A Sad Milestone: AOL To Discontinue Netscape Browser Development
Michael Arrington
116 comments »
Please observe a moment of silence for the Netscape browser. Netscape Navigator, the browser that launched the commercial Internet in October 1994, will die on February 1, 2008. AOL, which acquired Netscape in November 1998 for $4.2 billion, will announce today that they will discontinue development of the browser, currently on version 9.
In an email exchange yesterday with Tom Drapeau, Director of AOL/Netscape development, he said that only a handful of AOL engineers are still tasked with keeping the browser updated. Most of their efforts have been aimed at creating a Netscape-skinned version of Firefox with the Netscape look and feel.
The team has been unable to gain any significant market share against Microsoft Internet Explorer. In fact, recent surveys suggest that Netscape currently has only 0.6% market share among browsers, compared to IE’s 77.35% and Firefox’s 16.01%. This, of course, is the same browser that once claimed more than 90 percent of the market, sparking the browser wars of the 1990s and the subsequent Microsoft antitrust trial.
Drapeau says AOL’s transition into an ad-supported web business leaves little room for any real effort at maintaining and evolving the Netscape Browser.
He also points to the success of the non-profit Mozilla foundation, which spun off of Netscape in February 1998 with $2 million in funding from Netscape and an additional $300,000 from Mitch Kapor. Firefox, which is part of Mozilla, brought in nearly $70 million in 2006 revenues, mostly from a search deal with Google. In a sense, Netscape lives on through the open-source efforts of Mozilla and Firefox.
Support for existing versions of Netscape Navigator will cease on February 1, 2008. After that, users can visit the UFAQ and the Netscape Community Forum for support.
AOL is also setting up a Netscape Archive where users will be able to download old versions of Netscape, without any support.
I sadly place the first browser I ever used into the TechCrunch DeadPool.
Who cares
That is sad news. I have to say, “Thank goodness for Safari and Firefox”.
I was using Mosaic prior to Netscape Navigator, but I dutifully downloaded all the betas of Navigator, from 0.93 to 1.1 and all the 2.0b1 through 2.0b7 and beyond. AOL ruined this browser, and while it doesn’t make too much sense to get nostalgic about an app, there’s no question we are.
word
I remember your heartfelt goodbye to Lynx.
I downloaded my first female, eh…”dress-optional” picture using Netscape.
Ah, those days!!!…
Netscape and my v.56 modem was all the social interaction I would ever need…
FINALLY!
I never used that browser and its just boring. The only people use that browser are people that didn’t know what IE is.
And they say tech folks aren’t sentimental.
Thanks to the few who have kept Netscape alive this long. There was no market justification for doing this, only a respect for legacy.
Thanks also to the Champagne Urbana gang who sponsored Mosaic’s development and then let it go to be commercialized.
AOL killed almost everything it acquired.
Netscape’s rise and fall symbolizes why it is important for all companies to constantly innovate and litigate when others use unethical tactics to hasten their demise.
Both Internet Explorer and Firefox can after Netscape. Why are they still around?
How did they manage to get popular debuting after one of the most important additions to the beginnings of the World Wide Web? We all know about Microsoft’s controversial tactics - but how does one explain FireFox?!
Why did Netscape not compete successfully? Was there internal politics?
We should all learn from this!
Good bye netscape.
Why is this sad? Netscape, well, sucks. I’ve never used it and I’m glad they’re stopping the usage of it.
More browsers equates to more headaches as a web designer. AOL has their own browser already, so there’s really no need to have just another browser.
hate to break it to you but its been dead for a long time already
ah i remember the excitement when netscape 2 came out and it supported frames! and then navigator came out with that golden ship’s wheel…those were the days.
netscape, you served us well.
@12 | it just official died
@6 | Everybody used to use it! / was the firefox (16%) of yesterday
yeah tis sad; it was the first graphical browser for many of us
I remember it taking hours to download the new netscape (With the golden nautical wheel)… haha
Those were the days when you couldn’t buy a .com, IRC was *the* reason for being online, AIM didn’t exist, and geocities was your only option for building your HTML site.
