I remember when I first converted to using anything computer, simply from need to make sure pay checks got into 1700 truckers bank accounts on time, we went to electronic deposit and IT became a major build for us. At the time I saw Netscape, and found more problems than a caterpillar with fallen arches. I always got that dingy warning that aid this computer performed a improper action.

Then of course do not get me started on America Off Line. AOL filled our computers with so much spam and crap that for the enterprise it just was not the way for us to travel.

Today our firm employees 1700 long haul owner operator trucking contractors, 10 aircraft for both farming by air yes we are crop dusters, and IT today is very important for us. From GPS mapping of fields to apply chemicals to routing trucks.

As far as Netscape I'm glad its history, now if IE7 can be repaired we'll all have in made. I currently use IE7 only as a backup, the Google browzer works much better.

Truly
The AyreWolf
CEO AyreWolf Aviation
Southern Eagle Trucking

The Netscape browser you're talking about is Netscape 8. Netscape Navigator 9 has been out for months and was updated with the latest Firefox security patches within days, if not hours.

Chris, you're right about Netscape 9. But that was an aberration. It was quite normal for Netscape to be weeks (sometimes months) behind a Firefox update.

I was tracking this all year, even talking to AOL about the struggle to keep up.

Thanks for the comment.

_ryan

QUOTE:
In its current iteration, Netscape uses two layout engines Internet Explorer's Trident
and Gecko to render Web sites. This means that Netscape is vulnerable to all the
security flaws in both engines and AOL's inability to issue patches in a
timely manner became a colossal embarrassment.
UNQUOTE.

WRONG. It was the previous iteration, Netscape Browser 8, that had the dual rendering feature
that toggled the IE/Trident engine without having to fire up IE itself. The current, (and now
the very last) iteration, Netscape Navigator 9, dropped the Gecko/Trident dual rendering
feature, making it equally as secure as the version of Firefox that it's built upon.

Get your facts right, before writing such ill-informed crap. Otherwise, it is nothing more than
p!ss-poor journalism on the level with the tabloid press. Surely you can do better than that.

@ Greg: Even so, it will always be trailing FF.

_r

How is just discontinuing the browser going to help security? If I know people, most of the people currently using the browser are just going to keep using it, only now they won't get any updates at all. Is there any effort being made to notify users that they _must_ switch browsers or face grave security problems in the future?

Great point Justin. I'll follow up with AOL to find out how they will get this up in blinking red lights to current Netscape users.

_r

I don't think you know what you're talking about...

Netscape 9 was a clone of Firefox ,,, and the folks at Netscape kept up with the updates just as fast as the Firefox gang. How this can be bad for security completely confounds me.. LOL

I use Firefox 2.0.0.11, Netscape 9.0.0.5 and IE 7.0.5730.11 everyday. I use IE for Microsoft updates, Firefox for gerneral browsing, and Netscape for my personal browsing to MP3 sites organlive 365 etc. The last time firefox updated (automatically) I also got an auto update for Netscape. I plan to continue using Netscape until I feel it is a real security risk to me.

Browser vulnerabilities will remain as long as there ar browsers. Even if the browser itself continues to be hardened, the vulnerability of the information most browsers exchange is by far more critical than the space heaters they run on. It would seem appropriate to seek a permanent solution, like abandoning HTTP in favor of HTTPS, or using IPV6 and Diameter, rather than %^#&*$ing around with a technology as old aS the Internet itself. Hey, look at Al Gore!

Sad. Netscape is the best, most secure email client out there, bar none.

When AOL obtained Netscape, I stopped using newer versions of Netscape altogether. To me it just seemed bloated(slower launch time and task switching), not to mention the extras that became bundled with it like AIM. I predict the next AOL "project" to be dropped will be WinAMP--another program I discontinued using when AOL gained the rights to it. When will AOL learn and stop tainting everything they touch?

Please, just where do you think Foxfire came from, the very same sourse code that Netscape came from. Go back to your history books...

I did like the free HTML "Composer" included with Netscape. Good for those little page "fixes" one needs to do from time to time.

But now it appears that the latest iteration of Netscape is Sea Monkey (which really looks like Netscape and includes the same composer function).

But does that have the same security flaws? As a Mac user (mostly, though not entirely) I suppose the security issues are not as great.

I have been using Netscape since it has come out and I have never had a problem with either updates or security issues unlike IE.

The new version of Netscape has nothing new for me and in fact has taken away the one feature I have grown accustom to, The Passcard Manager. I don't get unwanted pop up, but when a web page requires a seperate page to appear it is not blocked like with IE.

I have tried the full version of Firefox and it rapped around so many other things it took me a long time to remove. It works fine if I remove my my McAfee. I found it to be slower and I don't like their tool bars.

I don't like Google either because of their practice of employment. Those kids won't remain kids forever. As for Microsoft, well they are the new AT&T of the seventies.

As far as AOL, I wish they would fold up and die.

I have both IE and Netscape. I use netscape because it doesn't tie up explore and I can down load more than two files at atime un like IE which only alows 2 files at a time and slows IE on my older computer.

Why do people feel they have to fix things when they are broke: KISS.

