Slashdot Mirror
HP to Install Netscape on all new PCs
TJ Parisi writes "News.com is reporting that HP / Compaq will begin to install all PCs sold in the US and Canada with Netscape. Users will be prompted with the option to set either Netscape or IE as the default browser." From the article: "The agreement, which the companies are set to announce Monday, is the first browser distribution deal with a major PC maker since the end of the browser wars in the 1990s, according to Netscape, a division of Time Warner's America Online subsidiary."
Why not install Firefox? Netscape is just a UI clusterf**k of what Netscape was. This will make people go " see.. see.. alternative browsers just suck! ".. *Sigh*
Tell me what you believe...I'll tell you what you should see.
"We specifically chose the Netscape browser because od its ability to run both the Triton (IE) and Gecko (Firefox) rendering engines" Sounds like a smart move on part of HP. Does opera allow choosing multiple rendering engines?
You know, lately HP seems to be wanting to partner with anyone to help unseat MS. I mean they made the deal to put iTunes on all their computers, not sure if they're still doing so. And now this. I mean I can't say I mind at all... but it's just funny to see. Oh well the more people we have using something other than IE, even if it's Netscape, the better.
let's start this off right.
short version from wikipedia:
--------
Netscape Browser (version 8.0+)
AOL's latest Netscape releases, starting in 2005, are known as Netscape Browser. AOL chose to base Netscape Browser on the very successful Mozilla Firefox, a re-written version of Mozilla produced by the Mozilla Foundation. This release is not a full internet suite as before, but is solely a web browser. Other controversal decisions include the browser's being made only for Microsoft Windows and its featuring both the Gecko rendering engine of previous releases and the Trident engine used in Internet Explorer.
AOL's acquisition of Netscape years ago made it less of a surprise when the companied laid off the Netscape team and outsourced development to Mercurial Communications.
--------
detailed version from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Browser
Yes, but the browser wars were started because Netscape got uppity and played 'chicken' with Microsoft. Andreesen got up on the stage and started hyping web applications as if it would replace Microsoft. This 'woke up the bear' who then went on a rampage. Which is NOT to excuse Microsoft, just to point out Netscape wasn't the 'good guy' either.
Remember, Netscape hoped to own the web. They were the ones who first started introducing non-standard tags and features that only their server technology could serve up to their browser. They were NOT the good guys, just one of the elephants fighting in the commons and stomping on the little guys.
resigned
Netscape inludes firefox rendering, and you can easily set it during install/1st config to never use IE engine.
Why Netscape? AOL has the clout to make the deal and support Netscape for free. If HP will install it, they must have some support for problems. With Netscape, they can pass the buck to AOL. That and they probably needed the nudge.
As for MS, they just lost re: netscape and antitrust so they aren't going to openly oppose this.
This is very good news as many people simply use the browser that comes with their PC. They may have heard about Netscape and Firefox, but they probably will never download it.
If it's on their PC, they will probably try it and hopefully use it.
Having a non IE browser installed by default with the PC is the best way to increase market share.
Hopefully this will pressure other manufacturers to follow suit.
Ryan
I have to agree...Netscape 8 is a disgrace to the Firefox codebase and should be boycotted. I haven't tried it myself, have no intention of doing so, but I've heard that the IE rendering engine is the default, and the only way to use the Firefox rendering engine for a site is to list it as "untrusted". Maybe this is just a sneaky way for Microsoft to get more people using IE without realizing it, while thinking they're using an alternative. Or get people to think the IE rendering engine is "better" by doing this underhanded stuff. I don't trust Netscape 8 as far as I can throw it.
Netscape is Firefox with a crappier interface and jammed full of commercialized tie-ins to AOL/Netscape. It was a terrible choice to include instead of Firefox.
You might want to try SeaMonkey. It's like Netscape 7.2 without all the commericial stuff added in, plus over a year of security updates and bug fixes.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
HP has been setting their default homepages to a branded version of Netscape.com for a long time. Dumping in the Netscape 8 browser is just another way of shoving the HP-Netscape portal down user's throats. It's the same reason they bundle iTunes to support the soon-to-be-replaced HP iPods.
Umh, since AOL/Netscape "cut the cord" to Mozilla a few years back (when the Mozilla Foundation was formed), there probably won't be anything. Most likely someone else (like HP, Novell, and/or IBM) would start releasing a browser based on Firefox...acutally since AOL is not 100% behind Netscape right now anyhow, it may be the best thing to happen to Mozilla since Firefox.