Hooray for the demise of Netscape! Internet Explorer, you’re next to go…
How did Firefox get popular? It became Netscape when AOL was letting Netscape die on the vine. It also has better extensibility and standards support.
The biggest reason is that it got a lot of PR for being faster than IE when it first became noteworthy.
Mosaic was actually the first browser; but I didn’t mourn it’s passing as I won’t Netscapes. I do still harbor some ill-will for Microsoft for the anti-competitive taking of the market.
#8
i remember AOL acquiring icq just to kill it. then they sued yahoo for coming up with yim but they lost.
RIP POS.
well. did you put ur 386 in deadpool too?
File this as another case study of “What happens when large corporations buy up smaller technologies and competitors.”
With Microsoft and Google’s current acquisition rate we’ll be seeing a lot more DeadPool entries in the future. Eating up the competition (i.e. One company “organizing the world’s information”) turns out not to be in our best interests.
Thank goodness. We need to move on.
IT served us well. Thanks for all Netscape and shame to Aol.
I remember buying a boxed copy of netscape to replace the Sprynet Mosaic browser I had. Wow! Thanks for trip down memory lane.
Decision and timing are both right. AOL, after all, is a respectable company (for being right some of the times).
Oh well, it had to come to an end sometime. I sure do remember the days of using NN, and I certainly remember the browser wars of the 90’s! Those were good times indeed.
As one of the stubborn loyal holdouts on Netscape just to keep the legacy living on, (even my tech support guy kept saying, “aol’s gonna take it out, you’ve got to segue NOW!”) I thank them for making it seamless to transfer to Firefox/Thunderbird with ease and compatibility.
Much like my stalwart support of WordPerfect as everyone moved to MS Word, there’s an underdog element that appeals…
Mike, a correction.
You say: “He also points to the success of the non-profit Mozilla foundation, which spun off of Netscape in February 1998 with $2 million in funding from Netscape…”
The Mozilla Foundation was established in July 2003. Source: http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/about.html
Bye Bye Netscape! One less browser for web designers to worry about.
I can’t wait for people to stop using IE 6. I would prefer Netscape v 0.1 over that browser any day!
A nostalgia-filled fond farewell to Navigator. It was my browser in the mid to late 90s. In fact, because Netscape communicator /calendar would only sync with a Palm Pilot, I was forced into the not-so-loving arms of Palm. A half dozen Palm PDAs as well as Treos (300, 600, 650 and 700) later, I have finally broken away from Navigator / Palm and am quite happy with Firefox and my BB curve. Thanks Mike for the walk down memory lane.
Good. NS was a p.o.s. back in it’s hayday and it is now.
I use Firefox but IE was my favorite when I first started with the web after I broke out of the Compuserve (another AOL death) closed off service.
Samuel,
I think he was just summarizing the spin-off. AOL spun off Mozilla in 1998, and then Mozilla formed their own foundation in 2003.
AOL did one thing right at least! Thanks for Mozilla guys!
MGZ
I used Mosaic before Netscape Navigator, but in my mind Netscape deserves a place in history for a completely different reason. More than anyone else, Netscape made it OK and easy for vendors to release buggy software. It’s not that vendors hadn’t shipped poor quality software before (MS Word 6 for the Mac comes immediately to mind), but Netscape did several things that no one had previously done.
First, they routinely made Beta versions available to anyone who wanted to try out an early build. Second, they shifted a large share of the testing to users, thereby reducing the cost of their own internal testing and QA effort. Third, they released new versions incrementally with only modest functional enhancements, much as is now done in many open source projects. If memory serves, there were at least 15 different versions of Netscape 4.
Finally, and perhaps most important, Netscape recognized the value of the FTP and HTTP protocols as a way to distribute new versions of software products. Before Netscape, vendors had to create physical media to ship patches and updates of software, with an associated manufacturing and shipping cost. Netscape simply posted the newest version on their website and we, the users, incurred the cost of downloading it.
Today, frequent releases and downloadable updates are the norm for many products and services. Netscape was the vanguard of this trend. I won’t miss Netscape, but they certainly deserve their place in the history of the Internet and of software development practices.
RIP netscape. we all will miss you.
Sad.
