AOL to Release Netscape 7.2 Based on Mozilla 1.7

securitas writes "ZDNet's Evan Hansen reports that AOL will release Netscape Navigator 7.2 based on Mozilla 1.7 code this summer. The update comes a year after version 7.1 and after Microsoft stopped standalone development in Internet Explorer. eWEEK's Matt Hicks offers analysis of the new Netscape release, citing studies that say while Microsoft has a 93.9% browser market share and 87% of business users use IE, 25% still use Netscape and 11% use Opera -- the math works because people use multiple browsers. Hicks asks the question 'Is the Netscape Browser Being Reborn or Just Stabilized?' Hicks interviews several people in the know including a former Netscape engineer, an industry analyst, and Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner."

Comments

Of course

[Bill_Royle]

Competition is always good. My main issue with Netscape is simply that it's not promoted like it should be... it's the same issue I have with people buying fast cars, driving in the fast lane, and going 55.

Not that Netscape's necessarily a Ferrari, but it's no Yugo, either.

Re:Of course

[Zareste]

I'm not sure where Netscape's strong-points are, but on a Mac (though things might be entirely different on Windows or others), it's one of the slowest browsers you can get, while IE for Mac goes much faster, and of course, Safari blazes past both of them with its RAM-based architecture (it doesn't waste time caching much of the web page to disk).

Although I've found IE for Windows to be incredibly slow with Javascript. I guess it's the plug-in use that determine most of the speed.

Re:Why?

[Bill_Royle]

With Netscape, you get AOL shortcuts on your desktop.

Wait, you said advantage?

Re:Why?

[byolinux]

Netscape is a name that non-geeks have heard of.

If you ask some clueless decision maker if it's okay to deploy Mozilla, you'll probably get turned down on the basis of "I've not heard of that" whereas people who've used the web for a while, will have heard of Netscape.

My mother's heard of Netscape, she thinks she uses it every day, even though she actually uses Firefox.

(Sorry mum!)

Why bother?

[welshsocialist]

I'm glad AOL is doing this, but why bother? The Foundation (IMHO) is doing a great job in making Seamonkey, the Fox and the Bird, and Camino into products an end-user can appreciate and use.

Sorry AOL, you lose. For four years you had the chance to make Netscape into a valued alternative to MSIE. You failed. Now, roll over, get lost, or die.

Re:Why bother?

[Minna Kirai]

I'm glad AOL is doing this, but why bother?

Uh, maybe because AOL owns ~25% of US home internet users? AOL is still a big gatekeeper for the internet. They have the power to force broad software changes, regardless of the relative quality of the particular software in question.

Few users are sufficiently motivated or knowledgable to install Firefox on their own, but they'll have no choice but to sit through a 15 minute "Updating your AOL software" progress-bar.

When AOL flips a switch to change their default browser from IE to something else, they'll suck down IE's dominance by 10% on the very first day. It won't kill IE, but it'll increase the pressure for website authors to write to W3C standards instead of Microsoft conventions. That can only be a good thing.

Re:I have to ask

[Oxide]

Netscape has the commercial name and history that people and business know and trust.

Re:Will real browser gain market?

[byolinux]

Dummies?

I don't think it's really fair to put people down for not knowing stuff they shouldn't have to know.

Computers have become a consumer product, but unlike other consumer devices (TVs, VCRs, Microwaves) they can actually fuck things up if they do something wrong, or something different...

I think the idea of using a browser that didn't come with their computer probably scares a lot of people, much in the same way my friend's father wouldn't let him use 3rd party joysticks on his Atari VCS -- truely believed that anything different from the norm would break the unit; and he'd have to explain personally to Mr Atari why he DARED to break their lovely console.

Maybe what we need is someone to write a piece of spyware for IE, that installs Firefox and Thunderbird, removes IE and Outlook Express and changes the Moz icons to keep everything familiar.

Call me crazy...

[T-Kir]

...but why do I get the feeling that MS might be letting IE development slide deliberately in this manner.

