RIP Netscape
by Robert Mohns - December 30, 2007 / 11:05am View more articles
AOL has announced that they're discontinuing the Netscape web browser as of Feb 1, 2008.
This marks the end of Netscape's thirteen-year history. It makes me a little sad ... Netscape started out as the radical innovator that expanded the web's capabilties by leaps and bounds, including LiveScript (hastily renamed JavaScript to catch a ride on Sun's bandwagon), about sevently zillion new tags including the infamous <blink> tag, and really pushing forward the design capabilities of web sites.
There's nothing like it today. The pace of web innovation is glacial, hampered by the W3C's inability to get out of its own way. The WhatWG, a forum created by Mozilla, Opera and Apple, has picked up the reins to some degree, but it's nothing like the radical innovation in the early years of the web. The browser wars pushed us forward, and I almost miss them. Perhaps this is the price of the web's maturation.
RIP Netscape. Thanks for the memories.
(If you really love Netscape, you can skin FireFox to look like the old Netscape.)
(image courtesy of The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
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1 Comment
Netscape's dedication to the browser "wars" is probably what did them in.
* skipping version numbers (remember Netscape 5? Of course you don't)
* adding features (Netscape Communicator was pure bloat)
* focusing on competing with Microsoft instead of building a browser
Obviously they deserve due respect for their part in the web's early years, but Netscape can also be cited for what NOT to do.