Ten years ago I was introduced to the Internet. For the longest time, Nescape WAS the Internet for me. Everything happened inside it. I opened IE a few times back then only to be left confused why I should use it over Netscape.
will miss those constant navigator crashes :p
That’s sad!
I think what’s sad is the people managing Netscape stopped caring or implementing new features. I certainly hope Firefox will pick up where Netscape left off.
Wait - there’s a Netscape browser?
It’s hard to be upset by this. Rather, I think we should rejoice in the “justice” of the marketplace. AOL has a history of making really bad choices with respect to their users - their motivations have been to maximize their near-term profits by foisting Advertising-festooned products on their captive audience. Similarly, they didn’t care to improve their browser platform, but rather turn it into a delivery platform for unwanted software and services.
With a little be of TLC, the Mozilla foundation was able to show that a user-centric effort was able to re-create a viable challenge to the dominant browser (IE), and become the favored browser of the web development community and early-adopters.
I am thrilled to see the consumer-centric “heroes” winning this battle. Perhaps the corporate giants will learn a lesson from this and begin to be more focused on their user base and less driven by their near-term revenue stream.
Thanks for many web surfing memories…
Who works at AOL? Because what once use to be the cornerstone of the American internet experience is now just a graveyard for great ideas. Wasn’t it AOL that first created the online social network before it became Spaced and Booked out; wasn’t it AOL that taught us how to send instant messages before chat and text became popular. And now the great Netscape suffers the same fate that most AOL services face; the graveyard. My suggestion to AOL is to Open Source of your products/services while the bandwagon still has room for a dying company. You once had over 25 million faithful paying customers and now you won’t even release numbers on your once domination of the online experience. Time Warner-AOL reminds me of The Lord of The Rings; locked away in their impenetrable fortress only to watch a single orc blow it up. And that orc just happens to be the execs at AOL.
Oh and someone should start an AOL Deadpool:
Compuserve
ICQ
Netscape
for someone who started out using netscape in its early days, it’s a truly sad thing to see it gone :(.
I remember struggling to make things work in netscape navigator using its plugin SDK in my first job . anyway, nice trip down memory lane.
One less browser to deal with
thanks alot AOL….
you killed something that was wonderful.
People would still be using NN if you let it grow.
and WHY did you pay 4.2 billion for it ????
That’s just sad… My first internet connected computer ran Netscape 2.0. IIRC it came as part of the sign-up package (on 3.5″ floppy discs!) from my ISP at the time.
I stopped using Netscape after 4.3 (I think that was the version) was never updated. If it hadn’t been for a little browser, then known as Phoenix (you might know it better by it’s present name, Firefox), I probably would still be stuck using IE.
-A
Ding Dong the witch is dead!
RIP
@Adam: Dude, I’d forgotten about “Phoenix”!
I remember exploring html by opening NN’s wysiwig build app. Anyway, perhaps NN can share stories with Mosaic on the other side? AOL does seem to have an anti-Midas-touch.
Compared with the modern stuff, NN is weak. I don’t think its fair to look at the current version of FF or IE and then at NN and say NN is a POS.
Without the people and products such as NN to pave the way, many of us wouldn’t have the jobs/companies that we do today. I can’t tell you the last time I touched NN, but I can appreciate its place in Internet history.
Show some respect.
You spend $4 Billion for a program and don’t incorporate it into your business? Brilliant AOL brilliant!
The mother of all browsers finally old and dead. Actually it was presumed dead when AOL took over - everyone ran like hell when that happened. Both IE and Netscape had functional problems during the early days. I used Netscape for many years until Microsoft started making versions of IE that were very stable. I can’t say I find Firefox to be any better than Maxthon (which uses the IE engine, so to speak). Firefox seems to bring issues of stability and incompatibility to Windows and IE, just like Netscape did, once upon a time. With Maxthon it is possible to avoid system contamination from any Mozilla-type products. A system without Mozilla, is a system that remains clean, pristine and functional. I hope that Firefox will also soon find its demise. May Maxthon rule forever. Maxthon, the only browser worth paying for.
I tested NN9 and it felt “meh”, no reason to use NN when Firefox does everything it does already.
