[Infowarrior] - RIP Netscape Navigator (1994-2008)

[Richard Forno]

 Web icon set to be discontinued

The browser that helped kick-start the commercial web is to cease
development because of lack of users.

Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1
February 2008, the company has said.

In the mid-1990s the browser was used by more than 90% of the web
population, but numbers have slipped to just 0.6%.

In particular, the browser has faced competition from Microsoft's Internet
Explorer (IE), which is now used by nearly 80% of all web users.

"While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and
energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not
been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer,"
said Tom Drapeau on the company's blog.

Browser wars

Netscape was developed by Marc Andreessen, co-author of Mosaic, the first
popular web browser.

Mosaic was written while Mr Andreessen was a student at the National Center
for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in 1992.

After graduation he set up Netscape Communications Corporation and began
development of the Navigator browser. The first version was released in
1994.

It was quickly a success and dominated the browser market in the mid-1990s.

But other companies followed its success, notably Microsoft, which bundled
its Explorer software with its operating systems.

This culminated in a highly-publicised legal battle, which saw Microsoft
accused of anti-competitive behaviour.

Although the settlement saw Netscape gain many concessions from Microsoft
including the ability to exploit IE code, it has been unable to gain back
its market share.

The demise of Navigator was compounded in 2003 when AOL, which bought
Netscape in 1998, made redundant most of the staff working on new versions
of the browser.

Many of the staff moved to the Mozilla Foundation which develops the popular
Firefox browser. This browser has a 16% share of the browser market.

Fade away

Although a core team has continued to work on the secure browser - it is
currently on version nine - AOL has decided to finally pull the plug.

"After 1 February, there will be no more active product support for
Navigator nine, or any previous Netscape Navigator browser," wrote Mr
Drapeau.

"We feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded
browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to
adopt Firefox," he said.

Users of the browser will no longer receive security or software updates
after the date.

Old versions of the browser will still be available for download, but will
no longer be supported.

Microsoft is expected to launch a new version of IE in 2008, whilst the
third version of Firefox is currently available as a beta, or test version.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7163547.stm

Published: 2007/12/28 19:54:26 GMT

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