RIP, Netscape (1994 - 2007)

AP:

Netscape Navigator, the world's first commercial Web browser and the launch pad of the Internet boom, will be pulled off life support Feb. 1 after a 13-year run.

Its current caretakers, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, decided to kill further development and technical support to focus on growing the company as an advertising business. Netscape's usage dwindled with Microsoft Corp.'s entry into the browser business, and Netscape all but faded away following the birth of its open-source cousin, Firefox.

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[Ping]

03:08 AM on 12/31/2007

Even paid for it once.

[realitytrumpsbull]

02:15 PM on 12/29/2007

Soon, ALL consumer electronics will feature Microsoft software...and Bill Gates will be reading your email personally, looking for any and all instances of patentable knowledge.

[godlessclif]

12:19 PM on 12/29/2007

in 1980 a law called the Dole/Bayh act was passed.
It changed the nature of invention.

Between the time Gates and Allen started Microsoft and Andreesen and Clark started Netscape the playing field had been shifted in favor of the concentrated capital and against the innovator.

If the Bayh/Dole law was in effect IBM would own both Apple and Microsoft or have driven them out of business.

Thta is Bob Dole and Birch Bayh who stopped innovation in America. No one noticed yet, but soon all inventions will start coming from abroad, because we do not reward innovation anymore.

The following depression will be chalked up to bad luck.

[DMSmith]

02:53 AM on 12/29/2007

Interesting that you make no mention of Safari - clearly the best browser ever, and one with a growing market share.

I'm tired of media that sees the world ONLY as it wants to, or its owners want it to.

[Weathermaker]

02:53 AM on 12/29/2007

Firefox is so much better than IE, especially after installing few extensions.

[samuraijack]

10:12 PM on 12/28/2007

I'd like to see a moratorium on business "news" unless and until the bastard stockbrokers start jumping from windowsills due to some steep plunge in stock prices. Then I want photographs. Jack Out.

[mouselion]

09:50 PM on 12/28/2007

Never was that fond of Netscape. MS's Explorer, either. On the other hand, there's Firefox, which is great and keeps getting better, thanks to its open source approach to development. Sort of Netscape's true phoenix, which it started birthing well before crumbling into the ashes. Prescient, no?

[OhPlease2007]

09:27 PM on 12/28/2007

I Always hated AOL, but loved Netscape. Their latest GUI's are very attractive, but I thought the app was too slow. Firefox has several Netscape GUI themes available, so I get the best of both worlds! Yipee!

[nellie]

09:07 PM on 12/28/2007

It's kinda sad...

The end of an era. The internet is no longer the amazing new thing, as it was when Netscape first came out. Now it's as normal as TV—and a whole lot more entertaining.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

07:28 PM on 12/28/2007

AOL sucks donkey dick.