Now I hope IE will wander the same way (it’s a relic from the old IE/NN time)
Maxthon Side Note:
The full version of Maxthon is absolutely free, no nags, no time limits - free as is FREE FOREVER.
I only paid for it because it is so fantastic, and after using it for so many years I felt I ought to donate to the Maxthon Team.
Netscape 3 Gold was the best. Every version of Nutscrape after that was a waste. IE4 was my favorite back in those days, and now are there any browsers besides Firefox? I’m not aware of any browser that has performed as well as the fox on every platform. And I’m not talking about performance, I’m talking about consistency of code.
RIP to my first internet browser ever.
“I think he was just summarizing the spin-off. AOL spun off Mozilla in 1998, and then Mozilla formed their own foundation in 2003.”
Actually, that’s not correct either.
_Netscape_ created the Mozilla project in 1998 _well_before_ AOL acquired Netscape. In 2003, AOL gave up on real in-house browser development when it disbanded its Client Product Development team and donated a couple of trademarks and $2M to the newly established non-profit, public benefit organization, Mozilla Foundation.
OpenSource killed him
Isnt seamonkey based off of the old mozilla suite which is then based of the netscape suite?
R.I.P to a great of the past
Nobody use it anymore
http://www.spymac.com/details/?2317880
Sad to hear this. Netscape was my first browser as well.
Thanks for the Good Times Netscape….
http://tinyurl.com/3d4gyo
@ #8 jstudio:
“AOL killed almost everything it acquired.”
Correction: “AOL killed almost everything *good* it acquired.”
It turned ICQ into a worthless, bloated piece of crap that just takes over your computer, the Netscape browser was synonymous with spyware and pop-ups for so many years it’s almost mind-boggling, and they almost ruined WinAmp too, but I pay for the latest version of that and I think it’s a dream…now. They certainly made a last-minute save of WinAmp with the 5.3 version which actually made me an AOL customer (with no complaints–finally) once again.
Likewise, the last version of Netscape (9) was also very, very good. In fact, to me it’s identical to Firefox. I can’t believe they’re killing it now that it’s finally presentable to the public again as a sure-fire Firefox competitor…same engine, you can use the same plugins…they could rebrand it as an AOL product, kill all their stupid browsers based on IE’s Trident engine, and finally make the public happy again with a decent offering. But no…as always, they do the exact *opposite* of what common sense and good business sense dictates. That’s just one reason why AOL is such an exasperating company to keep an eye on.
Oh, and I’m with the others here who don’t like Netscape’s memory trashed. It was probably the first decent browser out there, it supported some pretty awesome plugins, even waaaaay back in the day, and it’s history was much more rich and dignified than AOL’s. Show some respect, please…
Wow! I haven’t used Netscape in years! It was my first browser and I’ll miss it for purely nostalgic reasons. I never was an Explorer fan instead I prefer Firefox and Safari.
So long Netscape. Thanks for the memories.
I thought NS had died long time ago. I use FF and IE.
well, finally …. sad!
http://MP3search.POPave.com
Mozilla Firefox is king.
Good riddance to a bloated piece of crap software.
You guys need to be there http://www.webguild.org/meetings/web20/2008/
I thought (wished) it had died years ago. I have done Tech Support for years, and I have spoken to maybe two people who use that now-ridiculous browser. As stated above, AOL destroyed it. So much that even their own browser is based on IE.
Wow, a lot of hate still there for Netscape. I don’t understand the suggestion that IE is the ‘best’ browser tho. Don’t you want to have your browser separate from your OS? Sure, MS are now doing some good stuff to sandbox the browser, but I shudder at the number of old machines out there that are running malware-magnet versions of IE, just coz Bill wanted it to be an integral part of the OS.
But yeah, I am biased. I’ve used (and supported) Netscape since version 4.something .. used it right up to 4.79 .. then the ghastly version 6’s, the okay, but still slow, version 7’s .. and now I’m a Firefox and Thunderbird user (and sometimes Seamonkey.) Is a shame to see it go.
