Netscape was the general name for a series of web browsers originally
produced by Netscape Communications Corporation, now a subsidiary of AOL.
The original browser was once the dominant browser in terms of usage
share, but as a result of the first browser war, it lost virtually all of
its share to Internet Explorer. Netscape was discontinued and support
for all Netscape browsers and client products was terminated on March 1,
2008. Timeline and History
= Netscape-based releases = Netscape Navigator
Netscape Navigator was the name of Netscape's web browser from versions 1.0
through 4.8. The first beta release versions of the browser was released in
1994 and known as Mosaic and then Mosaic Netscape until a legal challenge from
the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, led to the name change to
Netscape Navigator. The company's name also changed from Mosaic Communications
Corporation to Netscape Communications Corporation.
The browser was easily the most advanced available and was therefore an instant
success, becoming market leader while still in beta. Netscape's feature-count
and market share continued to grow rapidly after version 1.0 was released.
Version 2.0 added a full mail reader called Netscape Mail, thus transforming
Netscape from a mere web browser to an Internet suite. During this period, both
the browser and the suite were known as Netscape Navigator. Around the same
time, AOL started bundling their software with Microsoft's Internet
Explorer. Version 3.0 of Netscape was the first to
face any serious competition in the form of Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0.
Netscape easily held off Microsoft's challenge and remained the number one
browser for the time being. Version 3.0 was also available in a "Gold" version
which featured a WYSIWYG HTML editor. Netscape 3.0 introduced many new
features such as new plug-ins, background colors for tables, the
archive attribute and the applet element. Netscape Navigator 3 was a huge
success and the undisputed web browser giant in its time with over 90% share,
but was later eroded by the free Internet Explorer included with Windows
98. The highest version in this line was 3.04.
Netscape Communicator Netscape 4 addressed the problem of
Netscape Navigator being used as both the name of the suite and the browser
contained within it by renaming the suite to Netscape Communicator. After
releasing five preview releases from 1996–1997, Netscape Corp. released the
final version of Netscape Communicator in June 1997. This new version, more or
less based on Netscape Navigator 3 Code, updated and added new features. The new
suite was successful, despite increasing competition from Internet Explorer 4.0
and problems with the outdated browser core. The Communicator suite was made up
of Netscape Navigator, Netscape Mail and Newsgroups, Netscape Address Book and
Netscape Composer. In October 1998 version 4.5 of Netscape Communicator was
released. This new version featured various functionality improvements,
especially in the Mail/News component, but did not update the browser core.
Only one month later, Netscape Communications Corporation was bought by
AOL. A standalone version of Netscape Navigator was still available, but this
was discontinued after version 4.08 for Windows. Standalone versions for other
operating systems such as Unix/Linux were maintained up to version 4.8.
In January 1998, Netscape Communications Corporation announced that all future
versions of their software would be free of charge and developed by an Open
Source Community. Netscape Communicator 5.0 was announced. But there were
significant delays to the release of Netscape's next major version and
Communicator therefore aged badly over the many years it was still used. As a
result of this, and a more advanced support of HTML 4, CSS, DOM, and
ECMAScript by Internet Explorer starting with version 4, the more up-to-date
Internet Explorer 5.0 became the market leader. In November 1998 work on
Netscape 5.0 was cancelled in favor of developing a completely new program from
scratch. Netscape Communicator 5.0
Netscape 5.0 was a continuation of the 4.x code, but only two pre-alpha
versions were written, one based on original Communicator code and another
using the Gecko layout engine. Though Netscape had originally intended
to deploy Mariner and later replace it with Gecko, Netscape 5 and Mariner were
scrapped completely. However, the versions continued to be numbered as if
it had been released. Netscape formed the Mozilla Foundation
and develop the Mozilla Application Suite using Gecko. The open-source
Mozilla browser was in turn used as the basis for Netscape 6.