I have used Netscape since its inception on the www. I have never experienced a problem with it. Their updates, security alerts and patches were timely for me. I am very, VERY SAD to see Netscape destroyed by AOL. If I had the money I would have bought Netscape. I really think that Netscape had great, talented people and offered great advice and products that were free and unintrusive. I tried FireFox and don't like it. I've never liked or trusted IE. AOL has always been on my @!###*& list. As for security risks, manmade products will always have flaws. To that effect no matter which browser you use, new or old, hackers are going to exploit the vulnerabilities because that's what hackers do. I think that change should have and should be directed at eliminating www access to hackers and exploiters and intercepting their crap before it reaches client browsers. All I see right now is an excuse to destroy good services and products and good people simply because they are good competitors. I'm all for CHANGE FOR BETTER. What's BETTER about getting rid of Netscape?

OH NO!!!... am using NETSCAPE as my primary web browser since the mid 90's, why are you treating me like this?, WHY, WHY, WHY?

I used Netscape for a long time in the early years of the internet, and still use it in an internal network where security is not an issue, but it's time has come and gone . . . R.I.P. Netscape. Now if we could only do the same for AOL, "A$$holes On Line."

Now all we need is for AOL to finally bite the digital dust. That's a date for a celebration!

Because Netscape was the first browser I used with OS/2, I was a strong follower for years. I used it mostly for e-mail though. I don't remember when it was, but it became so slow at one point that I really couldn't use it so I went looking and found Thunderbird. The conversion was a snap and I never looked back. I do have fond memories of Netscape in 3 different operating systems (OS/2, Linux, Windows) so that's something to be said! After AOL got ahold of it, I became completely disinterested. I'll just remember it for what it was and the importance it played in computing.

What a loss. Been using Netscape since '96?
Does that sound possible?
It has served well. Is someone out there strong enough to pick it up? How is Version 9.0.0.5 faring? As good as Firefox 2.0? I still use Netscape 7.2.
But, hey, aren't we all still waiting for
"outstanding customer service"?
We can all be grateful for the insight and work of Mark Andreessen and Jim Clark, in founding Mosaic, later Netscape. They popularized the web, invented primarily by Tim Berners-Lee, at CERN,
who developed the first browser,called "WorldWideWeb", and made it free to the planet.

Just a question about content of the article: Just what was meant by "manufacturers that they wrap" and "rivals who they wrap?" Ignoring an error of case in the second quote, I still wonder what these persons use to wrap a manufacturer. Do they wrap it in cellophane, paper, or what? I have wrapped things in such materials, but never an entire corporation. I wonder at the very logistics of such an endeavor. It must be a mighty huge roll of wrapping paper or the like.

Or is it just that the person who wrote that has an unfamiliarity with English?

Why doesn't Mozilla just take over or take back Netscape instead of just letting it die? Yes, I agree the more "pure" Firefox is the way to go but to a lot of people Netscape is more real and official and despite losing the browser war and being the abused step child of AOL it still has good brand recognition. I'd like to See Mozilla take Netscape and Make Firefox 3 which is still in beta and turn it into Netscape X without all the AOL crap.

LOOK.............Kenny....don't get your panties in a bunch about WRAP vs RAP. As we all know RAP is totally obnoxious. Ryan probably prefers a wrong spelling rather than associate his article with something obnoxious. PLUS......

Anybody who used words like underdog, gecko, sitting duck, ecosystem, and pasture....in the same article....sounds like a guy I could have a beer with. Speling is for purrfectionists.

Ryan Naraine....hmmmmm...sounds Irish.
Kenny...do you speak Irish?

Love, Peace, Dope, Tie-Dye

LOOK.............Kenny....don't get your panties in a bunch about WRAP vs RAP. As we all know RAP is totally obnoxious. Ryan probably prefers a wrong spelling rather than associate his article with something obnoxious. PLUS......

Anybody who used words like underdog, gecko, sitting duck, ecosystem, and pasture....in the same article....sounds like a guy I could have a beer with. Speling is for purrfectionists.

Ryan Naraine....hmmmmm...sounds Irish.
Kenny...do you speak Irish?

Love, Peace, Dope, Tie-Dye

R.I.P. Netscape

I started with Netscape in Win 3.11, coasted with it through Windows 95-- skipped Millenium -- then sometime around Windows 2000, A-O-F**k**g-L got their grubby hands on the code and it morphed into a glossy, slow, Advertising Arm for AOL. That made me switch totally to FireFox. For a while-- I even tried a Netscape Skin theme on Firefox, but looking at it I felt foolish. I deleted the skin and said goodbye. I only use IE when I have to and only from inside Firefox, so it hardly matters anymore.
So Long to the Pulsing 'N' in the upper right Box! We had good times. . .but times change.

So spelling doesn't count, Harry S? Methinks thy historical namesake must be roiling (ahem) in his grave. Perchance you don't mind a bit of buggy code either...after all, what harm can a single stray integer do?

To the all LOYAL NETSCPERS!

Good to see you guys still support UNDERDOG browser which cost Microsoft good money and legal time consumtions which could beter have spent to imrove Window, IE and other applications.