They might be letting Mozilla and others gain a bit more ground so that in a couple of years, if the playing field became a little more level... then MS can play the "we've not got a monopoly on browsers" as extra leverage on governments/organisations who view them with more suspicion on this very issue (as well as other matters). It could be a more long term plan with them.

Again just my 0.02 british pounds.

Re:Call me crazy...

[pubjames]

They might be letting Mozilla and others gain a bit more ground

I doubt it. I think they've just stopped work on IE because they will have a completely new version in Longhorn. This new IE will include lots of new MS "standards", and they will really promote that heavily. They'll of course be competing with themselves again, trying to get people to move from the current IE to the new version, and so the more incentive people have to do that the better. In other words, it's actually in their interest to let the current version of IE slide so people will have more incentive to upgrade to the all new version in Longhorn.

Re:Call me crazy...

[rixstep]

I'm surprised how many of you haven't done your homework. TP Jackson's writings, whether they represented the study of his associates or were his own insights, are remarkable. They are the basis for the DOJ court ruling against Microsoft.

The browser was never the issue, and I am surprised there are any people who still after all these years don't get it. The materials were freely available at the DOJ website for all to read.

Microsoft were against anyone intruding on their territory. Both Netscape and Sun threatened to do so with their technologies. Microsoft deliberately sabotaged the Sun Java standard (no other company signing the agreement ever did) and they did all they could to prevent Netscape from entering the PC marketplace.

The danger with both technologies is cross-platform compatibility. Applications written for Netscape or with Java could easily be ported to other platforms. This would destroy Microsoft's dominance in the PC market.

Gates tried to reason with Netscape, but they weren't interested. Gates' message to them was simple. He invited them to Redmond, and then told them point blank they should not enter the PC market. Netscape chose to disregard Bill Gates.

The entire thing with Internet Explorer was only to destroy Netscape, but not to destroy the product - to destroy the company. They used pressure on OEMs, pressure on ISPs, pressure on everyone to not only get people to opt for the free Internet Explorer, but to make it increasingly difficult for people to even find download links for the Netscape browser. OEMs who showed too many downloads of Netscape - including IBM - risked losing their benefits contra Microsoft and had to make the download links to Netscape more obscure so as to not incur the wrath of WHG.

Microsoft lost the trial but they won the battle. Netscape is no more, and Microsoft have already paid for Sun's funeral. The Internet Explorer browser is not interesting anymore, and it doesn't matter Mozilla is out there with a good product. Microsoft invested an estimated US$5 billion in its development without a thought ever of getting any of it back - it was for defensive purposes only.

Today it's all DRM - browsers and the threats to the MS marketplace are in the rear view mirror. The browser is not essential.

Some of you ought to go back to school before you begin speculating about what's going on.

Why replace the default browser?

[anshil]

Don't take me wrong I'm a mozilla fan and linux user.

But honestly if I'm running windows, what real motiviation is there to download a replacement browser when IE is already installed, and works?

I can't be mad at any secretary 'cause she uses IE instead of Mozilla/Netscape. Of course of political reasons she shouldn't, but practically?

If you sell an operating system, you practically just have the ultimate power to drive any other software out of business by bundeling and installing it by default.

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[barks]

Besides the fact that Mozilla was the first on the scene to include an option to block out pop-ups (I haven't bother to check has IE included that option yet?) that alone should be a reason for people to download a separate browser.

I laugh when I see a cheesy newbie ISP commercial that promotes "We have pop-up blocker technology!!!" Shit no kidding, so does my free Mozilla browser.

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[pubjames]

But honestly if I'm running windows, what real motiviation is there to download a replacement browser when IE is already installed, and works?

Security. I use Windows but I don't use IE or Outlook, because doing so considerably reduces my chances of security compromises.

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[Flyboy Connor]

Because IE is a big security hole, a lousy browser, and easily infected with all kinds of spyware.

A fairly computer-savvy acquaintance of mine recently called me to his computer because his homepage was constantly reset to easybiz.net. Ad-aware couldn't do anything. He started rummaging in his registry and managed to make his IE completely unusable.

