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A Requiem to Netscape


Ixthusdan
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According to this blog entry, Netscape has finally ended its existence. While this is no surprise to anyone, I wanted to post a farewell to the original browser of the internet. I am one person who tried Netscape in a beta form and then went out and purchased it. I used Netscape before Microsoft ever even understood what the internet was. But Netscape understood.

 

The Netscape browser lead the entire software world in ideas and making those ideas work. They integrated mail and browsing, along with newsgroups, and made a single application be the gateway for a user's internet experience. Netscape set the standard for browsing, a standard that everyone else followed. The entire concept of browsing today was initiated by Netscape.

 

Microsoft attempted to write a browser and could not do it. The first Microsoft browser was pathetic. They then began to copy the features of Netscape, and their browser actually began to work. And then they decided to get dirty. Microsoft began to give their browser away for free. Their objective was to annihilate Netscape. They succeeded. The great ideas that was Netscape could no longer support that business because Microsoft destroyed the profitability of it. Netscape attempted to legally defend itself and despite winning legally, it lost financially. Big money and shoddy business won the day.

 

Netscape was succeeded by Mozilla and Firefox, with Netscape's code going to Mozilla. The war for the browser became the principle against bad business and most of the negative aspects of the computer world rests solely upon Microsoft. There is no indication that Microsoft has learned anything at all. They remain a bad business. For myself, much of what I believe today is a result of what I witnessed in the so-called browser wars. I owe that to Netscape, a good product, an innovative leader, and an image of what computing ought to be. Long live Mozilla and Firefox.

 

And like the Alamo, I'll always remember Netscape.

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May it rest in peace.

 

It was the first browser for me too, and I never could understand what should be so much better with wintelnet exploder.

 

I did my first crude html-steps with composer, the sites did not look great but at least they worked.

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In respect for Netscape's place in history I've re-installed the Netscape theme in Firefox and it will stay permanently. I've used it before and don't know why I changed it anyway, I still like it.

 

Netscape wasn't first, but it set the standard for quite a while. MS couldn't write a browser so they licensed Spyglass Mosaic. The old MS motto: "If we can't do it, license it or buy it from those who can."

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RadioEar wrote:

 

I find it incredible that M$ could not write a web browser. It is incomprehensible.

 

I'm not quite sure if you meant this seriously or not. It's perfectly consistent with M$, who never actually innovate much of anything. If fact, I should've stated the M$ motto as: "If we can't do it, license it, buy it or steal it from those who can."

 

I've said this before and I'll say it again: IE is the #1 thing, not software, keeping users tied to M$ and Windows. Crushing Netscape was the most important business move M$ has ever made, though I'm certain M$ had no idea just how important it was at the time. Keeping browser competition squashed will be even more important to M$ in the future as computing activity becomes more and more Net-based in the coming years. M$ will try to keep IE the defacto standard (particularly for businesses) with non-standard plugins, DirectX and other crap generally bad for the future of other browsers, other OS, the 'Net in general and all users by extension.

 

M$ still is clinging to their highly successful business model of desktop computers with Windows, Office, Outlook and IE. Vista is proof positive of that and of how clueless they really are. When they finally grasp that that is not the future, the battle for the 'Net itself will intensify. Eventually Netscape will maybe be best remembered not as a browser per se, but as the place the 'Net war all began. In American terms, the Boston Tea Party of the battle for the 'Net so to speak. At any rate, browser wars are not over, M$ is just asleep at the wheel again. When they get near the edge of the road and the rumble strip wakes them up we can expect more trouble.

 

Originally it was Netscape/freeware/shareware, and now Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird/Opera, etc., all OSS - and of course OSX/Linux - these are not just alternatives to M$, they are truly weapons for for freedom, and will be more important technology than the printing press.

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Read that Blog again and you'll see AOL bought out Netscape, that everybody was using. And Yes I do find it incredible and incomprehensible that M$ could not write a web browser. Now I can tell you some real stories about Bill Gates stole code from his apple partner Steve Jobs and formed Microsoft to develop software for the IBM's first PC.

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Netscape was the first browser I ever used, it was the only Browser we were allowed to use at uni, there was no way you could start IE. I stuck with it since then, even downloading the next release over a 56k connection we had at home, that was a pain, but after using it for so long at uni, I went through the pain rather than using the IE that was already there.

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If anyone wants a little fun....

 

ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/

 

binaries dating back to 3.04... and yes, there's linux binaries. and yes, it is possible to make them work (I got 3.04 working at some stage last year for the hell of it).

 

Let's see who can get the first post here from 3.04

You mean 4.03 ;)

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