I am very glad to hear NETSCAPE is a DEADDOG

Sorry, This is my feeling

Great use of the word "yea". I just don't see enough articles using that word and feel it is long overdue. Is seems as if everything is "awsome" now a days. The thought that we may have more than one word to use when expressing happiness or joy is truely liberating. Thanks for opening the door to a new form of expression by encouraging readers to find alternet ways of saying something feels good.

Respectfully

Mark Brady

Sorry to see it go. But.. It is the nature of the beast. Lest we forget tech is about solving problems out in the real world. If some solution or technology falters in being able to address a need or concern then it must die. If IE becomes that way then let it die. It is the nature of technology to simply make processes faster. As Jacques Ellul would argue, technology never really solves things it just makes us spin wheels faster. I dont have a nostalgic bone in my body. Commom this is tech .. we build, destroy, build , destroy I'll keep the nostalga emotion for those things that matter. real people real life.

The best tech solution is not necessarily the one that is adopted.

http://www.techmanage.net/about/
OK now...I want all you techies here to go to Joanne Gucwa's website. Anyone who uses: methinks, thy, roiling, perchance, and buggy is probably much smarter than thou. Joanne, you look so very happy in your photo. You absolutely could not have had any children and maintained that youthful look. Or...on the contrary...you probably had 10 children. That will keep you young too. Are you married? Do you like older guys with curly hair? Do you need a good speller who got 800 on the math achievement test? Stray integers are ruining our teenagers. I will most certainly rethink, methinks, my philosophy about spelling. Love, HST

You must be terribly welcome at a funeral. Why don't you give us a big ol' mwahahahahaha

[[ As Jacques Ellul would argue, technology never really solves things it just makes us spin wheels faster. ]]

Oui, RIP frere Jacques.

Like many other posters here, I'd used Netscape since the mid-90's until 8.0 came around. I tested it, then promptly removed it. I sort of liked the idea that, for certain websites, it would render in either engine. Good in theory, not so much in real life. I'd found 'tabbed' browsing a great way to keep your pages together, and IE didn't have that at the time. Now that IE does, I have not looked back at Netscape. 7.2 was the last working version from my perspective. Since IE rolled out v7, I've abandoned Netscape. Netscape is dead? Sorry, but without this article, I would have never known. 'Tis a shame how an application that started out so strong ended up such a broken piece of crap. All the things that I use and like in IE, started life in Netscape. Let's hope that the remaining browsers out there continue to push Microsoft to developing a better, more useful browser.

Re: Kenneth H. Fleischer :
"Just a question about content of the article: Just what was meant by "manufacturers that they wrap" and "rivals who they wrap?" Ignoring an error of case in the second quote, I still wonder what these persons use to wrap a manufacturer. Do they wrap it in cellophane, paper, or what?
Or is it just that the person who wrote that has an unfamiliarity with English?"

Wrap in this case refers to code. The term is used correctly in that the browser code from other manufacturers is wrapped inside the code used by Netscape. It's a programming term. Basically it looks similar to this:
Netscape Code(otherBrowser code) -> Netscape Browser as a whole.

SAD, SAD, SAD,
I've used Netscape as a secondary browser since 1997 and have never had a problem with it, I wish I could say the same for my IE.

As for A#@OL,I've had it and it is the biggest piece of CRAP ever produced and used on the www. Also A#@OL will screw you in a New York Minute and that's only 10 seconds.

If anything ever needed to go bye bye it's A#@OL!!

RIP Netscape Old Friend, we'll miss you!

SAD, SAD, SAD,
I've used Netscape as a secondary browser since 1997 and have never had a problem with it, I wish I could say the same for my IE.

As for A#@OL,I've had it and it is the biggest piece of CRAP ever produced and used on the www. Also A#@OL will screw you in a New York Minute and that's only 10 seconds.

If anything ever needed to go bye bye it's A#@OL!!

RIP Netscape Old Friend, we'll miss you!

I'm very unhappy to see Netscape going. There are quite a few browsers these days that use Firefox for the browser engine (afaik), I'm thinking of SeaMonkey, maybe Camino, maybe Safari.

While I'm no longer using Netscape for day-to-day use (I use Firefox, big surprise there), I still use it for testing purposes, so I've been aware of the changes it has gone through rather quietly in the past couple years.

Until Firefox came along, Netscape was the browser I used: that's from 1996 onward, quite a while. It was the most important piece of my Internet experience for almost a decade.

A six gun salute for Netscape! I'll miss you.

I feel sad - very sad. I started using it in 1997 and continued doing so until I switched to the awesome Firefox. It is the end of an era. Thank you, Mark Andreessen, you revolutionized the world and started us all on our love affair of the browser and the WWW. I simply cannot see why these folks at AOL cannot let Netscape co-exist with FF and IE. I feel very nostalgic about that Netscape logo...btw, Naraine ain't Irish. It is a name originally from India. I know - I am from there.

@ Harry S. Truman - I'm afraid it's dangling participles that are ruining our youth, not stray integers. Netscape is Dead! Long Live Netscape! (sent using firefox, of course)