So, how to solve this problem? Standard-Microsoft solution: uninstall IE? Ah, but there is the catch: you can not uninstall IE, it comes with the package. So, there is a choice: wiping the machine and start all over again, or, what I did: install Mozilla.

I was a bit relieved to see that while the IE penetration is > 90%, alternate browsers have about half the market. Now I finally know that I, too, am considered to be an IE user. There is one website I need to visit which requires IE, so I use IE solely for that purpose. I think that for all those people that use an alternate browser, that alternate browser is actually their primary browser. So IE's influence is dimishing. No wonder if you realise what a piece of %$#@ it is.

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[Feztaa]

I think you've got that totally backwards.

The problem is that when you buy windows and you get all that stuff bundled with it, all that stuff is made by microsoft. When you get a set of linux distro install CDs, it comes with 10 browsers, 20 mail clients, a few media players, 5 instant messaging clients, and a million other things. The problem isn't that nothing is bundled with linux, the problem is that EVERYTHING is bundled with linux. But that bundling isn't bad, because each program that gets bundled has it's own independant development community that is just a loose group of individuals, and isn't even commercial to begin with.

When you install linux, the hassle isn't because you have to go find stuff yourself, the hassle is because everything is given to you and you have to choose what you want to use.

The idea here is that when MS bundles MS's own media player into windows, you have no incentive to buy any other media players, so the media player market collapses because nobody ever uses anything but WMP anyway. When Mandrake bundles xine, that doesn't illegitimately control the market because a) you can easily remove xine, b) Mandrake doesn't get any benefit from you using xine or a competitor, and c) competing media players come with the system too, so nobody is being locked out.

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[Mr_Silver]

Tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking? And your last line is what is causing a lot of these anti-monopolistic lawsuits against MS.

My office is full of non-techincal people. Looking around most people only have 1 (yes, one) IE window open. When I mention tabbed browsing, most people confirm my observations - that is, they only have one (and occasionally two) windows open. With cases like this, tabbed browsing could be seen as overkill to a problem that doesn't really exist (for them).

With regards to pop-up windows, the next service pack will contain a pop-up blocker for windows, but most of the clueful people have google toolbar already installed which does that for you.

Mozilla and it's tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, pop up blockers, type ahead find and the raft of other nifty features is great for the "power surfer" but I swear that based on the people in my office, it's not something they particulary need or feel the need to have enough to even go out and try.

Note that i'm not saying these features are bad, they're very good, but the problem with adoption here is that a lot of people don't realise that the average Joe doesn't surf the web in a way that Mozilla would benifit him. If he only goes to a few websites then there is a chance he'll never see unwanted pop up adverts.

I asked my mother about pop up adverts last month and she'd only ever come across one in the two years she'd been surfing the web. Granted, she wasn't surfing a very large number of sites - but it was difficult to sell a feature to her when she didn't really know why she needed it.

The Great divide.

[Willeh]

I think there is somewhat of a divide in the browsing market. On the one hand we have the swiss cheese solution, held reasonably firmly into place by a stream of FUD, corporate investments and scared PHB'S.

Next we have the webdevelopers that only care about IE compatibility. Some may care about other browsers, but usually as an afterthought.

Ofcourse this can be a right pain in the rear to fight this. The recent stream of exploits against various IE versions have started to create an anti- IE stance. What needs to be done is create the awareness that IE is unsafe, and now even abandoned by MS themselves until after their duke-nukem forever OS comes out. We(The people "in the know") must bring this our superiors attention that IE just isn't gonna cut it next year (or the year afterwards). It's not gonna be easy, but i'm sure we can have an impact.

Re:netscape is 5.5 times better than mozilla

[Elendil]

Shouldn't it be 7.2/1.7=4.24 times better? See, we're already closing the gap! Go Mozilla!

Re:Will real browser gain market?

[Troed]

Freedom means that idiots are allowed to be idiots

FINALLY I understand the part about "land of the free" ...