= Mozilla Application Suite-based releases =
Netscape 6 In 1998, an informal group called the
Mozilla Organization was formed and largely funded by Netscape to
co-ordinate the development of Netscape 5, which would be based on the
Communicator source code. The aging Communicator code proved difficult to
work with and the decision was made to scrap Netscape 5 and re-write the source
code. The re-written source code was in the form of the Mozilla web browser,
which, with a few additions, Netscape 6 was based on.
This decision meant that Netscape's next major version was severely delayed. In
the meantime, Netscape was taken over by AOL who, acting under pressure from the
Web Standards Project, forced its new division to release Netscape 6.0 in
2000. The suite again consisted of Netscape Navigator and the other
Communicator components, with the addition of a built-in AOL Instant
Messenger client, branded as Netscape Instant Messenger. However, it was clear
that Netscape 6 was not yet ready for release and it flopped badly. It was
based on Mozilla 0.6, which was not ready to be used by the general public
yet due to many serious bugs that would cause it to crash often or render web
pages slowly. Later versions of Netscape 6 were much
improved, but the browser still struggled to make an impact on a
disappointed community. Netscape
Netscape 7.0 was released in August 2002 was a direct continuation of Netscape 6
with very similar components. It picked up a few users, but was still very much
a minority browser, one of the problems being that Mozilla itself was a worthy
adversary. In addition, AOL had decided to deactivate Mozilla's popup-blocker
functionality in Netscape 7.0, which created an outrage in the community. AOL
learned the lesson for Netscape 7.01 and allowed Netscape to reinstate the
popup-blocker. Netscape also introduced a new AOL-free-version of the browser
suite. Netscape 7.1 was released in June 2003.
In 2003, AOL closed down its Netscape division and laid-off or reassigned all
of Netscape's employees. Mozilla.org continued as the independent Mozilla
Foundation, taking on many of Netscape's ex-employees. AOL continued to develop
Netscape in-house, but, due to there being no staff committed to it,
improvements were minimal. One year later, in August 2004, the last
version based on Mozilla was released: Netscape 7.2, based on Mozilla 1.7.2.
= Mozilla Firefox-based releases = Netscape Browser
Between 2005 and 2007, Netscape's releases became known as Netscape
Browser. AOL chose to base Netscape Browser on the relatively successful
Mozilla Firefox, a re-written version of Mozilla produced by the Mozilla
Foundation. This release is not a full Internet suite as before, but is solely
a web browser. Other controversial decisions include these versions being
made only Gecko rendering engine of previous releases and the Trident engine
used in Internet Explorer. AOL's acquisition of Netscape years ago
made it less of a surprise when the company laid off the Netscape team and
outsourced development to Mercurial Communications.
Netscape Browser 8.1.3 was released on April 2, 2007, and included general bug
fixes identified in versions 8.0–8.1.2 Netscape Navigator
Netscape confirmed on 23 January 2007 that Netscape Browser versions 8.0-8.1.2
was to be succeeded by a new stand-alone browser release, Netscape Navigator 9.
Its features were said to include newsfeed support and become more
integrated with the Propeller Internet portal, alongside more enhanced methods
of discussion, submission and voting on web pages. It also sees the browser
return to multi-platform support across Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Like
Netscape version 8.x, the new release was based upon the popular Mozilla
Firefox, and had full support of all Firefox add-ons and plugins, some of
which Netscape provided. Also for the first time since 2004, the browser was
produced in-house with its own programming staff.
A beta of the program was first released on 5 June 2007. The final version was
released on October 15, 2007. On December 28, 2007, Netscape
developers announced that AOL would discontinue their web browser on
February 1, 2008, due to low market share. On January 28, 2008, Netscape
revised this date to March 1, 2008, and offered support for migration to Flock
and Mozilla Firefox. Release compatibility
Release history See also
Netscape Mozilla Firefox
Gecko References
External links Netscape Browser Archive, SillyDog701
OldVersion.com - Netscape Download Archive