Netscape since it was called Mosaic. (yeah, I’m internet-old). It’s too bad it bled to death. I still think Netscape had one of the best names going for a web browser.
WereBo says: December 29th, 2007 4:57am
I happily admit to preferring ‘NetNav’ over any version of IE, any day! However, all is not lost for Netscape aficionados, Mozilla released ‘SeaMonkey’ which to all intents and purposes, is the same - only better!!!
It looks identical, with choice of skins, tabbed browsing, Mozilla plug-in and extensions support. It’s also identical in that it has the email reader - web-page composer - Profile Manager and web browser all in one suite.
Good ol’ Mozilla - Yaaayyy!!!
emalyse says: December 29th, 2007 6:21am
Mosaic was my first browser way back which then begat Netscape so thanks for the early years anyway (My 1st web pages were creatd via composer). AOL could have integrated Netscape fully into their portal software but dithered for too long so the death of the Netscape brand was probably inevitable.
markdauvid says: December 29th, 2007 8:50am
netscape is just a symtom of the death of aol.
Ellie says: December 29th, 2007 11:10pm
I will miss Netscape. It was my first browser on my first computer - and I remember designing websites that “work best with Netscape.”
Ah, the memories!
cg17 says: December 30th, 2007 9:32am
Ahh Netscape. Bring on the nostalgia. :’)
Like many of the commenters thus far, Netscape was my first browser. I remember using it on the original blueberry-colored iMac.
Somehow I had a feeling this was coming, though, this “death” of Netscape…