AOL pulls the plug on Netscape Navigator

Filed under: Business, Web services, Microsoft, Mozilla, AOL

AOL pulls the plug on Netscape Navigator

by Jason Harris Dec 28th 2007

Today AOL announced plans to discontinue development on the beloved Netscape browser. As you may know, Netscape was the first mass market Internet browser, originally released in October 1994. AOL will stop developing the browser on February 1, 2008 according to the Netscape blog.

This blog's parent company, AOL gained control of Netscape when they acquired it in November 1998 for the whopping price of $4.2 billion. The software, which is currently on version 9, was dominant in the 1990's until Microsoft unleashed Internet Explorer. Recent figures show that Netscape has less than 1 percent market share after having more than 90 during the browser wars of the 1990's.

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 the upshot of the once-great Netscape Internet Browser.

Netscape will always have a dear place in our hearts. For many of us it was our first window in to the World Wide Web. Rest in Peace, Netscape Navigator.

Tags: firefox, Internet explorer, InternetExplorer, netscape

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mark said 2:38PM on 12-28-2007

I'll never understand they idiotic thinking at AOL. They finally release the first great version in over a decade, Navigator 9.0 and now they're killing it. Doesn't make any sense. I know, it was based on Firefox and actually kind of redundant but still...

I wish this company would just go out of business and vanish. They screw up everything they touch and they should have died with Compuserve, Prodigy and the other early service providers.

SteveS said 3:09PM on 12-28-2007

Actually my first was NCSA Mosaic (if you're not counting Lynx).

Asa Dotzler said 3:27PM on 12-28-2007

"Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird are remnants of the once-great Netscape Internet Browser."

I'd say we're more than "remnants". Firefox has more users today than Netscape ever had and while Netscape may have been a pioneer, we're doing something I consider much more difficult, challenging an entrenched and law-breaking monopoly.

Remnants just seems a bit insulting considering...

- A

David said 4:38AM on 12-29-2007

If Mozilla and Firefox are descendant of Netscape, couldn't they upgrade to match Netscapes feature, speed and unparalleled reliability?

I have never used a browser faster or more reliable and supporting great graphics, etc.

Jason Harris said 4:19PM on 12-28-2007

Hey Asa -

remnant was a bad choice of a word. I altered the post to say "upshot".

What I really meant to say was that Firefox came from what Netscape once was.

-Jason

Asa Dotzler said 4:29PM on 12-28-2007

Thanks for the quick reply. maybe "noble legacy" ;-)

- A

Christina Warren said 5:26PM on 12-28-2007

I remember the exact moment I stopped using Netscape for anything more than HTML cross-checking: Internet Explorer 4. Even IE 3.5 was better in almost every way than Netscape (though a plugin of sorts had to be used for javascrpt based file uploading), but IE 4 was the real turning point, and the renamed Communicator couldn't keep up either technologically or via pricing (remember, Netscape tried to charge for their browser even after Microsoft was giving away the better IE for free).

I do love that the Netscape project ended up spawning Mozilla, which truly did rise like a Phoenix and become something greater than its predecessor, but I can't say I'm even the tiniest bit nostalgic about Netscape's passing.

Jeremy K. said 12:13AM on 12-29-2007

Netscape

R.I.P.

1994-2008

David said 4:18AM on 12-29-2007

Oh! My! God!
I can't believe what I'm reading!
Just bought a new computer, Windows Vista! As usual, Internet Explorer fraught with hangups! Bogs down, locks up, takes forever to get wherever!
Fortunately I ran into Netscape again and downloaded. Fast, efficient, beautiful add-ons and absolutely never locks up!
Always the best browser I tried on five different OS's.
Can't be dead. Can't be! I don't believe it!

I have Mozilla and it's nice but no match for Netscape speed and graphics.

And anyone who say Internet Explorer is better is out of their minds!

Question: Does this mean Netscape will no longer be available or working?

Say it isn't so!

Jamar said 10:17AM on 12-29-2007

I'm sure that there will still be places on the net to download it from. It just won't be updated any longer.

jfjb said 4:07PM on 12-29-2007

beloved Nescape?
Beloved by whom? Certainly a subjective statement, if not qualifier, which would only relflect the speaker/writer's opinion, NOT the market evaluation of a product.
Please rephrase.
Kindly yours...

Larry said 6:31PM on 12-29-2007

Typical AOL as soon as they get a hold of something good they seem to want to kill it. Netscape Navigator is still the best browser on the net. I have IE7, Mozilla Firefox,and Opera and frankly I'd trade all three for Netscape, It doesn't have a need to shut down every twenty minutes like the others do. Long Live Netscape! The only thing AOL has thats worth a damn and their going to kill it, that explains just one more time why I keep AOL out of my computer.

bridawg said 11:54AM on 1-08-2008

aaaaaaaaaaah Netscape - I remember navigating around the VRML version of the netscape logo - now THAT was excitement!

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