If AOL are still getting good money thru Firefox, I can understand them killing Netscape. But otherwise, I thought it would be good to have a browser with a homepage that could draw page hits their way. I don’t get what they ever thought they were doing with ICQ, Netscape, and WinAmp. (apart from pushing me to Pidgin, Firefox, and iTunes.) Good one AOL execs. (dumbasses)
The real truth is that, despite Netscape being the best browser at it’s time, they really screw it by thinking that once a winner, you will be a winner for life… it is NS own fault.. I am sorry, but that is the reality…
Sad. The browser that used to keep IE on its toes. Now we have Firefox to continue the battle.
This is not a surprise at all. Netscape has morphed to mozilla and subsequently to Firefox shortly after the entire browser source was released back in 1998. Most Netscapers were comfortable moving on to other interesting web technologies while AOL chose to take the path of resurrecting the brand. It was apparent that not many people cared about the name “Netscape” run behind the corporate walls of AOL…
Long live Netscape!
The end of Netscape browser was predicted by me in September. Read this:
http://danmoldovan.blogspot.co.....scape.html
It’s too bad, it was finally good again with version 9 and they kill it. That makes sense…for AOL I guess. Now be sure to let me know when AOL itself dies. I mean seriously, when that company is dissolved I am going to throw the biggest party ever.
Its good decision to say good bye to Netscape. When the technologies getting advanced, the tools also should be advanced.
R.I.P. Netscape Browser!
It took sooo long for this thing to die!
Anybody remember way back in ‘93 or so when Netscape had the majority share of browser use and we were trying to introduce IE but nobody wanted it? We just issued an update to Windows 3.1 that contained the good old winsock.dll that disabled Netscape, lol (those were the days). When people complained, we claimed “it’s a problem with their code!” After their developers figured out what we did (took about 2 weeks), we said we would issue a patch, we dragged that out for another two weeks.
By that time most users had switched to IE and Netscape would never be the same again!
Dang! We were such a ruthless bunch of bashTards!
… ahhh the good ‘ol days!
fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
I was looking for some good and precise reference for my project. This site really helped.
Fuck off you spammer #78
Sad….i remember it taking hours to download the gold version…but it was worth the wait….
for me, netscape was my introduction to the www … good bye netscape…
and LiveCrunch …. go take a piss …….. those who use IE are the once who have their head stuck up their arse….
How come every filthy mouth commenter is not on IE?
We installed Mosaic, we installed MacWeb, but then immediately switched to Netscape which remained our browser for ever since or at least until 2000; …
I remember when I had to disable image loading in Netscape so I could surf on my 28.8k modem.
I still remember the day when IE dumped their big browser logo on Netscape’s lawn just find it spray painted the next day and crushed with the huge Netscape mascot “Mozilla” … Good ol days
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/mozilla/stomps.html
Oh, so sad.
Farewell Netscape. We’ll miss you.
I used Gopher for a while in ‘93, saw Mosaic, talked the UCSC Science Library admin to let me start a web site using a text editor for html’ing - then came Netscape, whee! Still webbing, but using Safari, and M’soft will always leave a bad taste in my mouth by being at the forefront of the transformation of the idealistic early days of the web and destroying Netscape in the process
I wonder how long before the others give up? If they can’t all agree on the display of HTML, then I’m afraid to say that the fewer the better. I like the Netscape Add-on idea, use a common base and save web programming waste!
A few of the sites I webmaster have top 10 browser stats that look something like this: Internet Explorer 73%, Firefox 16%, Safari 1%, Netscape 1%, Opera 1%, Others 8%. I would expect other sites to show similar results, post if you have them. I think it’s interesting info.
why not some one else pick it up, and continue the development of Netscape. I would like do so.
>>why not some one else pick it up, and continue the development of Netscape. I would like do so.
For what? Why do you want to do that? trying to make a lot of different browsers with me-too or me-similiar features?
Netscape is just retiring from AOL to get away from its’ abuse. If you liked the old NS Navigator Suite, then check out SeaMonkey, it’s Navigator deja vu. Use Mozilla Organization for updates for these Mozilla based browsers. Netscape lives on through Mozilla Org. IE is just too frustrating to use, arrrgggg!! AOL is just a time bomb, have been forever. Netscape may be sailing into the sunset, but the sun always rises again.
$4.2 billion to zero, way to go AOL! What’s the ROI on that investment!?
i have feet ehehe.