If there was Word War, Cold War, and the Gulf War, we also have the “Mac and PC war”, and of course the “Browser War”.
In the 1990s the only browser was Internet Explorer.But around 2000 there comes about Netscape. It was famous before, AOL (American Online) acquired Netscape Communications Corporation in 1999 backing Netscape with fund to further perfect the art and user requirements for an easier and personalized surfing. Unfortunately Netscape ceased its operation but older and the last version that was released is still available for use and for download (Click here for Netscape downloads). I was not able to use and did not download and install the latest Netscape browser that was ever released (Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.6). I just remembered my brother saying, “Netscape is the best”, way back in 2001.
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In 1999, at the time of AOL’s acquisition of Netscape, the team had already begun their work on converting their flagship product – the Netscape Communicator web suite – into an open source software. Does “open source software” ring any bell to you? Anything yet? Firefox!
“And we’re an open source software project! whose code has been used as a platform for some of the Internet’s most innovative projects.”-Firefox
“At the time of the acquisition, the Netscape team had begun working on converting their flagship product – the Netscape Communicator web suite – into open source software, under a new name: Mozilla.”
-Netscape
Yes, Mozilla foundation has its cornerstone with AOL/Netscape. AOL played an important role in the launch of the Netscape 6 Browser, the first Mozilla based browser. Netscape/AOL kept on funding the development and marketing efforts of all Netscape branded softwares. Came 2003 where an independent foundation was created to promote and continue the development of the open source web suite.
“AOL was a major source of support for the Mozilla Foundation and the company continued to develop versions of the Netscape browser based on the work of the foundation.”
-AOL
To end this I would like to leave a full quote of the last 2 paragraphs of what AOL/Netscape has to say with the handing over of the Browser crown.
“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. Recently, support for the Netscape browser has been limited to a handful of engineers tasked with creating a skinned version of Firefox with a few extensions.
AOL’s current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, 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.“
The Browser war is still very alive today with key players Internet Explorer (Flagship: IE 8, up and coming IE 9), Firefox (Flagship: Firefox 3.6.2, up and coming Firefox 4) , Google Chrome (Flagship: Chrome Alpha, under development Chrome Beta), Opera (Flagship: Opera 10.51), and Safari
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