Is the end near for ...

[Pookie]

Is the end near for Netscape?

Thursday, July 17, 2003 Posted: 1:32 PM EDT (1732 GMT)

PERSPECTIVE
AOL Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons has said AOL is not looking to sell or shut Netscape. But Nate Eimer, a partner with Chicago-based antitrust law firm Eimer Stahl, said the settlement between Microsoft and AOL essentially means the end of Netscape as a competitor to Internet Explorer, since the two companies are cooperating so broadly.

--CNN/Money


NEW YORK (Reuters) -- America Online cut about 50 jobs from its Netscape Communications' Web browser development team, as the Internet division of AOL Time Warner cuts costs and tries to recharge growth, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The cuts account for less than 10 percent of AOL's Mountain View, California campus, which is home to Netscape and the company's Web development and programming teams.

The move comes less than two months after AOL said it would use Netscape rival Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser technology for seven years as part of the software company's settlement of an anti-trust dispute.

That settlement, in which Microsoft agreed to distribute AOL's online service, again raised questions about the viability of Netscape.

Losing marketshare

In the mid-1990s, Netscape had as much as 90 percent of the Web browsing market. However, it quickly fell from its perch once Microsoft featured its browser along with its Windows operating system. Even AOL, which bought Netscape in late 1998, turned to Explorer as its default browser. AOL Time Warner is the parent company of CNN.

AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said the company continues to support the Netscape browser and added that Netscape remains an important brand despite the cuts.

Funding open source research

Weinstein said some of those affected by the job cuts will be hired by the Mozilla Foundation, an independent nonprofit group that promotes the development, distribution and adoption of the Mozilla open source browser movement -- a grass-roots software development project.

While now separate from AOL, Mozilla was launched from within Netscape.

AOL said on Tuesday it would give the Mozilla Foundation $2 million cash over the next two years. It also gave the foundation domain names, trademarks and related intellectual property to help with its launch.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/07/17/netscape.cuts.reut/index.html

Do any Litsters still use Netscape?

 

[JazzManJim]

Netscape has ben slowly and surely collapsing for a few years now. For my money, it's due to their really bad business decisions which have frittered away a virtual monopoly in the browser market.

It's also a lesson for Microsoft. Even though a company may have an overwhelming share of a certain market, they're not invincible to stupid business decisions and bad response to customers' desires.

 

[redrider4u]

Do any Litsters still use Netscape?

I'ved used Netscape at home and at work on a server based version for years. At one time, I thought netscape better that the IE 3.0/4.0. But the more recent versions of IE overwhelm Netscape 7.0. If netscape does not die, it will diminish to almost nothing in the market share game, like Apple.

That only leaves Opera that I know of as a competitor to IE.

 

[Bob_Bytchin]

For my money

You paid money for a free browser?

 

[uatu]

I primarily use Mozilla, which is the open source version of Netscape, basically. But I've been reading around recently how they've been puttering around doing not much of anything useful. *shrugs*

There is a neat article here for those interested:
http://www.evolt.org/article/Browser_Wars_II_The_Saga_Continues/25/60181/index.html

 

[bknight2602]

Survival of the richest.

 

[Bob_Bytchin]

Survival of the richest.

He who has the gold makes the rules.

 

[bknight2602]

He who has the gold makes the rules.

And they have a lot of GOLD.

 

[April]

I'm a dedicated Netscape user. 7.02 is quite good. However, my laptop has Win XP and IE 6, which work wonderfully together. The desktop doesn't much like IE in general though.

 

[removed003]

.....

 

[nihil0001]