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As we all remember, In the mid-1990s the browser was used by more than 90% of the web population, but numbers have slipped to just 0.6%.
AOL played a significant role in the launch of the Netscape 6 browser, the first Mozilla-based, Netscape-branded browser that was released in 2000 and continued to solely fund the development and marketing efforts of Netscape-branded browsers. In 2003, an independent foundation was created to support the continued development of the open source web suite. AOL was a major source of support for the Mozilla Foundation and the company continued to develop versions of the Netscape browser based on the work of the foundation.
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. Recently, support for the Netscape browser has been limited to a handful of engineers tasked with creating a skinned version of Firefox with a few extensions.
Quote:
Q: I use Netscape now. Now that Netscape is stopping support, what do I do?
A: The Netscape Team fully stands behind the fine work being done by the Mozilla Foundation. We recommend that you download Mozilla Firefox and give it a try. We know you'll enjoy it!
Q: Will I still be able to use Netscape?
A: You will still be able to download old versions of Netscape from the Netscape Archive (link coming). However, these products are no longer supported. Our recommendation for the nostalgic out there is to download Mozilla Firefox, and add on the Netscape theme and Netscape extensions which are available here:
This way you'll have a current web browser that is very secure, and has the look and feel you have grown accustomed to with Netscape.
Q: Will anyone be around to answer my questions?
A: The following sites will continue to exist and offer information about Netscape after February 1, 2008: The UFAQ (http://www.ufaq.org/), the Netscape Archive, the Netscape Community Forum (http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&redirCnt=1).
Please bear in mind that no active product support will be available.
Q: Does this mean that Netscape is dead?
A: While we will no longer support the Netscape web browser as of February 1, 2008, Netscape.com (http://www.netscape.com) will still continue to serve as a general use Internet portal.
What is Netscape?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape
Wikipedia wrote:
Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company, best known for its web browser. The browser was once dominant in terms of usage share, but lost most of its share to Internet Explorer during the first browser war. By the end of 2006, the usage share of Netscape browsers had fallen from over 85% in the mid 1990s, to less than 1%.
Netscape traded between 1995 to 2003, subsequently as a subsidiary of AOL LLC, however it has since become a holding company, following Netscape's purchase by AOL in 1998. The brand is still extensively used by AOL, and some current services under the Netscape brand besides the web browser include a discount Internet service provider and a popular social news website.
Although a core team has continued to work on the secure browser - it is currently on version nine - AOL has decided to finally pull the plug.
Quote:
"After 1 February, there will be no more active product support for Navigator nine, or any previous Netscape Navigator browser,"
wrote Mr Drapeau.
Quote:
"We feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reigns fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox,"
he said.
Users of the browser will no longer receive security or software updates after the date.
Old versions of the browser will still be available for download, but will no longer be supported.
Microsoft is expected to launch a new version of IE in 2008, whilst the third version of Firefox is currently available as a beta, or test version.
The Netscape browser code has not been maintained to the community's expectations. AOL has also done a pretty good job of obscuring the Netscape name. Netscape.com was briefly a Digg-style social news site, and now the web site is basically a landing page for AOL.com. In order to even find the latest version of the Netscape web browser, you have to go to browser.netscape.com.
What was once a great Internet Suite gave birth to the Mozilla foundation when Netscape code was released to the Open Source community. Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird are remnants of the once-great Netscape Internet Browser.
The small but loyal(?) fanbase seem surprised...
From comments on the blog post:
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mean this the netscape navigator will sink like the titanic???? i cannot believe
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??? is it a joke? an April fool? i cannot believe!
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unbelieveable ... i love my navigator and cannot understand why this great thing should be "dieing" with the netscape navigator a part of the internet history will gone ... wrong time to wish all a happy new year? i dunno ...
Although Netscape is gone, a theme is available for the current version of Firefox to make it look like Netscape 9. No word on when a theme like the image below will become available.
http://browser.netscape.com/ is the official netscape site
Will this see a 1% increase in Firefox usage? What do you think?
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