Category Miscellany
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I found a recent blog entry over at Wired by Michael Calore that announces that AOL's Netscape browser will be quietly retired forever in February 2008. According to the blog entry:

The browser that started it all is going the way of the dodo.

Tom Drapeau, AOL's director of the Netscape brand, announced in a blog post Friday that AOL will cease development on all Netscape web browsers on February 1, 2008. The company will continue to support the current version of the browser, Netscape 9, by releasing patches or security fixes until that date. After February 1, all development will stop.

Drapeau recommends that anyone running a Netscape-branded browser make the switch to Mozilla Firefox, the open-source browser upon which the last few versions of Netscape have been based.

"AOL's focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be," he writes. "Given AOL's current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reigns fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox."

I guess this was only a matter of time. I definitely remember when Netscape was king - and we all used it. And then came along Microsoft and their monopolistic tactics, and Internet Explorer soon dominated the entire web-world. Of course, Netscape didn't help itself, either. It began to fall behind, get buggy, and overall it sucked - for a long time. It seemed that all was lost, and that Microsoft was going to own the browser space for the forseeable future.

And then a David rose to challenge the IE Goliath - and that David was known as Mozilla/Firefox.

I began using Firefox around version around October 2003 (I announced it here), and it was refreshing. It was fast, the interface was nice (I love the tabs!), and what was nicest of all - it was standards-compliant! For me, Firefox became the one and only browser for me.

And slowly but surely, Firefox is gaining a foothold with the larger populous. First the geeks pretty much wholeheartedly started using it, and now the general population is using it more and more. I think the big impetus for this was the desire to get better spyware/malware/adware blocking, which Firefox was the first to provide built-in. It also had much better security overall, and was a safer browsing experience. This caused it to be the first browser recommended by all computer geeks to their non-geek friends and relatives, which is basically how the general population learned of it. The mainstream media also did stories about it as well, and this helped build the momentum.

Now Firefox is here to stay, a full-blown browser on it's own, and it has eclipsed it's humble Netscape beginnings. It is time for this changing of the guard, and for Netscape to pass into computer history and leave the good fight to Firefox and the Mozilla Foundation.

Thanks for all you've done for us Netscape, you will be remembered.

Rock
**If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?