Browser stats

[eliasen]

Where do they get the stats that IE is 93% of the market? That's never what I see. Admittedly, if you have a bad site with broken HTML that only IE will display, IE will make up the majority of your browsers. Everyone else just goes away. It's a Catch-22. But if you have a site that is standards-compliant, and platform-neutral, the numbers are much, much better. Here are my stats from the past month:

MS Internet Explorer 62.1 %
Mozilla 10.9 %
FireFox 9.3 %
Opera 4.5 %
Safari 2.9 %
Netscape 2.8 %
Unknown 2.2 %
Galeon 1.6 %
Konqueror 1.0 %
Firebird (Old FireFox) 0.6 %
Others 1.7 %

Re:Browser stats

[Jugalator]

Your site is a niche site.

Let's see what a site that's visited by a broader audience (with a site that *do* work for all modern browers) tell?

- Browsers used to visit Google, April 2004
- Operating systems used to visit Google, April 2004

Re:Firefow,Not Mozilla 1.7

[typhoonius]

I'd want to suggest that if Mozilla has a real future, it's with Firefox!

I'd want to suggest that while Mozilla has a future, Netscape doesn't. Not as anything but AOL's occasional bargaining chip, anyway. Netscape is only valuable to AOL because the brand name is well known, which can help them do things like, as the article says, maintain an internet portal. Or offer a low-price alternative to its own internet service. Or get a settlement with Microsoft. To do any of that, they need to keep the Netscape brand alive, and that's all this release is really for.

Vanilla Mozilla is more stable and polished, which is probably more important to them than fancy new features at this point. Plus, the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach lets them tie in stuff like AIM more easily, and maybe the built-in mail client makes it an easier sell.

As for Mozilla/Netscape/XPFE/SeaMonkey/whatever, it's more of a proof-of-concept for XUL, Gecko, and all those other Mozilla Project technologies than an end product. Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino, and the like are the end products. I wouldn't expect it to go away for a while, even as Firefox 1.0 looms on the horizon.

Re:Will real browser gain market?

[byolinux]

You're very wrong, and here's why...

Computers *are* consumer devices now, or at least can be. Not all of them are, but then not all VCRs are too.

Computers can be easy to use, people should certainly never need to build a computer from scratch, or reinstall their OS beyond putting a CD in the drive and turning the machine on, and as for systems programming - you're out of your mind. Perhaps you wish computers were some elitist, holier-than-thou priesthood, but I'm afraid you're wrong, wrong, wrong. WebTV failed because people want to do more than surf the web. They might have kids who want to do homework, or they may study themselves, or they might just enjoy exploring what a computer can do for them. So what if it breaks now and then? It should be easy enough for a user to restore.. perhaps we need machines with a read-only file system and all files to be store on a USB pendrive or something to assist this.

You come across as arrogant, but not stupid, so forgive me; but when you say ignorant people shouldn't be using computers, you're right. Sadly, you're the ignorant one.

Re:Why?

[byolinux]

I remember them as a browser company I'm 22. I just asked a 15 year old, they remember them as abrowser company.

I think you're underestimating the memories of people, perhaps. Either way, 'netscape' is a name people know; whether it's Coke or New Coke.

Boycott Coke!

I call you crazy

[RoLi]

The only reason why Microsoft doesn't continue development is because they are happy with the status quo.

Continue developing Internet Explorer would be BAD for Microsoft

You know why?

Because any change is a threat to the status quo.

Because if IE7 can handle transparent PNGs and lots of sites start to use it, millions of IE6 users will upgrade. And when they upgrade there is the danger that they might upgrade to Mozilla and not IE7.

The same goes for CSS2/3, SVG, etc.

Developing IE is not in the interest of Microsoft, they would be stupid if they would do it at this time.

But there are a couple of reasons why IE will lose its domination in the next couple of years: Linux is making inroads, Mac-users are switching to Safari, Playstation3 will probably run Mozilla and cellphones run Opera.