End of an Era: AOL dumps Netscape

$6 billion later

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,14…e/article.html

Sad, but I switched from Netscape to Firefox long ago when Netscape not only kept crashing, but kept deleting all my bookmarks as well!!

I don't know how many peoples would care about the demise. The dead of the browser isn't widely reported, and that, i think tell something about it current status compare to other browsers. To me it was dead long time ago, what left until now only the once well recognized name "Netscape".

I used Netscape for sometime, until Microsoft IE catched up in term of functionality and performance. And then Firefox when released and gained a lot advantages over IE, i use it ever since, although currently the new IE look good too.

It was simple storage which caused me to switch to IE from Netscape. It became pointless to to have another browser that websites were geared less and less for. I remember the release of Netscape 6 and my manager upgrading to it immediately at work. The disaster it caused on his PC was epic as not only did it interfere with Windows but uninstalling it created even more havoc.

Netscape was the first big company to really cash in on the IPO craze of the mid-90's. Its one of the things that saved them. since MS was forcing them to give away their browser they never had any revenue streams except the contract work they got developing corporate Intranets. You would think there would still be some money in that for them.

I was a late convert to Firefox but IE was just falling behind as I point out in my "MS keeps dropping the ball" thread.

Mozilla has been around forever I believe. Mozilla was the first browser that was developed as a college project and Netscape was his commercial version?

Or is this version of Mozilla/Firefox based on the open source code of Netscape?

Mozilla was an internal code name for Netscape at Netscape. The current Mozilla/Seamonkey/Firebird programs are based on the Netscape source code that was released under a GPL-like license in 1998. Ever since, Netscape has been based on the Mozilla project's code.

I stopped using Netscape soon after AOL bought it. Last version used was 4.7 I believe.

@Lucky, you're confusing NCSA Mosaic with Mozilla.

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
@Lucky, you're confusing NCSA Mosaic with Mozilla.

thank you gentlemen. its been sooo long.

Its almost as if they were to announce the end of any and all Ultima games or that there would be no more black and white movies or that IBM was selling themselves to Communist China.

Things tend to go out more with a whimper than a bang.

When we here about the end of AOL as well I think it would provoke the same response.

Yep, it is an era that really ended years ago. I am just happy that Microsoft's 'crush then stagnate' business model spawned FireFox …

Netscape still lives on - in Mozilla, Firefox …