Farewell, Netscape Navigator
If you've been online since the mid-90s, chances are your first glimpse of a Web page was via the Netscape Navigator.
In its heyday, the Navigator enjoyed a commanding 90% share of the browser market, which helped turn Netscape into the Google with of its day, an Internet 1.0 darling whose astronomical 1995 IPO helped launch the (first) Internet bubble.
Netscape’s success didn’t go unnoticed by Microsoft, which had been slow to realize the potential of the Internet—not to mention the threat to its bottom line. The software giant waged a brutal and successful campaign to supplant the Navigator with its Internet Explorer by bundling it as part of its ubiquitous Windows operating system. Netscape's Navigator simply couldn’t compete with a free browser installed on 90% of all PCs, and by 1998, lost the so-called browser war and surrendered the top spot to the Internet Explorer.
Although a federal judge ruled in 2000 that Microsoft abused its monopoly power to crush Netscape, for which it subsequently agreed to pay AOL (which acquired Netscape in 1999) $750 million, the damage was done. Last week AOL announced it would no longer support the Navigator after March 1.
But the spirit of Netscape lives on in the open-source Firefox browser, which is coordinated by the Mozilla Foundation, which was formed in 2003 by ex-Netscape employees laid off by AOL.
Since its first release in 2004, Firefox has grow in popularity—due in no small measure to those seeking an alternative to the Internet Explorer—and is now the second most popular browser, with some 15% of the market. Lots of ex-Netscape users, like this one, swear by Firefox for its ease of use, security and customizable options. If you've never tried it, give it a whirl.