AOL kills Netscape

I just got a mail from CSS guru Eric Meyer telling me that AOL have killed Netscape. Mass redundancies. Mozilla (my preferred browser) will continue with $2million from AOL. News.com say (basically) "who cares?". It's being discussed on metafilter where they generally believe it liberates Mozilla and is good for that browser.

The Register says "Netscape's death will provoke a thousand arguments, but none will be so useful as utility. Well, maybe and perhaps, browsers don't really matter too much. But the fact that Microsoft's miserable excuse for a web browser - a sorry piece of code that has been untouched by human hand for many years, now - speaks volumes about indulging the wrong kind of people with big responsibilities. In the end, it was these coders who failed us"

Meanwhile, Eric writes, "For now, I still have a job, although my team's been split up and sent to different organizations within AOL. I don't know yet how this will turn out for me, but I do know that today I'm saddened by the loss. Yes, Mozilla will go on, but another pioneering force of the Web has just been painfully dimmed. It's worth a moment to reflect on where we've been... and where we might be headed."

Personally, I'm not so surprised, given the recent AOL/ Microsoft court case, I guess. And the abomination that was Netscape 6 hardly helped.

We interviewed Eric Meyer just before the AOL announcement

Let us know what you think of this news by reviewing it (button below).

bruce

Comments

just a matter of time

July 25, 2003 by Thomas Theuerkorn

Ever since AOL purchased Netscape and did not integrate it into their own program, the writing was pretty much on the wall. The announcement to license IE for AOL made it even worse. Seems like AOL always planned this ending. Another reason not to subscribe to AOL again. I never liked the AOL browser and service. Microsoft, here I come? (Or should I consider Mozilla / Opera?)

RE: just a matter of time

July 25, 2003 by Bruce Lawson

I use Mozilla myself. It takes a little longer to start than IE, but once it's started it loads up pages like greased lightening. The fact that i can disable cookies and block pop-ups means that it's my browser of choice for surfing.

Good and Bad

October 30, 2003 by Andrew Petrillo

I personaly never enjoyed netscape. Nothing ever worked on that browser the way it should, besides the fact of "people loosing jobs", which does suck. I'm thankful they finally gave up on that java running piece of crap. my bad, the only cool thing about netscape was when you download, it gave great visual stats, and resumed downloads, Other than that, GARBAGE!!!

Who Cares !

January 13, 2005 by stephen park

there's only about five people on the planet who don't use internet explorer for web browsing and all they seem to do is complain that they can't see some web pages. I think there's a powerful message in there somewhere...

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