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."

Comments

Why did Microsoft allow this?

[soft_guy]

I guess they aren't worried about Netscape anymore.

More Pre-Bundled Software! Yay!

[kubevubin]

You know, HP, it's hard to market a computer as "fast" or "productive" whenever it's bogged down with excessive pre-installed software. I'm sure that Netscape will also be set to load at startup with everything else that's installed, eh?

its just AOL

[hobo sapiens]

I would be suspicious. I can't tell you how much AOL crapware I had to uninstall and/or purge from the registry when I bought a Dell (don't). The fact that AOL has Netscape now would just make me wonder...

Just give me IE. I guarantee the first two pages I'll visit are mozilla.org and opera.com. Then, no more IE. No crapware for me!

Meh

[phatwuss]

That's like asking someone to choose between two pieces of excrement. Why not a choice between Opera and Firefox instead?

Right idea.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Wrong browser.

Re:Right idea.

[Halfbaked Plan]

Uh, Netscape is Firefox under a different skin.

Or, rather, it's Mozilla. (which I personally prefer strongly over Firefox anyway).

A lot of the tweaks and configs for Mozilla can be manually patched into Netscape, even if not in the Netscape 'options' menu. Actually, it's one step toward Mozilla/Firefox to get users onto Netscape. And a Netscape friendly Web is by design an identically friendly Firefox friendly web.

Think about it.

Re:Will someone please explain

[Nobley]

AOL does not have financial ties to any other browser, this will be a paid off add tie in with AOL I am guessing

Re:Why Netscape?

[ErikRed1488]

I'm guessing, like most things, it was all about money. Do you really think HP approached Netscape looking for a browser?

It's far more likely that Netscape/AOL came to HP and offered them a ton of cash to include their browser. Why would they do that you ask? Again, just another guess, but my money says that it's AOL's way of getting their portal and search on a large portion of the PCs out there.

Re:Why Netscape?

[lordofthechia]

Any browser choice is still awesome. As soon as people start to see choice they'll slowly stop equating "the internet" with Internet Explorer and realize that they've had choices all along. I applaud HP with their decision to open their customer's minds and give them an option. They've really earned my respect with by still selling AMD processor PC's and now this.

Now if their all in one wireless printer/scanners didn't require 380-700mb of software/drivers (And no I'm not kidding...).

Re:Default Selection

[CeleronXL]

Yes, I got that. What I mean is, when the window for the selection comes up, will one of them already be selected? Will one say (recommended)? Or will they both be unselected by default to actually force a user to choose before blindly hitting "Next", "Next", "Next".