Was Downloaded from: http://browser.netscape.com

Last Version: 9.0.0.6 (Now unavailable... defunct... dead... buried...)

We were unsure of what to call Navigator - or whether to continue carrying it at all, for Netscape has scaled the heights of popularity as well as plummeted the depths of wilderness, finally dying out on March 1, 2008. It is a little difficult, choosing the title for the Browser that was in the midst of the Browser war and caused a complete change in the way software would be developed, thereafter. The fact that Netscape itself got reduced to nothing - despite winning the Browser War (in Court, while losing it in real life)- is a different story altogether... today, SeaMonkey is the closest to Netscape's Navigator, with a number of other Browsers being more popular than SeaMonkey, though none of them (including Internet Explorer) will perhaps ever command the market share that Netscape Navigator once held! It is for these reasons, that we decided to persist with our review of Mozilla Netscape Navigator...

 

In the early 90s, the Browser was a new piece of software. They were paid for, like you pay for Antivirus and AntiSpyware solutions today. Windows did not include Internet Explorer then and the Internet itself was new, with people just beginning to explore its immense potential. This was when Netscape Communications Corporation introduced their Browser, Netscape Navigator. It even had its own e-Mail client, Netscape Communicator. Until the end of the 1990s, Netscape Navigator continued to hold over 85% of the Browser market. Microsoft, slow to latch onto the Internet opportunity, was caught napping, while Netscape Navigator grew tremendously popular.

 

Taking Netscape head-on, Microsoft made Internet Explorer completely free. As the next step in the Browser War, Internet Explorer and Outlook Express were bundled with Windows. Netscape, still a commercial product, began to lose ground immediately. Microsoft - never one to do things half-heartedly, built Windows in such a way that you could not uninstall Internet Explorer without crippling Windows!

 

Readers may remember the antitrust case against Microsoft and the ruling that Microsoft must allow third-party software to run on Windows. If Microsoft had not lost the case, we would only have had Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows Media Player and other Microsoft products! Luckily, Microsoft lost the case and were ordered to re-build Windows such that it let third-party software run on its Windows Operating System. By 2006 though, Netscape Navigator held less than 1% of the Browser market worldwide and Microsoft had comprehensively won the Browser War, though they had lost the war in the court!

 

Netscape was purchased by AOL in 1998, but AOL preferred to continue using the brand name Netscape Navigator. Later, Mozilla, the Open Source Community began developing and distributing it free. Navigator continues to be reasonably fast and stable, sports a beautiful interface, standard buttons and controls. It also acquired the ability to store website login details, Tabbed Web Interface, etc., in keeping with the other Mozilla-based Browsers. Netscape continued to be easy to fall in love with - all over again, since both AOL and Mozilla continued to retain its old look, feel and colors! However, Navigator continued to bleed and finally, was discontinued on March 1, 2008, with Mozilla announcing this long before the actual discontinuation. Netscape has thus taken its final bow...

WellOiledPC Recommendation on Browsers::Netscape-Mozilla Navigator is dead. All the King's Horses and All the King's Men cannot revive it now... Therefore our recommendation to all Navigator users is to shift to one of the "Thumbs Up" Browsers that we have featured here. All Browsers are free, therefore experimenting with them could prove to be fun, at zero-cost to you!

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Here is the link that tracks Browser usage and publishes Browser Statistics:

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

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Mozilla advises that you 'upgrade' to either Flock or Firefox, and that support for 'Netscape Mozilla Navigator' has ceased from March 1, 2008. Netscape is a software that once enjoyed the BIGGEST following. WordStar and Lotus are the names that immediately come to the mind, albeit from the DOS world: each of these were once installed on almost every Computer but today are completely absent, being replaced by better solutions!   NOTE: With support for Navigator coming to an end, we have removed Navigator from our machines. Hence, we are unable to update our images of WellOiledPC on Navigator: what you see alongside is our old site dated around the time Netscape was discontinued!