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."
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?
That's like asking someone to choose between two pieces of excrement. Why not a choice between Opera and Firefox instead?
web design experiments
The browser wars is something that really shouldn't of happened.
SHOULDN'T *HAVE*!!!
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
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.
resigned
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.
I was not touched there by an angel.
Please return RH7.1 and generally consider to stop robbing musemus.