AOL Drops MSIE for Netscape in Mac OS X Beta

Kitzilla writes "AOL introduces an 'Aquafied' client for Max OS X, and pulls the plug on Internet Explorer. It's AOL for Mac, Version 2: now with a tasty Gecko filling." news.com has a story. I wonder if Mac OS X will ever ship with a Netscape/Mozilla browser. I wonder if Mozilla will be shipped with Windows clients in the future. I wonder if this will pave the way to a a full-fledged Linux version of AOL. I wonder if this will ignite another AOL/MS war. I wonder how 24 will end this Tuesday.

Comments

Re:does anyone really care?

[DavidRavenMoon]

At this time Microsoft already developed their IE for years and the initial code base has been bought from another company!

Thanks for bringing that up! The true irony, is that the company was Spyglass, and the code was for the Mosaic browser. Mosaic was of course bought by Spyglass from a company also called Mosiac that made a little web browser called Netscape! Another interesting tidbit, is that MS paid very little for the code, as they worked out a deal in which Spyglass would be paid royalties with every copy of IE that MS sold ... but then MS decided to give it away for free, and Spyglass gets nothing in return!

Re:Bad thing if it is a Mac only change

[foniksonik]

This could have something to do with Apple being the first and only OS / Software company to be able to strike a deal with AOL on their chat software AIM.

With Jaguar/10.2's imminent release and iChat compatibility with AIM via mac.com usernames this could really have an interesting impact on the interoperability/integration of AOL services with the Apple/Mac initiative.