RIP Netscape

dog eat dog

Submitted by aericks on June 11, 2001 - 10:29.

Does it seem like AOL/Time Warner is barking up the wrong tree here? A portal? A hub? And who the heck are the "web purists" that the article mentions? I can only imagine that these purists must be looking for a web experience slathered with advertising and sanitized for your reading pleasure.

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Read Carefully

Submitted by jaylard on June 11, 2001 - 12:53.

anj,

I think you read the Business Week article too quickly and inferred meaning from it that is not explicitly there. There is no declaration that the Netscape browser is dead, but only that Netscape is branching into other business interests that will define what it does more broadly than simply producing an Internet browser. Granted, it is reasonable to speculate about the future of the Netscape browser, both in light of the Business Week article and in light of rumors that America Online will continue to integrate Internet Explorer into future versions of its AOL software. But we need to be careful about leaping to conclusions.

Evolt's own PPK has written a good analysis of this whole story that I recommend.

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Submitted by anj on June 11, 2001 - 14:03.

I agree that they don't state the browser will vanish from the face of the earth... in fact, the article specifically notes the deals they recently made with Sony and Gateway to bundle their browser technology in their products. Sorry if you took my comments in that light.

And -- at least to me -- this sounds very much like a statement that the product Netscape Navigator is dead, or on it's last legs. Which is not to say that the Gecko engine is dead, or that AOL/TW won't use this engine in other capacities.

I think it's reasonable to take the Netscape prez's comments at face value -- 'You will see more pacts like the one struck with PlayStation.' In other words, selling the technology behind Navigator w/o the Navigator brand.

Hence, Netscape Navigator is effectively dead.

Does that mean we can stop developing pages that work correctly under the Gecko engine? Absolutely not.

I may have written a somewhat inflamatory headline, but that's what headlines are for, right? <grin>

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Submitted by anj on June 11, 2001 - 14:03.

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Ingenious!

Submitted by Aiden on June 11, 2001 - 14:41.

When you think about it, this is an ingenious move on their part. Most, if not all, of the sophisticated Web users I know shun and shy away from AOL and anything from AOL. Netscape, on the other hand, still retains its place as the company that "created" the WWW. Now, AOL is trying to capitalize on a brand name that has earned the respect of the entire world (at least those that were not subjected to Netscape 6). Where would you rather go on the Web to access AOL/Time Warner properties? AOL.com or Netscape?

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Complicated stuff

Submitted by ppk on June 12, 2001 - 02:36.

1) If Gecko lives, Netscape is not dead. For me, the worst thing would have been the absence of competition for Explorer. This is not the case. 2) As to the ingenious Netscape strategy: basically they want to copy the AOL concept for 'sophisticated users'. Personally I think that sophisticated users are simply not interested, so the scheme will fail miserably. 'We want to create portals for people who hate portals' Hurray, hurray.

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All right

Submitted by fmt on June 12, 2001 - 16:04.

Well, it seems the only IE alternative to survive will be Mozilla... not bad. Nevertheless, I'm a bit nostalgic... after all, I've been using Navigator for 6 years now and it was a great browser... it had it's problems, but a great browser it was. Filipe Miguel Tavares fmt@fmtavares.net

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Netscape Denies Browser Escape

Submitted by r937 on June 19, 2001 - 11:56.

from Wired News -- Netscape Denies Browser Escape

Netscape is "absolutely committed to continuing development of the browser on an ongoing basis, both as a stand-alone browser and as an embeddable solution." -- Sol Goldfarb, director of browser product marketing for Netscape, an AOL subsidiary.

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oh no

Submitted by iori605 on June 21, 2001 - 07:41.

i hate to say this but i think microsoft has already won the browser wars because more than 80% (more or less) of computer users use windoze, have a dial-up 56k account and don't have all that time to waste on downloading the latest version of netscape =( as anyone can see people who make websites have already abandoned the make-this-website-compatible-for-all-browsers mentality. yeah *n*x people can say how lousy these people are but the point is by making IE THE browser to use microsoft has already surpassed netscape long long ago (well not so long ago) in terms of number of users and THAT'S what matters. yes it's not quality but quantity here that really matters. so it doesn't really matter whether netscape is continuing operations. it was fatally wounded when IE came along and aol delivered the final nail in the coffin. nuff said.

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Mozilla .vs. Gecko

Submitted by agraetz on June 21, 2001 - 16:34.

What are the differences between Mozilla and Gecko? I've been in an evironment for a long time where I've only dealt with MSIE. I stopped paying tons of attention to Netscrape a long time ago. So I'm unsure of what the scoop is on all the changes that have been going on with AOL/Netscrape over the past few years. Gracias!

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Re: Mozilla .vs. Gecko

Submitted by fmt on June 22, 2001 - 03:49.

Gecko is the rendering engine used in Mozilla, Netscape 6.x and other clones such as K-meleon: in mozilla.org: "Gecko is the revolutionary next-generation browser engine designed to support open Internet standards such as HTML 4.0, CSS 1/2, the W3C Document Object Model, XML 1.0, RDF, and JavaScript. Gecko also includes a set of complementary browser components that work alongside the layout engine to form the founding platform for the Mozilla browser and for products from commercial vendors such as Netscape 6, the AOL-Gateway browsing appliance, and others. Gecko is continously under development at mozilla.org. Gecko has been known previously by the code names "Raptor" and "NGLayout"; the new name was chosen following a trademark infringement dispute."

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