2007 has been filled with announcements of people passing away for whom my reaction was "wow I thought they had died years ago". Netscape is in this same group. I honestly thaught it had been gone for several years.

I guess the last decendant of NCSA Mosaic has finally left the stage, even if it was only a distant relative.

Unless it's going to be one of those Abe Vigoda deaths

As long as people keep using it. I still use it myself.

Most people use Windows too.

Much like geoduck, I had assumed that the browser had gone the way of the Dodo a couple of years back. The last I had heard they had re-branded using the website name for some kind of Digg rip-off or something which I never cared to look into.

That said, having actually seen it here in black and white I have to feel a little saddened. I always personally thought it was a poor attempt at making a relatively simple application (by some of the top software engineers in their class no less) and was even glad to use Internet Explorer over the lame duck (for a while).

Yet I have to consider it a part of geek history. Perhaps it won't be remembered in the scheme, but it will certainly be remembered by enthusiasts and pioneers everywhere as the original leader in the great "Browser Wars".

"AOL launched the Mozilla Foundation as an independent organization to manage further development of the Open Source Mozilla."

AOL didn't launch the Mozilla Foundation. Mitchell Baker launched the Mozilla Foundation and solicited donations from a range of interested parties. AOL was one of those that donated substantially to the new Foundation but they had no part in "launching" the Foundation. That was all Mitchell.

- A

Well sort of at least. Netscape was killed years ago, first by Microsoft and IE's near inextricable link to Windows, and then secondly by AOL's purchase of Netscape. Talk about a way to ruin a good product. Same for WordPerfect when Novell bought it. Yikes!

*Moment of Silence*

I still miss Mosiac, to be honest. I know there are things I take for granted in modern web browsers that I'd miss terribly if forced to go back, but I wish that somehow Mosiac could have survived intact and been maintained seperate from Netscape...arguably the Mozilla project of Firefox et al could be called this, but its not the same.

I hate Internet Explorer so damn much, I've never hated a software application and the people behind it more, and that even includes Quark, which/who I despise. Its the first thing I do everytime I install Windows or help someone do it, kill all easy icon links to IE and install FireFox (now Safari also) so I don't have to use it unless forced by neccessity. You can't delete it, I keep my old 5.2 Mac installation around because its the only browser that supports the copier's Java control panel application at work, and there are of course plenty of sites that try to "require it".

Sorry to rant, this just brought up those feelings and I wanted to vent.

Just looked at Versiontracker numbers, there are 84.000+ downloads of 7.2 version alone.
I think TMO, a technical site but not totally for Mac nerds can make a great favor to Netscape 7 users when you have time.
You should instruct/inform them about Seamonkey Project which is essentially the "Real" Netscape upgrade, point them to Netscape 7 skins and enlighten them about possible security and performance issues may arise if they insist using Netscape 7.2. As far as we all know, AOL will never do such a good gesture, that is how they got hated at first place.
Just an idea...

By a great luck, I had opportunity to use Powerbook Duo 270C which is a Motorola 68K portable Mac.

It had MacOS 7.6 and 2 browsers installed, Netscape (latest 4) and IE (latest 68K for that time).

While Netscape worked almost flawlessly with the machines 14.4K internal modem, IE was "thinking" before drawing a page. No kidding, for example just yahoo.com (not current ajax circus) would be drawn after 20-30 secs of "Thinking" with that circling bw mouse pointer (whatever it is called).

Outlook Express was a complete funny story, it actually tried to send a mail with no recipient at all or actually tried to send a mail with NAME as recipient, like "John Doe". My ibm.net SMTP server hated it for sure

So, Windows people and recent switchers won't understand why Netscape was loved on Mac platform but I really know.

Maybe now banks and airlines will be forced or shamed into supporting browsers other than IE and Netscape. Their sites are optimized to support only those two browser and when you call or email them to say that the site does not work well with Firefox or Safari, they just repeat that they only support the two. Letters and emails from me pointing out the Netscape has almost no market share anymore go unanswered. Of course, now they will probably just say tell me to use IE and to switch back to a PC.

As a Mac user, I have been using Netscape 7.2 for a few years because of the incredibly easy to use, versatile, and efficient "Composer" module that allows me to make some basic web pages that were more unique than simple HTML-conversion options in Word. Netscape would never be my first pick for its browser features but I am always saddened whenever the non-Microsoft options in any area of computing are reduced. Also, I've experienced some interactive websites that were not functioning properly in Safari, Explorer 5.2 (for Mac), OR Firefox -- but performed satisfactorily only in Netscape.

See, this is what I talk about. Seamonkey project has "composer" module too (of course) and it is 2-3 years ahead of that Netscape 7.2 version with lots of bug fixes and enhancements.
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

Quote

Guest wrote:
Maybe now banks and airlines will be forced or shamed into supporting browsers other than IE and Netscape. Their sites are optimized to support only those two browser and when you call or email them to say that the site does not work well with Firefox or Safari, they just repeat that they only support the two. Letters and emails from me pointing out the Netscape has almost no market share anymore go unanswered. Of course, now they will probably just say tell me to use IE and to switch back to a PC.

Quote

Ilgaz wrote:
See, this is what I talk about. Seamonkey project has "composer" module too (of course) and it is 2-3 years ahead of that Netscape 7.2 version with lots of bug fixes and enhancements.
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

Quote

geoduck wrote:
As I said when it was introduced; how in the heck am I going to convice the Board of Directors to dump Internet Explorer for something called Seamonkey?

Netscape was easy to use and allowed things that IE would not. I never have liked IE and do not use it unless I run into a need where other browsers won't work. As for AOL, LOL.