New Netscape on Nov. 30

[FattyMembrane]

i just read that aol will be releasing a new netscape browser based on firefox. the beta comes out on nov. 30. this is great for getting moz into the hands of the people out there who won't install anything unless it has a big name slapped on it (believe me, there are lots of them). it's also rather odd, considering aol killed netscape not to long ago, and is now making a browser based on IE. it really seems like aol likes to buy up good technologies, and then kill them. or like there are 4 people who take 2 month turns at deciding the direction of the company and once one plan is in place, the next guy comes through and starts his plan, effectively canceling out any progress.

the fact that aol is even bothering with microsoft technology anymore is absurd - they own netscape. think about netscape/mozlla and xul - a technology for building cross-platform internet/data/content portals and web applications. hmm... that sounds a lot like ... aol. if aol rewrote their ISP software in xul, they could simultaneously release versions for windows/mac/linux and have no microsoft dependency. companies building bargain-basement linux boxes (like walmart) would jump at the chance to include aol on their machines, and no pesky ms-licenses. not that i'm a fan of aol by any means, but it just makes too much sense.

we'll see what happens. aol will probably kill this browser on the 29th and start a new one based on iCab

 

[jeremy.king]

AOL didn't "kill" Netscape. Microsoft did. AOL just saved them from disappearing altogether.

Anyways. Its good to see the trend toward Mozilla/Gecko based browsers, there is definitely no shortage of developers and continued feature development. Perhaps some day MS will just abandon IE altogether and bundle Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape as the browser of choice.

 

[AmigoMac]

No, they will sell IE and bundle longhorn with it.

 

[ashon3611]

Perhaps some day MS will just abandon IE altogether and bundle Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape as the browser of choice.

That is exactly what is going to happen. One of my professors here at UH said that he has friends who are working for Microsoft and they said it was more of a pain of updating IE and having to mess with bugs that that it was worth the cost of developing it and maintaining it when they didn't get any moneys from it anyways. Ive heard conservative estimates that IE will be down to only 75% of the browser market this time next year. I wouldnt be suprised if it was more.

 

[FattyMembrane]

AOL didn't "kill" Netscape. Microsoft did. AOL just saved them from disappearing altogether.

by kill, i mean said they would stop development. i'm very grateful they've kept it going this long.